CACHEBOX defies Guy’s bandwidth ties
ApplianSys is pleased to announce that Guy-Perkins School District in rural Arkansas USA has deployed CACHEBOX to overcome the limitations of its consortium-tied bandwidth contract and deliver responsive 1:1 learning district-wide.
Guy-Perkins receives a reasonably priced, but relatively small, bandwidth allocation via a local purchasing consortium in rural Arkansas. But as it rolled out a 1-device-per-student scheme web, access got slower and slower. The district observed the additional Chromebook traffic overwhelming current capacity.
As whole classes of students accessed the same online content, each using their own device, traffic would spike sharply, instantly congesting the network. Unable to change its existing bandwidth contract for another year, the district needed an affordable, cost-effective alternative. Guy-Perkins decided on a caching solution.
Despite caching being part-funded by a federal connectivity scheme (E-rate), the district still wanted to maximise return on investment and performance benefits. Careful evaluation of caching options led them to CACHEBOX, the most selected caching appliance on E-rate.
As the only fit-for-purpose schools’ cache, CACHEBOX caches far more online content than any other solution – including video, HTTPS, and software updates for any school device. Seeing the great results that CACHEBOX delivers at neighbouring district Quitman made the final decision a no-brainer.
Results at Guy-Perkins have surpassed the district’s expectation. Deployed during the summer, CACHEBOX was on-hand to minimise bandwidth usage the moment whole classes of Chromebook users returned to school. With congestion eliminated, the classroom experience is much improved – because more content is served locally, it now arrives at much faster LAN speeds.
“With just 46% of classroom traffic needing to access the internet, Guy-Perkins has more than halved demand – leaving plenty of room for more devices and traffic as 1:1 expands,” says Sergio Villegas CACHEBOX Consultant. “With CACHEBOX, schools can handle substantial increases in demand or in device numbers, without increasing bandwidth.”
About
Guy–Perkins School District is a public school district based in Guy, a rural Arkansas town located 50 miles north of Little Rock. The District caters for more than 450 students ranging from prekindergarten through twelfth grade at its elementary and secondary schools. Due to its rural location, the District provides online classes to supplement face-to-face course offerings. Virtual High School (VHS) classes allow students to study subjects not offered directly on campus.