Jamie Steenberge,Administrative Services Coordinator for NERICNew York Statehttp://www.saranac.org/
Saranac Central School District comprises of 4 schools (ranging from elementary to high school level) based in the North-Eastern corner of New York State. The District has a combined student enrolment of over 1600. Technology services are overseen by Jamie Steenberge, Administrative Services Coordinator for NERIC, the North Eastern Regional Information Center, based in Albany, New York. (BOCES).
Saranac School District has 1800 users on 1000 Windows & Mac PCs. Access to the Internet is via a DS3 connection, with 1 Gbit between schools. Authentication is Microsoft Active Directory.
With the District's existing software, (eTrust Intrusion Detection) Jamie was spending up to 4 hours a day on network security. CIPA compliancy was also a growing concern. A robust firewall, alongside a more sophisticated and efficient web filter was a crucial requirement. Quality of Service was also important, with Jamie keen to maximise the potential of the bandwidth-intensive interactive learning tools on NERIC's shared online network. Saranac District's Solution needed to be: - Easy to use for non-technical staff throughout the individual schools - Reliable enough to be supported by field-based technical staff (like Jamie) with limited time and resources. - Flexible enough to meet the needs of a large and varied user base including teachers and students of widely differing ages. - Compatible with both Windows and Mac systems. - Scalable enough for NERIC to implement over multiple districts.
Guardian provided an efficient and cost effective solution to all of the above requirements. Jamie is delighted about the amount of time and effort it has saved and has been pleasantly surprised by the proactive level of support provided by Smoothwall staff. He says Guardian's 'easy-to-use' interface is a particularly valuable feature.
Saranac Central District was also something of a test-model for NERIC, who are presently developing their own e-security standards for District-wide implementation. The intention is now for Guardian to become an important part of NERIC's future IT provision.
Following the success of Guardian in Saranac's schools, we are now 'rolling it out' to other districts in the area
One of the biggest advantages is that Guardian is so selfmanageable, you don't need much support and even the most non-technical staff can work with the easy-to-use interface
Although Express lacks the easy-to-use functionality of Guardian, it still proved to be an excellent product and so I had no difficulty justifying the need for a more advanced and supported version
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