EXTREME NETWORKS CASE STUDY: THE UNIVERSITY OF NEW HAMPSHIRE
Enhanced Application Analytics and
Optimization via the Extreme
Networks Purview solution
AT A GLANCE
Industry:
• Higher Education
Products Utilized:
• Purview application visibility
• NetSight network management
• Network Access Control (NAC)
Benefits:
• Detailed understanding of
application usage including who,
what, where, when and how
• Faster troubleshooting due
to more detailed application
information
• Identification of insecure
applications or activities using
approved applications
“Purview is going to improve our
troubleshooting immeasurably.”
How the University of New Hampshire improved
their visibility, control and business analysis of their
network with Purview from Extreme Networks.
Overview
With a campus network supporting over 15,000 students, faculty and staff, the
University of New Hampshire IT department faces a number of challenges.
Providing wired and wireless connectivity to a diverse set of organizations is only
the starting point – the UNH IT department must also support specific educational
applications, enforce policies and regulations, troubleshoot both individual and
system-level problems and do all of this while maintaining strict levels of privacy
and network security. On top of all this, part of their mandate is to consistently
look for ways to improve the experience of their end-users and explore ways
of making better use of their existing network resources. This is why they were
eager to become a beta test site for Purview, the Extreme Networks application
identification and business analytics solution.
A long-term Extreme Networks customer, UNH was familiar with the exceptional
visibility and control provided by their existing Extreme Networks management suite,
but were intrigued by the possibility of getting more detailed insight into not only
how their network was being used, but also which applications were being used
throughout the network.
Extreme Networks Purview
Purview is a network powered application analytics and optimization solution
that captures and analyzes context-based application traffic to deliver meaningful
BRYAN SCOVILL
NETWORK SECURITY MANAGER
UNIVERSITY OF NEW
HAMPSHIRE
intelligence - about applications, users, locations and devices.
It is the Industry’s very first and only – patent pending - solution to transform the
Network into a Strategic Business Asset by enabling the mining of network-based
business events and strategic information that help business leaders make faster and
more effective decisions. It does this all from a centralized command control center
that combines Network Management with Business Analytics, and at unprecedented
scale (100M sessions) and scope.
Purview allows IT operations to optimize the network for increased application
performance and security while also giving IT the tools necessary to provide detailed
University New Hampshire – Case Study
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network-based business analytics for all parts of the business. This empowers IT
ABOUT THE UNIVERSITY OF
NEW HAMPSHIRE:
Founded in 1866 as the New
to invite and share the business analytics information with other Line of Business
executives, which will elevate the network and IT functions to a higher and more
strategic level.
Hampshire College of Agriculture and
Purview network-based Intelligence provides IT with the visibility and control of
the Mechanic Arts, the University of
applications and websites resident in all parts of the network, from the wired or
New Hampshire was one of the early
wireless edge all the way through the core and datacenter.
land-grant institutions established
to serve the sons and daughters
of farming and laboring families.
Today UNH is not only a land-grant
institution but also a designated
sea- and space-grant University,
and is among the top-tier research
institutions nationally. The University
is made up of dozens of academic
departments, interdisciplinary
institutes, and research centers that
attract students and faculty from
around the world. The University
serves over15,000 students and
Implementing Purview at UNH caused absolutely no operational interruptions,
required no overlay network and required no changes to the existing management
system. However, IT administrators now have access to a powerful tool that provides
advanced application analytics including insight into the number of applications
online, how much bandwidth they consume, the number of clients connected, the
number of flows, response time and lots of other information – all in real-time. With
a growing library of over 13,000 application fingerprints, Purview can recognize and
analyze any Web –based or traditional application and provide granular contextual
information such as user, role, location, time-of-day, and device type. Or, more simply,
Who, What, Where, When and How.
The result is an enhanced level of insight into their network that has allowed UNH IT
to improve the performance of their organization and the university as a whole.
hundreds of faculty and staff with
Understanding University Applications
state-of-the-art campus facilities.
