Customer Success Story
University of Reading reimagines its campus network to support student engagement and success
University of Reading, one of the most popular education choices in the UK, was well on its way to transforming its IT infrastructure to enable the many ways technology is integral to education. By reimagining its network infrastructure with Juniper, the university is creating innovative ways to guide students through rigorous education.
Overview
| Company | University of Reading |
| Industry | Education |
| Products used | Wireless (Wi-Fi) Assurance, Wired Assurance, User Engagement |
| Region | EMEA |
Cloud-based
Technology helped meet digital transformation goals
Self-driving
Network simplified IT support
Increased
Student engagement and success with a digital foundation
Build a digital foundation to enhance the student experience
University of Reading was migrating to an AI-driven network to deliver better digital experiences for students, faculty, and staff when the pandemic hit. Its Juniper network, driven by Mist AI, provided a flexible foundation to allow a quick pivot to remote instruction.
“We needed to enable new digital ways of working due to the pandemic,” says Stuart Brown, director of digital technologies at University of Reading. “We achieved in 12 months what I could only have dreamed of achieving in five years. We went from full campus delivery of instruction to fully online in six weeks.”
“We considered Juniper Networks AI-Driven Enterprise solution to be the right cloud-based technology to help the University of Reading meet their digital transformation ambitions,” says Andy Butcher, Business Unit General Manager, Axians Public Sector. “Given Axians’ in-depth knowledge of the University of Reading infrastructure and strategic priorities, we were able to create an agile architecture and associated services solution to support the university’s future strategy.”
An autonomous network is the foundation for education innovation
University of Reading is on a multiyear journey to build a self-driving network to enable innovative programs and services that engage students and keep them on track for on-time graduation and successful futures.
“We wanted to simplify, standardize, and optimize IT so that we could produce services that would add value to our students,” says Brown.
A modern campus network was a prerequisite to this vision. The university relies on Juniper Series High-Performance Access Points and Juniper EX Series Ethernet Switches for its campus network.
AI-driven user experiences and IT operations are enabled by Marvis Virtual Network Assistant, Juniper Mist Wi-Fi Assurance, and Juniper Mist Wired Assurance. Juniper Mist User Engagement is integral to the university’s student engagement efforts and for campus health and safety.
An AI-driven Juniper network delivers value for the IT team, reducing the number of network-related helpdesk tickets. AIOps empower front-line support staff to solve more problems on their own without having to escalate issues to network engineering.
Reimagining the network to support student engagement and achievement
At University of Reading, the network is more than great connectivity: It’s the foundation of innovative new services and experiences for students, faculty, and staff.
Imagine this: A staff member arrives at a campus car park entrance. She’s recognized, the gate opens, and she’s directed to a parking space. When a student stops at the café on the way to class, the café’s mobile app greets her, offers “the usual,” and perhaps even a discount. Location services show her the fastest way to class.
The network can also provide insights into student success. Integrating location data with the university’s attendance management system, for instance, may reveal whether a student regularly attends class. With insights like this, along with other indicators of educational success, the university can take action to help students stay on track.
As one of the world’s premier research universities, University of Reading has a broad community. The university is focused on key areas that will attract students, provide a strong education, and help them qualify for good jobs, including technology, film and television, and digital health.
The Products
Juniper is leading the convergence of Wi-Fi, Bluetooth® LE, and IoT with our enterprise-grade Access Points. The Juniper Access Points work in conjunction with the Juniper Mist Cloud Architecture and Mist AI to collect and analyze metadata in near real-time from all wireless clients.
Wireless (Wi-Fi) Assurance
Driven by Mist AI and machine learning, the Juniper Mist Wireless Assurance cloud service automates troubleshooting and operations, making wireless networks predictable, reliable, and measurable while providing near-real-time visibility into user service levels.
Wired Assurance
The Juniper Mist Wired Assurance service brings Mist AI to access-layer switching. It sets a new network management standard with AI-native operations and automation, improving the experiences of devices connected to resources through Juniper EX Series Switches.
User Engagement
User Engagement uses virtual Bluetooth LE (vBLE) array technology and cloud-based machine learning to drive down deployment costs and improve the accuracy of real-time indoor location services, from wayfinding to location-based proximity notifications.
The EX Series Ethernet Switches are cloud-ready, high-performance access and aggregation/core layer switches designed for enterprise branch, campus, and data center networks. Wired access networks don’t have to be complex—you can reduce risk and cost without compromising performance, quality, and innovation.
QFX network switches deliver industry-leading throughput and scalability, a comprehensive routing stack, the open programmability of Junos OS, and the broadest set of EVPN-VXLAN and IP fabric capabilities. Juniper offers a wide range of switches for data center spine and leaf switches, campus distribution and core, or data center gateway and interconnect.
Published October 2021