Case Study: Future Academies achieves centralized NaaS for unified, cost‑efficient networks and faster school onboarding with HPE Aruba Networking

Common network standards allow Future Academies’ schools to focus on teaching

Future Academies is a growing UK multi-academy trust managing nine schools that needed a way to standardize IT, simplify network operations and scale quickly without costly rip‑and‑replace projects. With mixed, vendor-specific hardware and short-term school budgets, the trust sought a vendor‑agnostic approach that would improve security, consistency and the ability to onboard new schools fast while letting teachers focus on education.

Working with Medhurst IT, Future Academies adopted a network-as-a-service model using HPE Aruba Networking Central and HPE GreenLake for Networking to provide centralized management and observability across a hybrid estate. The solution preserved existing hardware, pooled funds for lifecycle refreshes, accelerated rollouts (delivering about five times more in year one), improved visibility and security, and reduced reliance on third parties while enabling faster, more consistent onboarding of new schools.

Future Academies

Andy Meighen

Chief Information Officer