"We rolled out 1200 Chromebooks to classrooms and CACHEBOX means that we haven't needed to increase our bandwidth."
Rodney Leer, Brenham Independent School District, USA "ApplianSys is the only vendor that takes the time to look at our appliances for us, and it really goes a long way."
Mike Caruso, Orland Park Consolidated High School District 230, USA "Our bandwidth problems have been practically eliminated. Monitoring & customization is a snap with the web interface."
Desert Academy, Santa Fe, USA "I've seen the improvement CACHEBOX has on the network, and I'm entirely sold on it"
Ashik Haripersadh, IT Director, The Ridge School, South Africa "Our DNSBOXes are working really well and we never have any issues!"
Dave Haworth, Engineering Manager, Sure (Diego Garcia) Limited, Maldives

Elite International Academy

About Elite International Academy

Accredited by Advanc-ED and the Turkish Ministry of Education, Elite International Academy was inaugurated in 2018 in Esenyurt, Istanbul.

With ambitions to achieve the highest learning standards in Turkey, the Academy spared no expense, investing heavily in its network infrastructure and online repository of learning material for its 200 students.

CHALLENGE

  • 24Mbps fibre optic internet connection maxed out frequently from software updates, videos and online educational content
  • Actual demand spiking to 60Mbps – 3 times higher than capacity
  • Support tickets on network performance were high – students unable to access e-learning content, teachers unable to complete planned lessons

SOLUTION

  • CACHEBOX050 deployed in Bridge Mode, handling all classroom traffic

BENEFIT

  • Up to 3x the effective bandwidth delivered by CACHEBOX – eliminating congestion
  • Much faster browsing, zero support tickets
  • 90% of popular e-learning content served from cache for a premium student experience
  • Easy and quick to set up and deploy

Classroom demand outstripping capacity, jeopardising e-learning

To facilitate its e-learning curriculum, the Academy invested in more than 100 new devices for students and teachers, as well as an expensive 24Mbps fibre optic connection.

However, when multiple students accessed their devices simultaneously, the spike in demand would instantly outstrip available capacity, resulting in slow browsing – jeopardising the outcomes of e-Learning at the academy.

In addition, student Chromebooks would frequently download large software updates as soon as they became available. This would cause further network congestion for several hours of the school day, as duplicate copies of these large files were downloaded individually.

“Students struggled to browse and access our online repository for educational content and download the e-books needed for classroom time,” says IT Manager Ahmed Alaaeldeen.

Overwhelmed by teacher complaints and support tickets, Ahmed was concerned that as more students enrolled, the problem would worsen.

CACHEBOX – A fit for purpose, affordable solution

Already spending over US$ 20,000 of the school’s annual budget on bandwidth alone, Ahmed was worried that another expensive upgrade would affect the school’s plans for more student devices and online content. So he researched various alternatives to help alleviate the pressure on bandwidth.

Ahmed found caching to be the ideal solution.  After fact-finding with CACHEBOX consultant Ilaria Mancinelli and technician Amna Ali, he was pleased it offered the perfect combination of schools-focused benefits and affordability.

ApplianSys has over 15 years’ experience working with schools: CACHEBOX is specifically designed to handle bandwidth-heavy software updates and optimise delivery of popular e-learning content, video and managed systems”, says Ilaria.

CACHEBOX stores content locally and serves it back to students at much faster LAN speeds – saving bandwidth and, in turn, instantly freeing up more capacity for other critical classroom material.

Elite Academy quickly deployed a CACHEBOX050 in bridge-mode to handle the entirety of classroom traffic.  Ahmed reports that ”deployment was smooth and easy. It only took one hour to get the school set up.”

Seamless web browsing, improved internet experience, no more complaints

Since CACHEBOX was deployed, students’ browsing experience has dramatically improved and support tickets have stopped.

By effectively boosting the Academy’s available capacity by up to 3x (serving over 60Mbps) CACHEBOX meets peak demand throughout the school day, enabling teachers to maximise internet use in the classroom, without issue.

And with CACHEBOX now serving over 90% of popular e-learning content directly from cache, the Academy’s students can finally enjoy fruitful classroom sessions and a seamless web browsing experience.

Ahmed is delighted: “Since we started using CACHEBOX, I haven’t been getting complaints about internet speed or poor network performance. The teachers can now use the educational online content efficiently, including video in class. We are finally making the most out of our investment in technology!”

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