While still in the initial stages of implementation, Bryan Scovill, UNH Network
ABOUT EXTREME
NETWORKS:
Security Manager, has already been able to take advantage of the advanced analytics
Extreme Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:
EXTR) sets the new standard for
superior customer experience
by delivering network-powered
innovation and best-in-class service
and support. The company delivers
high-performance switching and
routing products for data center
and core-to-edge networks,
wired/wireless LAN access, and
unified network management
and control. Our award-winning
solutions include software-defined
networking (SDN), cloud and
high-density Wi-Fi, BYOD and
enterprise mobility, identity access
management and security. Extreme
Networks is headquartered in
San Jose, CA and has more than
12,000 customers in over 80
provided by Purview. “My priority is security compliance and I like the fact that I can
now tell if students are using applications that meet our security requirements,” he
said. “We have a non-managed user base and people are always coming up with
their own solutions. With Purview we can now understand what applications they’re
using as well as how they’re using them, so we can understand if we are supporting
the right products.” Examples can vary widely based on the new technology
students bring to campus each year, but mobile and cloud applications are the most
concerning. “We need to better understand what our user base wants to put up
on the cloud,” said Mr. Scovill. “Can we support them or provide that functionality
internally at a better cost, performance and security? With Purview we can answer
those questions before they become problems.”
A related issue is the use of unapproved applications that may not be a security risk,
but that still impact UNH IT. Purview’s ‘Shadow IT’ capabilities allow them to monitor
the applications that are being used and analyze those that aren’t on the university’s
approved list. This doesn’t just identify noncompliant applications, but also indicates
why the approved applications are not being used. Not only can this proactively
identify potential security flaws, it can also help UNH IT determine whether their
approved applications are meeting the needs of their users. “If we recommend
a particular application and the users aren’t using it because it doesn’t provide a
feature they need, that gives us a wealth of information on how to improve our
recommendations in the future”, said Mr. Scovill.
countries. For more information,
Most importantly, Purview is dramatically increasing the speed with which UNH IT is
visit the company’s website at
able to troubleshoot network problems for their thousands of users. By providing a
http://www.extremenetworks.com.
much deeper visibility into errors than just the port and IP address, Purview makes
it easier to pinpoint the problems and resolve them. “Being able to go beyond the
port level to view a granular detail of what’s being transferred can be incredibly
effective,” said Mr. Scovill. “We could track a problem to an IP address, a device and a
University New Hampshire – Case Study
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person, but with Purview we can now determine that it’s gaming,
Improved User Experience at Sports Arenas. The UNH hockey
bit-torrenting, communicating with bots or even running a VPN to
arena has implemented comprehensive Wi-Fi coverage and
another university that’s causing the problem.”
How Purview Will Help UNH
UNH IT is planning to further integrate Purview into the rest of the
network to provide pervasive intelligence. This will open the door
to a number of advanced use cases including:
Purview will allow UNH IT to see the applications attendees are
using at hockey games. This opens up a number of possibilities
that can improve the experience for attendees. For example, if
they are viewing online sports sites or applications the venue can
present that information at the game itself. If the audience starts
looking up reviews of local bars or restaurants in the third period,
this could provide opportunities to provide tailored, in-game
Faster Troubleshooting. Once fully integrated, application data
sponsorships or promotions for these local vendors, thus providing
can be queried to provide valuable information to responding
an additional revenue source
field technicians so they can act faster and more effectively. As
well, phone support teams will be able to view the application
usage of each caller, greatly accelerating case resolution.
“Purview is going to improve our troubleshooting immeasurably,”
said Mr. Scovill.
ROI Assessment/Justification. Application usage data can quantify
Other possible use cases for Purview are also on the horizon –
this is only the tip of the proverbial iceberg. As more and more
systems become integrated into the Purview engine the amount
of data gathered will only become more useful to UNH IT and the
university overall. “We have enough available bandwidth that we
don’t need to throttle users anymore,” said Mr. Scovill. “But with
the value of bulk software purchases for the community and/or site
Purview we can not only establish best practices and assess our
licenses. For example, UNH recently outsourced their student email
existing policies, but also mentor and coach our users in order to
to MS Live and can now determine the ROI in order to justify that
improve their experience and help them get the most out of the
expense. Alternatively, they can regularly determine if students are
network. It’s just a better way to operate.”
using something else and either educate their user base or seek an
alternative if they’re not getting their money’s worth.
Business Analytics on Investment Usage. Both the CIO and
the UNH Business School would be extremely interested in
understanding what applications are being used and when. Are
students and faculty using Blackboard in class? How much
data is being shared through Blackboard? Are they using other
collaboration applications in class? Purview can provide extensive
reporting with this information while maintaining user privacy as
required. “Business analytics are going to be important as they let
us make better use of our resources and let us shape our service
catalog in order to meet user needs,” said Mr. Scovill.
Budget Planning for Housing. University dormitory and
residential wireless networks can be monitored to determine
which applications are being used at what times and how
much bandwidth is consumed. This can make it much easier
for administrators to determine exactly the capacity and
required access points for each building and thus facilitate
budgetary decisions.
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Phone +1-408-579-2800
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University New Hampshire – Case Study
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