SANTA CLARA, Calif. and CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa, Aug. 16, 2006 (PRIMEZONE) -- Foundry Networks(r), Inc. (Nasdaq:FDRY), a performance and total solutions leader for end-to-end switching and routing, today announced that it was selected by Kirkwood Community College, the third largest college in the state of Iowa, for their multi-campus network infrastructure redesign. Foundry's best-of-breed networking solutions have been installed campus-wide to support the College's growing student base and propel their distance-learning program with the advantages of online multimedia courses.
Kirkwood Community College is focused on growth through technology; the decision to select Foundry Networks' solutions ensures that their next generation network is future-proofed while also providing value and a competitive edge for students and faculty going forward. With its growing base of 15,000 students and faculty members, a complete network infrastructure overhaul was required to provide distance learning for students dispersed around the state. The network redesign also enables Kirkwood Community College to fulfill its mission of identifying ways to offer education to the broader community, from recent high school graduates to working parents, who want the credentials or certification to provide a better lifestyle for their families. In order to make distance learning more appealing for potential students, Kirkwood leveraged Foundry's convergence-enabling products to provide many of their courses through Webcasts and online discussion boards.
"Our distance learning program is an essential part of our success; many of our students cannot physically be in the classroom on a scheduled basis because of family, life and work obligations," said Jon Neff, executive director of information technologies for Kirkwood Community College. "After a careful evaluation of numerous vendors' offerings, we determined that Foundry Networks' solutions are ideal for our distributed student base and large campus network upgrade. Foundry has the price-for-performance, scalability, reliability and quality we require to successfully handle more than 15,000 users in our mission-critical and intensive environment."
To differentiate itself from competing schools nearby, Kirkwood Community College deployed Foundry's IronPoint(tm) wireless LAN infrastructure throughout every building on its 12 distributed campuses. This technology will provide students and faculty always-on and ubiquitous access to network resources from anywhere on campus. Foundry's wireless products incorporate the highest standards in wireless security, only providing secure access to authorized users. Kirkwood Community College's network design also consists of Foundry's award winning FastIron(r) and BigIron(r) families of Layer 2/3 switches, delivering secure and highly available network services campus-wide. Foundry's FastIron switches deliver 10GbE capacity at the network edge enabling consistent transport of next-generation bandwidth intensive and delay-sensitive applications such as streaming video.
"Foundry's solutions will provide Kirkwood Community College with a cost-effective and highly scalable integrated network that delivers reliable performance for their current and future networking demands," said Bob Schiff, vice president and general manager for Foundry Networks' enterprise business unit. "The Kirkwood network is an excellent example of how technologically savvy educational institutions are leveraging Foundry solutions to build an advanced network that enables innovative teaching methods and offers students flexible access to information throughout the campus."
About Foundry Networks
Foundry Networks, Inc. (Nasdaq:FDRY) is a leading provider of high-performance enterprise and service provider switching, routing, security and Web traffic management solutions, including Layer 2/3 LAN switches, Layer 3 Backbone switches, Layer 4/ 7 application switches, wireless LAN and access points, access routers and metro routers. Foundry's 10,000 customers include the world's premier ISPs, metro service providers, and enterprises, including e-commerce sites, universities, entertainment, health and wellness, government, financial and manufacturing companies. For more information about the company and its products, call 1.888.TURBOLAN or visit www.foundrynetworks.com.
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