Melbourne's Alamanda College graduates to AI‑driven network operations

“We have had zero wireless issues with our Juniper Mist network. Before we would get 10 calls a day about clients not connecting to the network.” — Tony Pace Specialist Technician, eduSTAR.TSS, Information Management and Technology Division, Alamanda College

Alamanda College, a government school in Melbourne’s fast-growing southwest corridor, offers top-level education for 3000 students in years K–9. All 3000 students have their own laptops, and the network supports more than 5000 devices every day. As the demands of digital learning grew, it turned to an AI-driven network from Juniper.

Alamanda College decided to move all of its infrastructure and data to the cloud. The initial lift transitioned the campus wired network, servers, and voice communications to the cloud. Then the wireless LAN took centre-stage, and a cloud-managed network had strong appeal.

“Having wireless controllers onsite means that there’s a lot of reconfiguring and downtime when you do a refresh,” said Tony Pace, specialist technician, eduSTAR. TSS in the Information Management and Technology Division at Alamanda College.

“We made the decision to move to the cloud and never have to worry about updating controller software again.”

Alamanda College’s ICT team began searching for a cloud-managed network, and its partner Unity Computers recommended a Juniper wired and wireless network driven by Mist AI.

“I looked at the documentation, did research, and liked what I found out about Mist AI,” Pace said.

Pace wanted to set up a proof of concept to validate his expectations. After a 15-minute conversation with Juniper, Pace had the network up and running. He immediately became a Mist AI fan.

“I was able to get Mist AI and Juniper Access Points going with no formal training,” he said.

A Juniper network driven by Mist AI empowers the ICT team at Alamanda College to build a strong record of success and a reputation for excellent network user experiences. The Juniper Series of High Performance Access Points provides wireless connectivity and the Juniper Networks EX3400 Ethernet Switch provides wired connectivity.

Visibility into the user experience is key for the digital learning experiences of thousands of students. In addition to the one-to-one learning devices distributed to every student, the school’s network supports students’ and teachers’ personal devices, Google phones, MacBooks, iPads, iPhones, IPTVs, and IP phones. Some 5000 devices connect to the school’s network every day.

Mist AI proactively turns user experience insights into automated actions to identify and resolve issues across the wired and wireless network. Mist AI simplifies operations for the ICT team through unique client-level insight, rapid network troubleshooting, trending analysis, anomaly detection, and proactive problem remediation.

Juniper Business Use Only Juniper Mist Wired Assurance delivers better experiences for devices connected to EX3400 switches through AI-powered automation and service levels. Juniper Mist Wired Assurance leverages rich Junos operating system telemetry to enable simpler operations and faster problem resolution. For instance, Pace used Juniper Mist Wired Assurance to identify missing VLANs on switches — a problem that is hard to diagnose but easy to fix.

“Juniper Mist Wired Assurance’s best feature is that I can see all devices plugged into switches, interfaces, and IP addresses,” Pace said.

“From one pane of glass, I can identify what is wrong. It is really handy.”

Deploying a Juniper network driven by Mist AI was incredibly simple, according to Pace.

“The way we can adopt Juniper Access Points from a mobile app is a huge time saver,” he said.

To deploy the new Wi-Fi on campus, Pace gave a contractor a phone and a map with instructions to walk the campus installing and adopting Juniper Access Points.

“It saved us an enormous amount of time,” Pace said. He deployed EX3400 switches using Juniper Mist Wired Assurance’s zero-touch provisioning (ZTP) capability.

“Six months ago, I had never seen Junos OS, but you plug the switch in, and it gets configured. That’s really attractive,” he said.

“Other vendors can do ZTP, but you need to be a rocket scientist.”

In the next development phase, Alamanda College is considering adding contact tracing through Juniper Mist User Engagement cloud service. Indoor location services could help the school provide wayfinding services on campus, identify equipment thefts, and prevent the spread of a COVID outbreak if a student or staff member is infected.

“Juniper networking and Mist AI give us lots of options for the future,” Pace said.

“We have the opportunity to support more students on our campus and keep them and the campus safe while committing to a great education.”

Since moving to a cohesive Juniper wired and wireless network, students, teachers, and administrators enjoy better digital learning experiences with reliable connections to online learning tools, video, and the Internet.