Case Study: Pearland Independent School District achieves high-performance, VDI-enabled network for 21st-century learning with Extreme Networks

Texas School District Embraces Extreme Networks Infrastructure to Enable 21st-Century Learning Models

Pearland Independent School District needed to move 12,000 desktops across 28 locations to Windows 7 while supporting growing BYOD and streaming/IPTV demands for more than 20,000 students and 2,500 staff. Working with Extreme Networks (and partner Layer 3 Communications), the district chose a VDI strategy and a network refresh using Extreme Networks technologies — including VSP 9000, VSP 8000, VSP 4000, ERS 4850, Fabric Connect and the Identity Engines Ignition suite — to deliver the bandwidth, security and multicast capabilities required.

Extreme Networks implemented the VSP core and edge switches, Fabric Connect virtualization and Identity Engines access management to enable reliable VDI, dual 10Gb campus links, IPTV and secure BYOD. The upgrade cut VDI login retries from 50–100 down to about 0–5, noticeably increased throughput (users reported faster network speeds), enabled iPad carts and streaming curriculum, and helped the district project 25–50% textbook cost savings (one example showed a 37% reduction). Extreme Networks’ solution also simplified operations and improved scalability and resiliency district-wide.

Pearland Independent School District

Greg Bartay

Director of Technology