If securely deploying 10,000 wireless access points across 1700 locations in five months to create what is said to be the world’s largest enterprise Wi-Fi network sounds like a challenge, Victoria’s Department of Education (DET) took it all in its stride – with the help of a little penguin.
With 540,000 students, 42,000 teachers, more than 200,000 computers, and 40,000 notebooks spread across the 1700 sites, the department last year allocated $6.5 million to implement a wireless network aimed at easing connectivity, but at first its technology options were limited.
During a presentation at this year’s wireless summit in Sydney today, the department’s head of ICT security, Loris Meadows spoke of how the Wireless Networks in Schools (WINS) project required a custom proxy and security services appliance dubbed “EduPass” to be engineered due to the WAN’s complexity.