Case Study: Canterbury Christ Church University achieves a secure, automated, cost-saving digital campus with HPE Aruba Networking

Canterbury Christ Church University is reimagining the role of higher education

Canterbury Christ Church University, a modern UK institution serving more than 26,000 students, set out to reimagine higher education by adding a flexible digital layer to teaching, learning and campus services. The challenge was to consolidate and simplify a sprawling IT estate so it could rapidly adopt new teaching methods, meet partner security and compliance requirements, and deliver a high‑performance, service‑oriented student experience.

Partnering with HPE Aruba Networking, the university deployed a unified edge‑to‑data‑center architecture—Wi‑Fi 6 access points, UXI sensors, ClearPass and CX spine/leaf switches with AMD Pensando DPUs—enabling automated fabric deployment, centralized policy management and end‑to‑end micro‑segmentation. The outcome: faster, simpler operations (configurations now take minutes instead of days), stronger security and audit trails, and a 20% reduction in firewall licensing costs while supporting a modern digital campus.

Canterbury Christ Church University

Sarah Cockrill

Director of Digital Strategy and Information Technology