CACHEBOX follows IT Director onto Ridge
ApplianSys is pleased to announce that The Ridge School in Johannesburg, South Africa, has chosen CACHEBOX to ensure fast, reliable web access for its students and manage network growth cost-effectively.
Ongoing investments to introduce 1:1 devices and online content over the years strained the school’s 200Mbps connection, leaving its 500 users with a sluggish internet experience. When students simultaneously accessed the web at the beginning of class, the resulting spike in internet demand would saturate the link, slowing down access – and risking e-learning success.
With plans to roll out more devices and bandwidth-intensive content in the curriculum, IT Director Ashik Haripersadh had to decide between further investment in bandwidth or another alternative.
Having recently invested $30k of the school’s annual budget to upgrade its previous internet link, Ashik was concerned that spending thousands of dollars to cater for short-lived peak traffic with extra capacity was simply unsustainable.
Luckily, he had used CACHEBOX in a previous IT role at Kearsney College near Durban, so knew this was a far more cost-effective solution.
By storing and serving popular content locally – even problematic software updates – CACHEBOX meets simultaneous demand instantly, alleviating the strain on bandwidth.
With more than 50% of web traffic now served locally, the school has claimed back the extra capacity needed to serve the content that matters most. And because cached content is served over the LAN, it arrives in the classroom many times faster than from the internet.
“CACHEBOX gives me a lot of control over my network. I can see what my students and teachers are accessing and report changes overtime to make informed decisions on where technology budget should be spent,” comments Ashik.
CACHEBOX consultant Ilaria Mancinelli says, “With multi-gigabytes of data saved every month, The Ridge secured a long-term, sustainable solution for its bandwidth and e-Learning success is back on track.”
About
Situated in Johannesburg and established in 1919, The Ridge School is widely recognised as a leading South African boys’ preparatory school. Combining a strong sense of history with a modern contemporary environment, the school offers a holistic approach to education with modern teaching and learning techniques that leverages new technology to enhance students’ outcomes.