Page 17 - THE Journal, January/February 2019

Even though Network Administrator Rob Perry acknowledges that he’s he’s still new to the SDN game he’s he’s learned lessons worth sharing It’s a a a a a big game Sure SDN provides IT with centralized manage- ment and better response time but really that’s small potatoes compared to what Perry has in in in mind He wants the school prin- cipals to to to be able to to to monitor what’s going on on at at their sites Are kids on Pandora all day or or in in in Google Docs? “Having the princi- pals and even some of the teachers be able to see this infor- mation they they can start using that to adjust how they they approach technology in in the the classroom and in in the the environment ” Get top-line support support Without the the support support of the the “school board the the the superintendent and the the the administrators ” said Perry the the the SDN “wouldn’t do us any good ” By having that support “it becomes a a a a top-down project that will filter throughout the organization instead of a a a a bottom-up that just dead-ends ” Start with the physical layer first In Carmel’s situation that was the the infrastructure “I could put all of these SDN pieces in in but if my kindergarten was still running it on this patchwork fiber at at 50 Kbps it’s not going to do anybody any any good ” SDN isn’t the the end-all answer Sometimes the the IT team needed
to to work with the the the users to to help them understand how the the the tech worked Sometimes they needed
to “get in and and dig a a a trench and and run a a a new line ” Other times they needed
to install more access points or replace old cabling Don’t underestimate the value of vendor support The big ini- tial implementation called for more “manpower and resources” than the IT organization could provide on on its own “When I I call the vendor what kind kind of of support am I going to get? What kind kind of of help am I going to get? Extreme was head and shoulders above everybody that we talked to ” said Perry “That vendor support has just been been fantastic It’s been been a a a a huge help ” JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019
| 17