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Forsyth County Schools and Xirrus Deploy High Performance Wi-Fi Network District-Wide

Posted on: Tuesday, 17 June 2008, 09:00 CDT

Xirrus, Inc., the only Wi-Fi "Power-Play" that can replace Ethernet workgroup switches with Wi-Fi as the primary network connection, announces that Georgia's nationally recognized school district, Forsyth County Schools, has chosen Xirrus for their district-wide Wi-Fi network, servicing over 35,000 students, faculty, and staff district-wide. As the largest employer in Forsyth County, the school district needed the highest performing and most robust Wi-Fi network available today. The school district tested numerous Wi-Fi products, and found Xirrus capable of delivering the wireless performance and user density needed to meet their network demands.

"These guys get it! They planned for the success of Wi-Fi and solved the performance and density problems by taking the switch out of the closet and putting it at the edge of the network with the radios where it belongs," said Bailey Mitchell, both CTO and CIO at Forsyth County Schools. "We did extensive testing over the years and determined that Xirrus was the best fit for our extensive educational enterprise. We will be able to provide our students, teachers, and faculty high performance broadband wireless access throughout our district--anytime, anywhere, anyplace with the same quality of service as a wired network--enabling them to pursue new methods of teaching and communicating without worrying if the infrastructure can handle it."

The Xirrus Wi-Fi Array is the only solution capable of replacing Ethernet workgroup switches and obsoleting traditional Wi-Fi offerings by integrating the following into a single device:

-- 4, 8, or 16 802.11a/b/g radios

-- High-gain directional antennas

-- Onboard Gigabit Switch

-- Wi-Fi Controller

-- Firewall

-- Dedicated Wi-Fi Threat Sensor

-- Embedded Spectrum Analyzer

"Let me say it straight--if you are thinking about putting Wi-Fi in a K-12 educational network you should have Xirrus on your short-list for evaluation," said Bailey.

"We put Xirrus through the paces for over a year--we started with six schools, analyzing the results in detail before selecting Xirrus for the entire district," said Mark Klingler, Director of Technical Services at Forsyth County Schools. "We considered the usual suspects, but no solution garnered our attention like Xirrus with respect to how few devices were needed to complete our wireless coverage needs. We are putting in the same number of radios (4,000+) as other offerings, but doing it with only 500 Arrays instead of our original estimation of 2000 access points--Xirrus saved the district over 1,500 cable pulls and will be easier to support."

"On top of the resource savings, Xirrus performed active site surveys at all our schools, took the time to sit with us and plan the implementation, and then carefully executed the installation along side us at no additional charge. Many vendors talk about partnerships, but Xirrus actually delivers on it. Xirrus took the time to educate us," Mark added.

"More and more organizations are waking up to the fact that Wi-Fi should be distributed just like a wired network and that they don't need to install dumb legacy access points every 20 feet as the other Wi-Fi vendors have recently touted. Wireless should take fewer devices, cables, and switch ports, not more," said Matt McCook, Regional Director for the Southeast USA at Xirrus. "Industry leading organizations, like Forsyth County Schools, are choosing Xirrus because we deliver the most coverage, user density, and bandwidth with the least amount of devices, cost, time, and power--no other vendor can come close."

About Forsyth County Schools

Established in 1860, Forsyth County Schools was one of the first free public school systems in Georgia. The school district continues to expand at a rapid pace as more and more families move in due to the school district's smaller class sizes and personalized education for children. Currently, the Forsyth County Schools serve over 31,000 students adding 2,000 new students each year. Technology is a focal point for the schools: All teachers have a notebook computer for online grading, reporting, and email. All computers within the Forsyth County schools are networked and have a high-speed connection to the Internet. The student to computer ratio is 2:1. Students produce live television broadcasts within their schools and work with equipment such as scanners, handheld computing units, and digital cameras. Additionally, parents can check their child's portfolios, assignments, grades and discipline online. These systems, coupled with a wealth of on-line learning software, serve to meet the needs of "today's" students and prepare them for success in an ever-changing global society. For more information, please visit forsyth.k12.ga.us.

About Xirrus

Xirrus, the leader in high performance Wi-Fi, designs and manufactures the patented Wi-Fi Array. The Xirrus Wi-Fi Array obsoletes traditional Wi-Fi offerings by integrating 4, 8, or 16 radios and high-gain directional antennas into a single device along with an onboard Gigabit Switch, Wi-Fi Controller, Firewall, dedicated Wi-Fi Threat Sensor, and embedded Spectrum Analyzer, providing the performance and security to replace Ethernet workgroup switches with Wi-Fi technology. The Xirrus Wi-Fi Array delivers more range, more coverage, more bandwidth, more throughput, and more intelligence per cable drop than anything else available today - resulting in a solution that uses 75% fewer devices, cabling, switch ports, and installation time compared with any other offering. Xirrus Wi-Fi Arrays are ideal for any organization moving towards Wi-Fi as their primary network connection, especially those that must cover large areas, support large user populations, and/or use high bandwidth/throughput applications.

Xirrus is a privately-held company headquartered in Westlake Village, California. For more information, please visit www.xirrus.com.

Xirrus - High Performance Wi-Fi(TM)

Xirrus - The Air is the Network(TM)

Xirrus - Intelligent Wi-Fi(TM)

Source: Business Wire

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