By Monique Lucey
One of the most appealing aspects of on-demand learning is that students, faculty, content providers and other participants can access courses and related information at any time from any device. However, this wireless component means that IT managers will have to rely on the management and integrated security capabilities of a unified network access architecture to ensure that this flexible access is secure and bandwidth-efficient.
For instance, many universities want users to be able to access on-demand learning from both on- and off-campus locations. Eventually, the same network access will be used to check test results, financial aid information and other aspects of a student’s record.
IT managers are going to have to ensure that only authorized users can access this sensitive data and that a user’s policy applies whether they’re connected via a wired connection or wirelessly. Therefore, they will need centralized management tools that can identify the request and match it to enterprise-wide role-based policies.
In addition, they’ll have to make sure that the data cannot be accessed via a rogue access point that could jeopardize student privacy. A unified network access architecture integrates sophisticated wired switching and wireless architecture that can seamlessly manage wireless voice, video and data, and can monitor the environment and alert IT to the emergence of unauthorized access points. IT will then be able to locate and shut down those rogue devices.
As higher education institutions expand their wireless networks in tandem with their on-demand learning application rollout, IT will need management software that can manage wired and wireless switches, routers and other enterprise infrastructure. That way, they can apply patches, software updates and policies with ease to all devices in the network from a single console instead of having to update several unconnected systems. In many cases, they can actually integrate physical WLAN controller modules into switches in order to eliminate unnecessary appliances that consume power and take up valuable physical space.
They’ll also be able to set granular policies that might enable a teacher to access a student’s record within the university’s wireless network, but not from anywhere else. This level of detail is important for state and federal regulations.
Centralized management and a secure network fabric that protects from external and internal threats will also help ensure that wireless devices accessing the network are not carrying root kits, viruses or other malware that users may pick up beyond the university firewall. IT can use network access control to scan all devices for appropriate anti-virus software and other security tools before they interact with student data.
In addition to security, IT can also use integrated network monitoring modules that feed important data and alerts back to the centralized management platform to monitor and manage the amount of traffic in the wireless environment. An access point might work fine with a dozen people logging on to it, but if a whole dormitory floor is trying to work within the on-demand learning application via wireless devices, it could create a serious bottleneck. With the centralized management platform, IT would be alerted as access points hit their threshold so they could add more or set user and device priorities to control traffic.
Finally, wireless can pose challenges when it comes to generating reports on compliance. However, if the management tools can integrate data from the wireless access points and wireless switches with the wired network data, then IT can offer auditors comprehensive reports.
As you see, for on-demand learning to be securely and efficiently extended to wireless networks, IT must deploy intelligent and centralized management tools as well as infrastructure that can handle both wired and wireless voice, video and data.
Tags: Centralized management platform, Unified network access, Wireless architecture
