Chicago Public Schools

Story Details

The Chicago Public School (CPS) system, which has more than 43,000 employees serving 437,000 students, is the third-largest school system in the United States. As one of the nation’s biggest primary and secondary educational systems, CPS relies on its WAN to connect all of its schools as well as its LAN infrastructure.

According to a 2002 U.S. Department of Education report by the National Center for Education Studies, a highly available WAN is seen as a crucial element for supporting Web-enabled education. The report found that computers and Internet access are critical to delivering school curricula, with more than 92 percent of U.S. schools using information technology to supplement traditional teaching methods.

The demand to deliver curriculum applications to the classroom as well as new solutions to improve the educational experiences for the students and faculty was increasing, and CPS needed to ensure network uptime and availability. Also from a management standpoint, the school system faced the complexities of interacting with multiple vendors, including telecommunications service providers and other equipment vendors. The vendor interaction exhausted vital resources whenever it was necessary to escalate a response to circuit and equipment failures.

In 2002, CPS released an RFP to outsource the monitoring and management of its WAN and LAN. CPS was looking for a partner that could provide enterprise network monitoring and maintenance services for its three core data centers and more than 600 schools and administrative facilities. Also, CPS was looking for a vendor that could provide an effective solution that could collect and analyze network performance data to help with identification of performances and availability issues as well as trending and capacity planning.

After evaluating its choices, CPS selected Sun to develop and implement a strategy to improve network operations. Sun was seen as the ideal solutions provider for addressing the challenges faced by CPS. Sun immediately worked with CPS to develop and implement a strategy that would improve its network operations, performance, and availability. Sun provides managed services to CPS that include:

• Network Monitoring and Management
• Remote and Onsite Network Maintenance Services — Break/Fix
• Server Monitoring and Management
• Application Monitoring and Management
• Security Device Monitoring and Management
• IT Design and Engineering
• Installation and Configuration Services
• Reporting

The Sun Managed Services Solution also consists of ITIL-based processes and methodologies including:

• Incident Management
• Change Management
• Vendor Management
• Inventory Management
• Incident Response Management
• Problem Management
• Administrative Management
• Patch Management Code Release

The solution resulted in an intelligent upgrade to the CPS infrastructure that helped the school system to deliver secure, highly available network performance to its staff, students, and faculty.

CPS Selects Sun to Bolster Network Performance
One important reason for Sun’s selection was that it assumed full responsibility for performance and maintenance of the CPS WAN and LAN. Sun delivered on this promise by designing and installing a new Cisco-based optical network environment to replace the legacy ATM infrastructure. To allow teachers to monitor Web site access in classrooms in compliance with the Children’s Internet Protection Act, Sun's Managed Operations team designed and installed one of the world's largest content-filtering solutions to meet compliance and protect CPS students. In addition, Sun instituted a firewall maintenance and support program to help ensure network integrity and guard against internal and external security breaches.

A key component of the Managed Operations solution included management of CPS’s 600 routers and switches, WAN and LAN interfaces, and other ancillary equipment. Sun also installed a new optical network environment across the WAN to help CPS achieve nearly $1 million in annual savings. The LAN maintenance services provided by Sun cover more than 30,000 network devices across the CPS system and included problem assessment and repair or replacement of faulty equipment.

Sun Delivers Trusted Partner Solutions to CPS
Since its selection, Sun has become a trusted partner to CPS by offering not only continuous management of the CPS network, but also insight and direction on system-wide upgrades as well as advice on ways to streamline its support and management procedures. The goal for Sun from the beginning had been to deliver technology solutions that make the CPS network run efficiently and cost-effectively.

With more than 100,000 computers generating more than 30 million firewall connections and millions of Web site hits per day, Sun designed and configured one of the largest Web content-filtering environments in the world by installing Websense content-filtering servers and software. The Websense installation supports accurate and reliable content filtering across the CPS network. In addition, the Sun team provides continuous, reliable firewall management and support via the monitoring and maintenance of CPS’s Check Point security environment, which protects more than 900 servers and hundreds of applications.

Sun Protects Network Infrastructure
Along with its hardware solutions, Sun performs continuous upgrades and patches to all Cisco and Check Point firewalls and management stations throughout the CPS network. At the same time, it identifies and resolves performance issues within the system. Sun engineers now remotely monitor the CPS network around the clock to keep it secure and functioning at optimal levels.

“With a network that supports more than 100,000 PCs and 900 servers at 600 sites, Sun Managed Operations is essential in helping us keep the Chicago Public School network functioning smoothly,” said Maurice Woods, deputy CIO, PMO services. “Our network is vital to the delivery of technology tools to children in Chicago-area schools, while teachers and administrators rely on data and applications hosted on the network to do their jobs. Sun Managed Operations offer us the skills and resources to deliver solid IT services on a 24x7 basis.”

