Case Study: Walker County Schools achieves a reliable, scalable, cloud‑managed network for districtwide digital learning with Extreme Networks

Walker County Schools Switches to Digital Learning

Walker County Schools, which serves about 7,500 students across 16 schools (19 buildings) in Alabama, faced a sudden pandemic-driven need to accelerate a planned 1:1 device rollout and support thousands of additional digital devices. Their existing network—built on older 1‑Gig switches—couldn’t handle the new load, leaving many students without reliable access. The district selected Extreme Networks (deploying ExtremeSwitching, ExtremeWireless, ExtremeCloud IQ and ExtremeAnalytics) to address both capacity and visibility gaps.

Extreme Networks deployed an Extended Edge switching solution (V400 edge tied into X590 and X465 aggregation), roughly 750 access points including outdoor coverage, and migrated management to ExtremeCloud IQ with ExtremeAnalytics for monitoring. The new infrastructure delivered reliable Wi‑Fi to support digital learning for 7,500 students, reduced operating costs, improved network visibility and troubleshooting, and freed the three‑person IT team to focus on students and software systems—while enabling the district’s first full managed services program via E‑rate.

Walker County Schools

Patrick Gann

Technology Director