Melbourne’s Alamanda College Graduates to AI‑Driven Network Operations

Alamanda College, a government school serving years K through 9, opened in 2013, and it quickly swelled to 3000 students and 250 staff in less than a decade. The campus size has kept pace with the student population, growing exponentially with classrooms added each year.

Alamanda College decided to move all of its infrastructure and data to the cloud. The initial lift transitioned the campus wired network, servers, and voice communications to the cloud. Then the wireless LAN took center stage, and a cloud-managed network had strong appeal.

“Having wireless controllers onsite means that there’s a lot of reconfiguring and downtime when you do a refresh,” says Tony Pace, specialist technician, eduSTAR. TSS in the Information Management and Technology Division at Alamanda College. “We made the decision to move to the cloud and never have to worry about updating controller software again.”

 Alamanda College’s ICT team began searching for a cloud-managed network and its partner Unity Computers recommended a Juniper wired and wireless network driven by Mist AI.

“I looked at the documentation, did research, and liked what I found out about Mist AI,” Pace says. Pace wanted to set up a proof of concept to validate his expectations. After a 15-minute conversation with Juniper, Pace had the network up and running. He immediately became a Mist AI fan.

 “I was able to get Mist AI and Juniper Access Points going with no formal training,” he says.

Deploying a Juniper network driven by Mist AI was incredibly simple, according to Pace. “The way we can adopt Juniper Access Points from a mobile app is a huge time saver,” Pace says. To deploy the new Wi-Fi on campus, Pace gave a contractor a phone and a map with instructions to walk the campus installing and adopting Juniper Access Points. “It saved us an enormous amount of time,” he says.

Pace deployed EX3400 switches using Juniper Mist Wired Assurance’s zero-touch provisioning (ZTP) capability. “Six months ago, I had never seen Junos OS, but you plug the switch in, and it gets configured. That’s really attractive,” he says. “Other vendors can do ZTP, but you need to be a rocket scientist.”

In the next development phase, Alamanda College is considering adding contact tracing through Juniper Mist User Engagement cloud service. Indoor location services could help the school provide wayfinding services on campus, identify equipment thefts, and prevent the spread of a COVID outbreak if a student or staff member is infected. “Juniper networking and Mist AI give us lots of options for the future,” Pace says. “We have the opportunity to support more students on our campus and keep them and the campus safe while committing to a great education.”

Since moving to a cohesive Juniper wired and wireless network, students, teachers, and administrators enjoy better digital learning experiences with reliable connections to online learning tools, video, and the Internet.