Net-Ctrl sees school success with Ruckus

VAR wins Ruckus wireless LAN deal with school that originally rejected Aruba and BlueSocket on price

Reseller Net-Ctrl claims its new partnership with wireless LAN vendor Ruckus Wireless is already bearing fruit in the price-conscious public sector.

Helenswood Girls’ School in East Sussex consulted VAR Net-Ctrl almost two years ago after identifying a need for wireless connectivity across its two sites.

At the time, Net-Ctrl offered Aruba and BlueSocket solutions but the school rejected them on the grounds of price after an initial site survey. Helenswood continued to use consumer wireless routers, but these provided insufficient coverage and Net-Ctrl was instructed to keep a look-out for alternative offerings.

Net-Ctrl struck up a partnership with Ruckus in April and the duo claimed they were able to provide the same level of coverage for the school at a considerably reduced sum.

After a two-week trial, Helenswood purchased 24 Ruckus ZoneFlex 802.11g access points, two 802.11n APs and the Ruckus ZoneDirector 50 management consoles. Ruckus claimed the network provides complete coverage across the school’s two sites, can be centrally managed and can be scaled as the school grows its laptop usage.

Mark Power, wireless security specialist at Net-Ctrl, said: “Partnering with Ruckus has enabled us to bring the benefits of wireless to more public sector organisations like Helenswood.

“Helenswood was not only able to complete the project on budget and on time, but the solution has also been really easy to set up and manage.”

“The Ruckus solution was not only the best on price, it was also a reliable and robust system,” said the senior technician at Helenswood. “The network was installed over the summer and since the start of term, it’s been working with no problems – staff and pupils can easily connect and carry out their tasks on their laptops without the worries of losing connectivity, wherever they are within the school.”