The Forest of Dean Trust Secures Students Offline & Online with Cloud Networks

Based in Gloucestershire, the Trust welcomes over 1,100 students at its primary and secondary schools, with staff moving daily between the two sites. The Trust continues to grow, and in 2019 it expanded to include a sixth form, housed at Gloucestershire College's Forest of Dean Campus.

The shift to digital learning, combined with expansion, meant that the Trust needed a network capable of supporting their 1:1 learning programme across all schools, whilst being mindful of IT budget constraints.

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The Cloud-Managed Difference for Multi Academy Trusts

The Forest of Dean Trust were looking to not only increase the capacity and scalability for 1:1 learning, they also wanted to introduce and unify CCTV, increase depth of defence with network security fit for the digital age of learning, and remove the need for on-site IT staff.

Moving to a cloud-managed network enabled all this and more, bringing the whole network estate into a single dashboard that can be accessed anywhere, any time, by all IT staff members.

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Outcomes of the Project at The Forest of Dean Trust

The project initially started as WiFi only, but quickly expanded into switches, security, and CCTV once the Trust's objectives became clear, and once Redway had advised on future requirements to maintain the standards they had set for the schools.

The project has completely transformed the Trust for students, educators and support staff alike, creating an environment where excellence is never unsupported.

1

Helpdesk tickets relating to connectivity issues reduced by 100%, with staff moving seamlessly between classrooms, schools and campuses.

2

Network-wide switch changes largely automated and unified, reducing IT staff members' time by 25%.

3

The trust's VPN was previously dropping multiple times a day, taking 15 minutes to fix every time. Meraki's auto-VPN functionality eliminated this issue and is saving a technician 25% of his working hours.

4

The Meraki firewall blocked 150 threats in the first 2 weeks, as well as supporting secure traffic travelling between each school site.

5

Cisco Umbrella, a cloud-delivered security solution, has provided the highest level of monitoring and filtering, allowing the Trust to control the internet experience of students and staff both on and off network - vital in 1:1 learning environments.

6

24x smart CCTV cameras were installed to secure the Trust's campuses. Thanks to their cloud-based nature and unity with the wider network, footage can be accessed remotely through the dashboard, and the storage costs for footage were eliminated.

What The Forest of Dean Trust says about Redway Networks:

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"When Redway Networks demonstrated Meraki and I saw the possibilities it offered us, I was blown away. Its single pane of glass network management is as close to 'plug and play' as you can get, and I could see immediately how it would fit into our ICT environment."