AUGUST 20, 2009 -- Cherry Creek School District No. 5 (CCSD) will upgrade its schools and administrative offices to a dedicated fiber network designed by Qwest Communications (search Lightwave for Qwest), the carrier says. Using Qwest's data networking service, CCSD plans to consolidate existing technologies while offering students, parents, teachers, and administrators greater access to the district's resources.
The 10-year, $11 million agreement will see the connection of 65 schools, the district office, and its maintenance facility using Qwest GeoMax, a dedicated fiber network offering. The network will be in place for the 2010-2011 school year.
Qwest will deliver speeds ranging from 1 to 10 Gbps to each CCSD site. The added bandwidth will allow the district to centralize many technologies in its data center, expand services, and provide greater access to online learning resources.
More than half of the funding for CCSD's network upgrade comes from the federal E-Rate program. E-Rate provides discounts to assist schools and libraries in the United States to obtain affordable telecommunications and Internet access. The remaining funds were approved by voters in November 2008.
The added bandwidth also will enable the school district to provide wireless network access at school campuses and school support sites. CCSD is adding 1,000 wireless access points to ensure students and school district employees can connect to network resources using their own computers.
The Qwest network upgrade also will centralize CCSD's electronic student records system and consolidate the system from multiple servers to CCSD's data center. This will enable expanded access and information continuity to the district.
CCSD plans to use Qwest's network to support a virtualized desktop infrastructure (VDI). With VDI, operating systems and applications will be streamed on-demand from the school district's data center to each desktop, reducing administration and limiting the need to constantly upgrade hardware.
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