Case Study: University of Paderborn achieves scalable, flexible access to critical services with F5 Networks

University of Paderborn Provides Flexible Access to Critical Services with F5 Solution

The University of Paderborn faced an urgent need to replace aging Cisco CSS load balancers that were reaching end-of-life while ensuring high performance and flexible access for its campus-wide Microsoft SharePoint installation plus email, LDAP and new web services. With only a three-person network team supporting 18,500 students and thousands of users across multiple locations, the university also required multi‑tenancy and delegated administration to reduce operational burden. To address this, the University of Paderborn upgraded to a solution from F5 Networks, including BIG‑IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM).

F5 Networks deployed BIG‑IP LTM ADCs on VIPRION 2400 hardware, plus the AVR module and BIG‑IP Access Policy Manager (APM), running in active/standby across two data centers and supporting up to about 70 servers and thousands of users. The F5 solution delivered scalable, future‑proof load balancing, multi‑tenant partitions that let departments self‑administer services (reducing workload for the central IMT team), and a path to unified SSO with APM; the result is simplified management, reliable access to critical services, and capacity to add Exchange, databases and cloud apps.

University of Paderborn

Alexander Schubert

Network Engineer