FLORIDA SCHOOL DISTRICT EDUCATES AND PROTECTS STUDENTS, WHILE MAXIMIZING RESOURCES

“The FortiGate enables us to eliminate multiple points of failure, simplify our infrastructure, and save money; all at the same time!” – Steven Wright, Communications and Technical Systems Manager, Manatee County School District

Located on southwest Florida’s Gulf Coast, Manatee County School District works to inspire its pupils to “Learn, Dream, and Achieve.” The student body of over 47,500 children, supported by 10,500 teachers and staff, is rapidly growing: The county’s natural beauty and commerce-friendly environment have made it a favored destination for families and businesses alike. New schools – at all age levels – are being constructed to accommodate the expanding population. The school district has been a long-standing advocate of the positive impact of technology in education. In 2006, to accelerate pervasive Internet use, Manatee implemented a districtwide fiber network that provided each school and administration building with multiple 10 Gbps connections.

GROWING PAINS Since that time, the number of students has grown by 10,000 and – because of the spectacular expansion of web-based resources and applications – network traffic has experienced an almost exponential increase in volume. Today, each teacher is given their own computer, and the Internet is tightly integrated into the daily curriculum, including testing. There are an estimated 30,000 computers in the district, and 90% of students connect on a phone or tablet during each school day. Steven Wright, Communications and Technical Systems Manager for the district, recalled, “A primary goal of ours is to provide students and staff with a safe environment in which to learn and grow. We saw that countering the escalating number of cyber-based threats required a more sophisticated approach than we currently had in place; we got budget approval and drafted an RFP for what was known as the ‘E-rate Firewall RFP project.”

DETAILS CUSTOMER: Manatee County School District INDUSTRY: Education LOCATION: Manatee County, Florida PARTNER: Maxis360

SOLUTION nnFortiGate

3700D

BUSINESS IMPACT nnEnhanced

threat protection across entire infrastructure

nnLow

ongoing maintenance and renewal costs

nnReduced

operational costs and simplified management

nnAbility

to accommodate growing headcount and facilities without additional investment

MEMORABLE MOMENTS The highly detailed RFP solicited proposals from vendors and third-parties. After a rigorous evaluation process, Wright and his team narrowed the field down to two contenders; both

CASE STUDY

CASE STUDY: FLORIDA SCHOOL DISTRICT EDUCATES AND PROTECTS STUDENTS, WHILE MAXIMIZING RESOURCES

were invited to participate in a proof of concept (POC) conducted over a one-week period. Vincent Hoaglin, infrastructure Site Support Supervisor for IT, stated, “The POC was our first exposure to the Fortinet FortiGate and our initial impressions were extremely positive.”

The ability of the FortiGate to perform web filtering makes a significant contribution to the district being able to maintain compliance with the Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA); a law holding schools responsible for the content their pupils are accessing online. Five servers that were originally tasked with content filtering were replaced with a single FortiGate, and the Following completion of the POCs, the two frontrunners were integrated suite of reports given the opportunity to do a conveniently delivers the final presentation. “The Fortinet I WAS AMAZED BOTH DURING AND information necessary to fulfil solution had been put forward by POST-IMPLEMENTATION; THERE WERE audit requirements. An even Florida-based IT services specialist, NO PROBLEMS, NO COMPLAINTS. more impressive reduction Maxis360. The team was able to EVEN HAVING TO INTEGRATE WITH took place with the number of demonstrate – frequently using live OUR ACTIVE DIRECTORY, WE HAD devices needed to perform load data from our own systems – how THE FORTIGATES UP AND RUNNING balancing: “Because of the way the FortiGate met or exceeded every WITHIN 45 MINUTES, WITHOUT OUR the FortiGate is designed, we single requirement in the RFP, line by END-USERS EVEN NOTICING. were able to go from 11 different line; it was very impressive,” recalled servers down to four and get Wright. rid of two core switches,” said Wright. “The FortiGate enables us The competitor’s presentation was memorable for different reasons: to eliminate multiple points of failure, simplify our infrastructure, and “The second vendor elected to use a Gartner Magic Quadrant save money; all at the same time!” to show how well their product compared to others in the same category: however, with all leading vendors clearly displayed, the MAXIMIZING RESOURCES graphic just served to reinforce the superiority of the FortiGate There have been operational benefits as well: “We’re a small team platform!” and we’ve found the GUI to be extremely intuitive and reports very He continued, “We put a lot of effort into defining technical easy to run: There’s no training or steep learning curve involved,” requirements, but as a public school district, the number one commented Hoaglin. “The visibility we have across the district’s consideration for us beyond student safety and security is financial: entire infrastructure, from a single pane of glass, enables us to really So the fact that the alternative proposal was two- to three-times the maximize our efficiency and elevate the quality of protection that the total cost of the Maxis360/Fortinet solution over a five year period team can provide.” made it a very easy decision to go with the FortiGate.” He added, “The tangible sense of commitment we have from the Maxis360 and Fortinet partnership is amazing. The FortiGates have EASY IMPLEMENTATION, EASY OPTIMIZATION more than lived up to our expectations and I would strongly, strongly Manatee County School District implemented two FortiGate 3700Ds recommend the entire range to anyone in a similar situation to us.” at its central data center, configured as a high-availability pair. “I Wright concluded, “We’re here to educate and protect, but the was amazed both during and post-implementation; there were dollars we spend on IT come from the same place that teachers no problems, no complaints,” praised Hoaglin. “Even having to and support staff are paid from. To have the levels of protection and integrate with our Active Directory, we had the FortiGates up and performance that we get from the FortiGate, at such a great price running within 45 minutes, without our end-users even noticing.” point, makes a huge difference to us.”

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