In 2006, Sun expanded the relationship with CPS by providing new services to the district. Sun was awarded a Remote Access Services contract to design and implement a new SSL Virtual Private Network solution for the District. Sun partnered with Check Point to design and implement a Check Point Connectra Remote Access solution that provides remote VPN access to critical applications and services to the District’s 40,000+ staff and faculty. Sun Professional Services provided project management and engineering support to manage, design, install, and configure the new Remote Access Environment for the district.

Sun was also awarded a Wireless Network Maintenance Services contract to provide onsite maintenance and support of wireless network devices at the schools and administrative facilities.

CPS Achieves High Availability, Improved Security with Sun
With the support of the Sun Managed Operations team, the CPS WAN has enjoyed 99.9 percent uptime for the past five years. In addition to achieving high uptime goals with its 24x7 management approach, Sun’s installation of a new optical network environment across the WAN has helped CPS realize annual cost savings of nearly $1 million. Sun provides CPS with a complete service solution by offering a two-hour response and resolution time with a quick-response ticket system, which is a 96 percent improvement over the previous response system. In addition, Sun performs continuous upgrades and patches to all firewalls and Check Point management stations throughout the CPS network. Sun has also successfully deployed an enterprise SSL VPN solution providing staff and faculty remote access to critical applications and services.

Sun is currently providing the following services to the Chicago Public School system:

• WAN Maintenance Services: Sun provides network management services to monitor and maintain the WAN and LAN including routers, switches, ATM switches, WAN/LAN interfaces, and other ancillary WAN/LAN equipment. WAN Services include proactive remote monitoring services for CPS's WAN/LAN equipment and management of WAN/LAN devices owned by the Board, with fault/error detection, reporting, analysis, and correction of network-related problems. WAN Services include notice of outages, reporting, and onsite repair services.
  
  
• LAN Maintenance Services: Sun provides 8x5 Maintenance Services for all LAN devices located at Board schools and administrative offices. LAN Services include a maintenance program that provides for the assessment, repair, or replacement of malfunctioning or defective hubs, switches, wireless devices, transceivers, and UPS devices at the Board schools.
  
  
• Wireless NIC Maintenance Services: Sun provides 8x5 Maintenance Services for all Wireless NIC devices located at Board schools and administrative offices. Wireless NIC Maintenance Services include a program that provides for the assessment, repair, or replacement of malfunctioning PCI or PMCIA wireless network interface cards and Wireless Print servers at the Board schools.
  
  
• Firewall Maintenance and Support Services: Sun currently provides monitoring and management of CPS’s main firewall environment, protecting over 900 servers and hundreds of applications including Student Information Systems, Purchasing, Procurement, Accounting, and email services.
  
  
• SSL VPN Support: Sun provides Change Management and Incident Management for the Check Point Connectra SSL VPN devices. Support services include changes to the Check Point VPN configuration and policies as well as troubleshooting connection and functionality issues.
  
  
• Content Filtering Application and Environment Management Services: The CPS provides filtering services to over 100,000 desktop and laptop workstations throughout the environment. Sun helped the District provide stronger protection by designing and implementing a Websense Content Filtering solution. Sun also provides 24x7 monitoring and management services for its Websense Content Filtering Environment.
  
  
• Network Installation Projects: Sun currently provides project-based installation and configuration services to upgrade the school and core data center environments from 100MB copper to 1GB fibre. Sun has developed and implemented a complete redesign of the core WAN and installed of over 450 Cisco 6509/6506/3845 Enterprise switches at more than 450 remote schools and facilities. Sun has also developed and implemented a complete redesign of the school LAN environments at 100 schools as well as a complete redesign of the Core Security environment in the CPS core data centers.
  
  
• E-Rate Experience: Sun has a complete understanding of the E-Rate process and procedures dictated by the FCC and the Universal Services Administration Company’s (USAC) Schools and Libraries Program. The company also provides all services and documentation in accordance with USAC guidelines. Sun is a registered Service Provider with the Schools and Libraries Program: SPIN#: 143007126.

Building on the success of the engagement, Sun and CPS look forward to continued cooperation. Their shared goal is to keep the school district’s network running smoothly, with little disruption to the critical education focus of the school district.

Robert Runcie, CIO for Chicago Public School concludes, “We appreciate Sun's approach to our network. They treat it like their own and are accountable at all times, which helps us focus on our mission to provide our students with the best possible education.”