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School District of Janesville

C A S E S T U D Y :

PDS I T.net/solutions/school-district-of-janesville

The ChallengeDr. Smiley was committed to finding and implementing a stable, supported, and forward-looking network platform that would free his team of the irritating issues that had encompassed them, and the students and staff, for far too long.

The District’s SAN and server environment had become old technology. It had been stepped over by the state of the industry, which had moved ahead leaving the District, and their dated legacy equipment, far behind. The existing platform was out of space and they were struggling for backup.

A reboot would take 20 minutes or longer. In this age when education depends on technology, servers being down means that critical applications and technology that students and teachers depend on in the classroom is not accessible. “We felt like our technology was getting in the way of learning,” said Cassandra (Cassie) Anderson, Systems Administrator for the District. “As an IT department, we shouldn’t be a bottleneck for education.”

The IT team experienced countless performance issues. They worked in a reactive state, simply putting out fires rather than focusing on proactive important long-term projects. “We have a goal in our District, one of promise, to engage and empower learners,” says Dr. Smiley. ”This can’t happen if technology is a barrier.”

“The School District of Janesville is like many other school districts in the state, we struggle with financial pressures and are constantly trying to balance the budget,” said Dr. Robert Smiley, Chief Information Officer (CIO) for the District. “In the effort to balance the budget the infrastructure for our SAN and server environment had become outdated in the process.”

Solution: Workshop, Consensus, Update, SimplifyA day long discovery workshop was conducted with PDS and HPE leading the discussion to gather information and lay out a plan that was specifically suited for the needs of the District. It began with a foundational platform and plans for 5-year, 3-year and 1-year objectives were discussed and documented. The District staff had the opportunity to recommend what they felt was needed. “As we looked across the landscape of where the industry is and where we needed to be, PDS and HPE brought to us SimpliVity as the solution,” said Dr. Smiley. “We found that SimpliVity brought the best of the best to the table for us.”

Anderson said, “Initially we were looking for a replacement for the SAN and servers but SimpliVity opened our eyes to other solutions. This product could also replace our backup system, and that was another reason we chose SimpliVity.”

According to Anderson, the IT team looked at different products but the decision to choose HPE SimpliVity meant that they’d be given more powerful functionality without having to learn a new system. “When it came down to choosing HPE SimpliVity over the competition, everyone was on the same page; it was a unanimous decision!”

“... PDS and HPE partnered to bring us SimpliVity which has astronomically increased our confidence in that infrastructure environment.”Dr. Robert Smiley, Ph.D.Chief Information Officer (CIO)School District of Janesville, WI

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Another reason for the District’s decision was the operational and implementation time to value, where all aspects of this hyperconvergence system are available immediately with the flip of a switch. SimpliVity was that solution, and PDS and HPE were the partners of choice.

“As we looked at the solution of SimpliVity, we had to look carefully at the issue of complexity versus simplicity,” says Dr. Smiley. “There are solutions in the environment that seem great, but they are so complex that you can’t sustain them,” explained Dr. Smiley. “SimpliVity brings a simple solution that has all of the pieces, all of the components, all of the tools, and all of the management aspects that we need in a way that we can sustain it over time.”

PDS played a critical role in helping the School District of Janesville navigate the technology landscape and define the best solution for their requirements. “They were instrumental in our decision,” said Dr. Smiley.

The HPE SimpliVity hyperconverged solution was aligned with the District’s key requirements which included replacing aging infrastructure, eliminating associated risk and performance constraints, eliminating down-time and service disruptions, while simplifying management and reducing the learning curve for the Janesville support team.

Results: Replacement, elimination of down-time and service disruption, improved management strategiesDr. Smiley said, “We are a District of more than 10,000 students and more than 1,500 staff. In today’s K-12 surroundings, that is a lot of devices that need to connect and operate and need access to the internet. This immediate access to those resources and connectivity has been provided through SimpliVity and that infrastructure has allowed learning to take place.”

The rollout was as smooth as anyone could have hoped. “Setup was extraordinarily simple, and the team of PDS with HPE SimpliVity worked with us through the entire process,” says Anderson. “They are far ahead of other vendors we had dealt with in the past.” “Everything for the rollout was perfectly coordinated. The migration happened effortlessly.”

Prior to SimpliVity, Anderson was afraid to make changes with the old infrastructure. Now, with HPE SimpliVity, they can reboot, within seconds. With a click of a button and it’s nearly done before the screen changes. “We’ve gone from nail-biting while waiting for something to reboot, to an instant, stress-free fix,” Anderson said.

A backup for a 500 GB virtual machine might have taken an hour or two before. Today, it takes seconds. “HPE SimpliVity, saves us countless hours on the backend and gives us the peace of mind we’d been searching for,” said Anderson.

Dr. Smiley said that the SimpliVity solution has allowed the District to focus on learning, focus on engagement, and focus on empowering students to make their own choices with technology. “Because it is so solid and works so well, we don’t have to worry about the technology; we just know that the infrastructure is going to be in place.” “We can turn our attention to classroom practices, focus on what students are doing in their day-to-day learning. It opens everyone up to focus on what school is really about.”

When the District looks for a partner, they look for one that understands what it means to be in a K-12 environment, which is very unique. “Both PDS and HPE bring an understanding into this K-12 market that other vendors are not able to do, and it makes me honored to say that we are proud to be working with these, our partners, on this project,” stated Dr. Smiley. “It enables both me and my staff to focus on the work that needs to get done. We are not competing or battling with each vendor to get answers,” said Dr. Smiley.

These results mean less disruption to teaching and learning because of any technical difficulties, which is the District’s primary goal. It opens up time to focus on projects that improve education in the classrooms. “Since we don’t have to worry about the back-end stuff, because of HPE SimpliVity, our IT team has the time to support staff as they work to bring new ideas to life in the classrooms,” said Anderson. “Thanks to our partners at HPE and PDS, the SimpliVity solution gives us what we need to be able to focus on student learning and achievement.”

SimpliVity is a leader in hyperconverged technology. This solution enables businesses and organizations to simplify the administration of their data center infrastructure while streamlining their backup and disaster recovery initiatives.

To learn more about hyperconvered technology, please contact the PDS Education team at 800-966-6090 or teamgoved@pdsit.net.

“... IT departments for K-12 school districts need to enable learning – not get in the way of it.”

School District of Janesville

Cassandra (Cassie) AndersonSystems AdministratorSchool District of Janesville, WI