Case Study: University of South Carolina achieves a 100Gbps research-ready network, centralized security, and $5M cost avoidance with Fortinet

Propelling Research, Improving Efficiency, and Cutting Costs at University of South Carolina

The University of South Carolina, a multi-campus research institution serving more than 50,000 students, faced recurring network latency and periodic outages as growing research computing demands exceeded its 10 Gbps infrastructure and strained an on-premises SAN. After attempts to tune the existing system, the university decided to upgrade its Internet2 backbone to 100 Gbps, move backups to the cloud, and find a unified security solution that would protect both on‑premises and multi‑cloud resources while providing centralized visibility.

The university deployed FortiGate 7060E NGFWs along with FortiManager, FortiAnalyzer and the Fortinet Security Fabric, supported by professional services and staff training. The upgrade stabilized the network, freed 40–80 staff hours monthly, avoided an estimated $5 million in separate SSL/TLS inspection appliance costs, cut storage costs by about 15%, saved 180 staff hours per year on reporting, sped VPN deployments, and improved coordination across architecture, network, and security teams.

University of South Carolina

Jessie Hawkins

Systems Architect