LPS Case Study

Fiber Network Enables Operational Efficiency to Support Dramatic Growth

A large Nebraska school district relies on its fiber optic network to gracefully support increased operational and instructional demands brought on by dramatic growth. The longstanding partnership with Unite Private Networks, LLC assists the district in recovering from a devastating catastrophe that destroyed the primary data center.

About Lincoln Public Schools

As the second-largest district in the state of Nebraska, currently enrolling over 36,000 students, Lincoln Public Schools (LPS) is in a period of rapid growth. With an annual budget of approximately $320 million, LPS includes over 60 schools and employs 7,000 staff.

District Manages Dramatic Growth Period

Adding the equivalent of two average-sized elementary schools to the student population presents a range of operational and administrative challenges for a school district. At LPS, this scenario has repeated for three consecutive years, with 800 - 1,000 new students enrolling annually. The growth trend shows no sign of reversing.

“The challenges of growth are significant because you have to have more of just about everything,” says Kirk Langer, Director of Technology for Lincoln Public Schools. Technology is clearly no exception to this requirement. Fortunately for LPS, one critical category unaffected by the increased demand is network services. The LPS network easily handles all traffic and actually enables greater operational efficiency – an absolute necessity in this high-growth context.

Fiber Network Easily Keeps Pace with Ever-Increasing Demands

LPS utilizes a dedicated fiber optic wide area network (WAN) which provides the district network speeds of 1 Gigabit per second (also known as GigE). This network was custom designed and built for LPS by Unite Private Networks (UPN) in 2001. The network installation includes over 90 route-miles of fiber optic cable, combining both aerial and subterranean elements.

As a result of the robust network and the virtually unlimited bandwidth it provides, Langer happily reports that network constraints are never an issue. “There is no application that we want but are unable to run,” he says. “Voice over IP, video streaming, video conferencing -- we can do any and all of them. We can do all of them simultaneously.”

Limitless Bandwidth Enables Critical Operational Efficiencies

The impact on instruction is huge for teachers and students, while the many back-office efficiencies enabled by the fiber network are what keep the district afloat. “As we grow as a district, we need to deliver more services,” Langer says. “This type of technology allows us to do that without a proportional need for additional budgetary resources.”

The district’s centralized data facility is a prime example of an operational efficiency directly enabled by the network. Previous to adopting the fiber network, one or more servers were located in each of the schools, and bandwidth constraints prohibited a centralized approach. With more than 60 buildings spread throughout the district, the time required to maintain, troubleshoot, and upgrade the hardware alone was considerable. “Today, it’s all central,” Langer says. “It’s an enormous operational efficiency. I don’t know how we would cover it any other way.”

Extensive Use of Cloud-Based Services Provides Many Options

In the classroom, as well as administratively, the district is leveraging the limitless bandwidth of the fiber network to take advantage of cloud computing. Various vendors offer instructionally-based cloud services and material that enhance the educational experience for LPS students. The district utilizes cloud-based providers for its student assessment and student information systems. Staff and students make heavy use of Google Apps™, removing the need for Langer’s department to install and maintain these fundamental productivity applications on the district’s machines.

The ability to leverage cloud-based applications as well as Software as a Service (SAAS) solutions saves the district time and money, while increasing productivity and enhancing instruction. “With fiber, we can provide many, many options to our students & staff, at an extraordinarily low cost,” Langer says. “Without it, there would be no other way.”

Fixed Cost Contract a Key Advantage

The entirely predictable, fixed-cost nature of the fiber lease agreement is a key reason that, in 2010, LPS renewed its UPN contract for another twelve years. Prior to renewal, an extensive due diligence process underscored the key advantages of using UPN as the network service provider.

Bids from other providers approached the network as a managed service, increasing in cost with district growth. Langer and the school board found UPN’s fixed-cost model much more compelling. “With UPN, if we add a school and need to extend our network, we have a modest capital cost associated with the construction and that’s it,” says Langer. “If only our schools or buses could expand their capacity in the same way that we’re doing our fiber,” he adds, “life would be a lot easier!”

Exceptional Service is Foundation for an Enduring Partnership

The district’s decision to renew the UPN lease for another twelve years was also based on the company’s track record of providing exceptional customer service. “This is not just a commodity we are buying,” Langer emphasizes. “We are banking our operational & instructional services on this network. We need a responsive, accommodating, knowledgeable partner -- and that’s what we have in UPN.”

LPS can rely on UPN’s responsiveness in the face of both planned and unplanned changes. As in any growing metropolitan area, infrastructure changes to roadways and intersections can have an impact on the fiber routing. The growth of the district implies regular extensions to the network as new schools are built. “UPN is dependable and responsive,” Langer reports. “They exceed expectations.”

UPN Responsiveness Aids Disaster Recovery

That dependability and responsiveness was never more critical than in May 2011, when a major fire destroyed the LPS district office building where the primary data center was housed. Within 48 hours of the catastrophe, Langer and UPN had resolved short-term and long-term recovery plans, including provisions for establishing a new data center and for routing fiber into new, temporary buildings.

“It was a critical situation, and UPN mobilized with us, putting us in a position to recover in a very quick and agile fashion,” Langer says. As LPS continues its dramatic growth, the UPN fiber network facilitates an ongoing agility, leaving Langer’s department well-equipped to face the challenges – both expected as well as unexpected – inherent in that growth.

About Unite Private Networks

Unite Private Networks (UPN) provides high bandwidth, fiber-based communications networks and related services to schools, governments, carriers, data centers, hospitals, and enterprise business customers throughout the United States. Service offerings include dark and lit fiber, private line, metro-optical Ethernet, Internet access, data center services, and other customized solutions. Headquartered in the Kansas City MO metro area, UPN has been providing customer-focused communications solutions since 1999. UPN is privately held. For more information on UPN, please visit http://www.upnllc.com/.

For more information on E-Rate funding, visit the Universal Services Administration website at http://www.usac.org/sl/.