CACHEBOX helps Glynlyon roar

ApplianSys is pleased to announce that Glynlyon, a leading education publisher in Chandler, Arizona, has purchased a fleet of CACHEBOXes to deploy at schools that use its popular, online-based learning resources. This will guarantee that students can access its content regardless of any congestion on a school’s internet connection.

Glynlyon offers academic curriculum, learning tools and educational multimedia content for pre-K-12 education in all formats: print, computer and online. Its web-based materials have the highest demand. Robert Campbell, Sales Manager at Glynlyon explains:

“Online learning tools have many advantages over textbooks: they can be accessed from everywhere – school or home – and are much more cost-effective. Crucially, they provide a much richer, stimulating and interactive academic experience for students.”

However, Glynlyon noticed that not all of their clients could fully enjoy the benefits of e-learning. “Some of our schools, particularly those based in remote areas, experienced some issues when trying to view our resources. We wanted to help them remove any barriers to the product’s implementation.”

Looking for the right solution, the publisher consulted ApplianSys Sales Executive Sophie Clark, who comments: “For schools with slow or insufficient internet connections, implementing online learning tools can be really difficult. The internet connection simply doesn’t have the capacity to handle requests for large files, like video – especially when multiple requests are made simultaneously.“

“And even where bandwidth seems to be sufficient, the introduction of BYOD or 1:1 schemes increases the number of software updates that need to be downloaded. This puts a lot of strain on the network, making it hard for student to access the content that really matters”, she adds. “Many schools in this situation turn to caching as a sensible solution.”

Because most of Glynlyon content uses the HTTPS protocol – which is difficult to cache – the publisher was interested in an advanced caching appliance that could handle it. Another requirement was protecting Glynlyon’s content from automatic deletion regardless of whether or not it has been recently requested. Web caches typically optimise storage capacity by removing content that is no longer popular to make space for new content.

Sophie describes how CACHEBOX addressed these requirements: “CACHEBOX can intercept specific HTTPS traffic both by domain and source (device). Specific content can also be marked as ‘priority’ to protect it from automatic removal. This makes CACHEBOX ideal for school environments which rely on specific education content and Learning Management Systems.”

Impressed with the features, the publisher purchased 37 CACHEBOX110 units to offer clients as an add-on to its online learning platform. It also deployed a CACHEBOXCMC unit to get full visibility of the entire fleet and be able to monitor all appliances from a single browser.

By storing Glynlyon’s materials in CACHEBOX and serving them locally, interested schools will now be able to guarantee the availability of content whenever their teachers need it, regardless of other demands on bandwidth.

About

Glynlyon Inc has been a respected leader in the educational community for over thirty-five years and is committed to leading the online education. The company was founded in 1998 and is based in Chandler, Arizona and currently has locations in Iowa, Arizona, and Minnesota. Its brands include Alpha Omega Publications, Odysseyware, Bridgewater, and Bridgestone Multimedia Group.