Aldine Independent School District Relies on Enterasys Secure Network to Deliver Advanced IT Services to Faculty, Students and Families
Real-Time Video Extends Graduation Ceremonies to Family Members Around the Globe While World's Largest Implementation of Online Learning Application Improves Student Learning Experience for Nationally Recognized District
ANDOVER, MA--(Marketwire - October 15, 2007) - Enterasys Networks Inc., the Secure Networks
Company™, today announced that the Aldine Independent School District
(AISD) in North Harris County, Texas, is leveraging convergence and
connectivity solutions from Enterasys to deliver video and data services to
more than 60,000 elementary school students and over 8,000 district
instructors, administrators and other employees. Over 100,000 parents and
extended family members can experience graduation ceremonies over the
Internet while student instruction is enhanced with the world's largest
implementation of PLATO learning
software. As the district continues to expand with thirteen new schools
scheduled to join 73 existing facilities spread across the North Houston
area, Enterasys has partnered with Aldine to achieve their mission of
producing the nation's best by encouraging lifelong learning.
"We are changing lives with technology," said Margaret Barnett, executive
director for Technology Services, Aldine Independent School District.
"Many of our children are the first in their family to graduate from high
school. When a grandmother in Mexico, an uncle at a petroleum facility in
Africa or a family member serving their country in Iraq can watch a student
graduate -- we enable families to share in this very important
achievement."
A team of six network operations personnel support more than 110,000
connected users and devices. "If we are facing a challenge, the rest of
the industry is, or soon will," said John Crumbley, director of Technology
Support Services at Aldine. "Enterasys security, scalability, automation,
performance and support are key enablers for our small team to deliver big
results. We dare to be great, as many of our people are former graduates
of our schools -- I'll put my team up against any corporate IT group in
America."
The open-architecture, standards-based Enterasys technology has integrated
well with Aldine's other network infrastructure components including Check
Point and Nokia. A new data center has expanded from 1500 to 5000 square
feet, and has been constructed to withstand the hurricane and tropical
storm weather conditions the Houston area has experienced -- as much as 30
feet of rain in a single year. The District's 6500 seat arena with wired and wireless connectivity hosts graduation
ceremonies, as well as an annual international basketball tournament with
athletes and media from around the globe. "Enterasys and their local
partner, Solid IT
Networks, perform a proactive health-check before major events to make
sure our network infrastructure is ready to reliably deliver
high-definition video signals around the world," said Barnett. "We're
proud of what we continue to accomplish together."
The Enterasys Secure Networks solution has also helped to prevent
disruption of services. "A couple of years ago the MS Blaster worm
crippled the networks of other school districts in Texas for days, weeks
and even a month in one case," said Dale Jahnke, network architect for
Aldine. "Our Enterasys security-enabled infrastructure automatically
protected our network from the effects of the Blaster worm through
policy-based quarantine of infected computers so we never failed or went
down at all."
"We learn something every time we talk with an Enterasys developer or
support engineer," Crumbley continued. "Enterasys' single minded focus on
collaborative problem solving means we never have to deal with
finger-pointing. Even though the root causes of issues are later
determined to be associated with another vendor's hardware and/or software
-- we can count on Enterasys to help troubleshoot and fix our problems
quickly based on their experience and knowledge of our IT environment."
Aldine has consistently been recognized in Texas and nationally for their
excellence. The District is the 2006 Study Award winner from the American Productivity and Quality Center (APQC) for "Best in the Nation IT
Department" as part of their pursuit of a Malcolm Baldridge National
Quality Award. Aldine was one of five National Finalists in 2005 and 2004
for the Broad Prize for Urban Education as the second best large school
district in Texas for educating African-American students, and the third
best for educating Latino students. The District earned the 2001-2002
Standards of Excellence Award for an exemplary child nutrition program.
Aldine has earned seven recognitions from the Texas Education Agency (TEA)
as one of the state's highest performing school districts. In 1999, AISD
was one of the 24 school boards nationwide and the only one in Texas to
receive the coveted Magna Award from the American School Board Journal. In
1998, the District was recognized as the Outstanding School Board of Texas
by the Texas Association of School Administrators.
"As a K-12 institution we don't have the luxury of redundancy," continued
Barnett. "Enterasys technology protects us on the inside from curious kids
exploring the network, as well as from outside external threats. We also
ensure the privacy of our information in compliance with state and federal
regulations leveraging Enterasys Secure Networks. Their support, product
reliability, and seamless interoperability via industry standards is truly
appreciated."
About Enterasys Networks
Enterasys Networks -- the Secure Networks Company -- is owned by a private
investor group led by The Gores Group, LLC and Tennenbaum Capital Partners,
LLC. Enterasys' unique Secure Networks solutions secure any network to
ensure the confidentiality, integrity, availability and performance of IT
services and the business users that rely on them. Thousands of leading
companies, government agencies and educational institutions in more than 70
countries rely on Secure Networks solutions to maintain business continuity
and protect vital information. The company's culture is centered on the
principle "There is nothing more important than our customers." Delivering
on that commitment, Secure Networks provides granular, policy-based command
and control of individual user, application, device, port and flow
performance, and security. Enterasys' architectural approach to network
security offers a long technology lifecycle and significant operational and
business benefits, while reducing total cost of ownership. Information
about Enterasys' award-winning policy-enabled switches, routers, wireless
products, security software, and services is available at
www.enterasys.com.
About The Gores Group
Founded in 1987, The Gores Group is a private equity firm focused on
acquiring controlling interests in mature and growing businesses which can
benefit from the firm's operating experience and flexible capital base.
The firm combines the operational expertise and detailed due diligence
capabilities of a strategic buyer with the seasoned M&A team of a
traditional financial buyer. The Gores Group has become a leading
investor, primarily in the technology and telecommunications sectors,
having demonstrated over time a reliable track record of creating
substantial value in its portfolio companies alongside management.
Headquartered in Los Angeles, California, The Gores Group maintains offices
in Boulder, Colorado and London. For more information, please visit
www.gores.com.
About Tennenbaum Capital Partners, LLC
Tennenbaum Capital Partners is a Santa Monica, California-based private
investment firm managing over $3.8 billion in assets through private funds.
The firm's investment strategy is grounded in a long-term, value approach,
and it assists -- both financially and operationally -- transitional
middle-market companies in such industries as technology, healthcare,
energy, aerospace, business services, retail and general manufacturing.
Tennenbaum's core strengths include its in-depth knowledge of equity and
debt-financing vehicles in the public and private markets, as well as a
thorough understanding of special situations. For more information, please
visit www.tennenbaumcapital.com.