Case study: Guiseley High School

Guiseley High School has seen a dramatic growth in ICT provision over the past few years, and now has over 300 client computers spread around the campus. However, the growth had been organic, with little strategic planning of the network.

When Jim Hough, the new Network Manager, started at Guiseley, he immediately recognised that the network was far from satisfactory. Indeed, it took several hours to copy files from one file server at one end of the campus to a file server at the other end, if the copy was successful at all. Jim was advised by the Leeds Learning Network to seek professional advice, and the LLN recommended IBIS Business Consultants Ltd, a successful Microsoft Certified Partner, based in York. IBIS has provided the technical consultants to the LLN since the start of the rollout to schools in Leeds, and as such has an understanding of the needs of schools, and the budgetary constraints they also have to follow.

Jon Browne, the MD and a senior technical consultant from IBIS, was able to determine quickly the major causes of the bottlenecks within the Guiseley network. After a one day review for a fixed fee, a report detailing the issues along with costed solutions was submitted to the school. These included the addition of some new networking equipment, an optimised network topology, and the recommendation that the two primary file servers be rebuilt to enhance both their performance and resilience. These recommendations were all well within the budget set down by the school.

Guiseley accepted all the recommendations, and the network topology was changed in line with the report, making best use of the existing equipment, and adding strategic devices to enhance throughput. After the changes were made, the time taken to copy the same 600Mb folder was reduced from a reported several thousand hours to six minutes! Jon Browne explains, ”It was not a question of throwing money at the problem, but rather making best use of the existing equipment, adding the minimum amount of new network equipment, and redesigning all the connection points. We made excellent use of the existing infrastructure, which was really very good. It didn’t cost a great deal, but the performance improvement was very satisfying.”

Jim Hough, “The effect was dramatic, with far better access times and fewer workstation timeouts. It is a changed network, very fast and with almost no contention. We replaced the minimum of equipment but what a difference! All the teachers reported back very favourably, everyone noticed the improvement. I’m now happy that we are providing the service we should for the staff and pupils, with the resilience we need to guarantee the service levels”.

IBIS Business Consultants Ltd has been providing technical advice and consultancy for over 14 years, and has been a Microsoft Certified Partner for the last five. Their success is built on their no-nonsense approach and their belief in working with a client to ensure that there is understanding of the changes being made, so that the client can support and develop their infrastructure without the need for costly consultancy at every turn.