Built in the 1950s, Kahlotus School District has been serving rural communities in southeast Washington for decades. With more than 50 students in kindergarten through 12th grade and 18 employees across four buildings, the district turned to D-Link to bring its schools into the 21st century and implement state-of-the-art managed switches to upgrade its network infrastructure, security and performance.
“Upgrading all of our networking technology to modern-day standards was our number one priority,” said Glenn Whitcomb, technology director, who supports Kahlotus and two other districts. “We were at a critical point. It had been over 16 years since any wiring infrastructure was done and the district had never owned any managed switch gear, so it was time.”
As 1:1 learning initiatives continue to sweep the nation, students and teachers everywhere are poised to reap the benefits. However, not all school districts are prepared for this transition. Many, like Kahlotus School District, learned they must first bring their networks into the 21st century. After reviewing bids from multiple providers, Kahlotus School District installed D-Link’s enterprise-level solutions to support multimedia learning initiatives.
“One of the biggest reasons we opted to go with D-Link was the company’s willingness to help a small district like ours get to the level we needed to be at,” said Whitcomb. “This is not a district with deep pockets.”
D-Link’s DGS-3120 switch series supports physical stacking, multicast and enhanced security. Whitcomb installed two xStack® Managed 48-Port Gigabit Stackable L2+ Switches (DGS-3120-48TC) for evaluation; while the initial switches were still in trial, Kahlotus installed two additional units and is currently running base configurations.
Since the switch installations and the district’s wiring infrastructure upgrade, Kahlotus School District is now able to support gigabit speeds at every desktop. Although Whitcomb is located 60 miles away from the campus, the network’s remote management capabilities enable him to monitor and access the switches remotely to track performance and troubleshooting.
“We now have the ability to place PoE devices where we need to, can deliver content wirelessly and if we want to do density coverage, we can put drops in every room,” said Whitcomb. “It really comes down to the ability to expand capabilities, which is going to be critical in the near future,” said Whitcomb. “Honestly, I’m very thankful for the opportunity we were given with this affordable gear. We’ve had a very positive experience with D-Link.”
