A Reseller's Guide: Unique Challenges Of Network Management In The University Marketplace

By Sarah Meyer, Director of Product Marketing, Ipswitch WhatsUpGold

Universities and colleges are besieged by a growing number of wireless devices and increased demands on the capacity of the network. Resellers need to serve as partners as these universities struggle to find the right balance for providing service and containing costs.

In the summer of 2013, the EDUCAUSE IT Issues Panel found that leveraging the wireless and device explosion on campus was the top issue academic IT departments are facing. Additionally, the key priorities include the imperative to “contain and reduce costs and meet the student and faculty expectations of contemporary consumer technologies and communication standards.”

This pressure is exacerbated by the increase in the number of wireless devices students bring and the dramatic growth of bandwidth-hungry video streaming. Streaming accounted for half of the wireless traffic in 2013, and analysts predict that two-thirds of the traffic on the Internet will be from streaming by 2018. Streaming is even more pronounced at colleges and universities with e-learning, video security, and rampant student consumption of Netflix or YouTube videos. The BYOD (bring your own device) trend also exacerbates the problem with more connections at various points throughout the network.

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