Icknield High School is a larger than average, highly successful 11-16 mixed Academy, on the northern outskirts of Luton. The school has a culture of high achievement and prides itself on securing excellent academic standards whilst offering an enriching educational experience to all its students.
The school previously utilized a Palo Alto firewall for security. But this appliance was co-managed with the school’s internet broadband provider, meaning that the school only had access to part of the firewall. When Icknield set out to expand BYOD access, it was unable to create the required networks on the devices, so the school began looking for a solution it could manage on its own.
Two SonicWall NSa 3650 NGFWs in High-Availability configuration were deployed. This solution not only included all the capabilities of the prior Palo Alto solution, it also featured Capture ATP with RTDMI™ as an additional security layer. The SonicWall NGFWs allowed the school IT administrators full access to configure the appliance to suit its needs and was priced very competitively.
Leveraging a High-Availability configuration for its NSa 3650 NGFWs has offered Icknield High School additional peace of mind. In this configuration, if one of its NSa appliances fails, the other immediately takes over the primary role, ensuring little to no downtime. This setup also allows real-time system updates, eliminating the need to schedule work requiring a restart outside normal school hours to avoid interruption.
The Global VPN function has also helped ensure the school’s operational continuity which was tested during the 2020 lockdowns. The school now relies exclusively on SonicWall Global VPN for remote access. Overall, the school’s experience with SonicWall has been very good. When technical issues have arisen, O’Donnell said, the Switchshop and SonicWall support have immediately jumped in to help resolve any problems.
• Stateful High Availability configuration prevents downtime and dropped connections
• High Availability license synchronization offers the reliability of two devices for the cost of a single license• Capture ATP with RTDMI offers additional security
•Global VPN enables secure remote access for remote employees
• Superior customer service
• 2x SonicWall NSa 3650
• Capture
“Overall, our experience with SonicWall has been very good, and the SonicWall NSa 3650 NGFWs have performed as expected.”– Aaron O’Donnell, Network Manager, Icknield High School
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