Ensuring K-12 school’s limited resources are applied to administrative, teacher, and student needs is the top priority for school districts. Optical LAN offers a unique network design, and efficient IT operations, that has historically accomplished just that.
The reasons why Optical LAN is a better way to build and operate school networks can be categorized in three ways:
- Simplify school network design, plus connect multiple campuses
- Less space and energy, thus make tangible contributions to sustainability goals
- Lower total cost of ownership, even prepare the network for future technologies
Simplified Network – To simplify a school network, we need to have the flexibility to design the network around the school and the classrooms – not vice versa. One customer said their teachers liked that Optical LAN helped them configure classrooms as they wanted, not as the network dictated. OLAN made it easy to add capacity as the connected learning devices grew in bandwidth and density. Plus, when OLAN allowed an opportunity to exit the school’s telecom rooms, that footprint saved was reallocated to teaching needs. Even better yet, some of our K-12 customers are using a single Optical LAN system to connect multiple campuses within a school district – that’s a game changer!
More Sustainable – An Optical LAN system requires less space, less material, and less energy. The space savings can easily be calculated at 90% reduced footprint across main data center, telecom rooms, horizontal pathways and last 100-meter drops. The energy savings has been estimated to be in the 30-40% range. Furthermore, anytime you can reduce the use of copper and plastics materials inside buildings, that has significant safety and sustainability benefits. Add all three things together, and you can make tangible contributions to environmental initiatives.
Lower Costs – The cost savings can be captured in five buckets, which includes lower initial costs (30-50%), reduced on-going expenses (50-70%), faster moves-adds-changes, centralized network management (6:1 reduced IT staff touches) and the elimination of wasteful technology “rip-and-replace” events. Since Optical LAN supports 10G XGS-PON, multi-rate Ethernet (e.g. 1G, 2.5G, 5G and 10G Ethernet), and multiwavelength (e.g. overlay additional 10G PON wavelengths with no conflicts) this makes OLAN the best technology for schools to protect their investments.
Based on the above, Optical LAN is a modern fiber-based campus networking solution that is ideal for grade schools, middle schools, and high schools. It delivers unparalleled network design flexibility and streamlines IT operations. By taking advantage of OLAN’s lower day-1 capital expenses, and year-over-year, operational costs reductions, school districts can reapply these savings back to the kids and teachers.
If you would like to learn more about this topic, you can watch (and download the slides) this short 30-minute webinar replay “Optical LAN Simplifies K-12 School Networks And Shifts Savings Into Educational Needs“.
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