The University of Manchester revolutionises its digital experience

The business school has updated its network infrastructure to provide unparalleled reliability, improved user satisfaction and a scalable foundation for future innovation, reinforcing the university’s position as a global leader in higher education. The project is also a reflection of continued investment in the Student and Faculty experience, leveraging technology to ensure a seamless, consistent and highly available connection to resources.

Roc Technologies worked closely with the university to implement AI enabled tooling and solutions, including HPE Aruba Networking’s Central NetConductor platform, with the aim of securing and automating network deployments and ongoing management to ensure optimum availability, reliability and speed delivered to all connected devices. AI data-driven insights are already allowing for pre-emptive fixing of network issues, rather than responding to established concerns, ensuring consistent high-speed access and ultimately preventing costly downtime from occurring.

Data security has been a key priority in the project and AMBS now benefits from dynamic segmentation of the network as part of a Zero Trust Security approach. This architecture, delivered through HPE Aruba Networking Central NetConductor policy manager, turns user and device roles into automated access policies, ensuring that sensitive information such as research data is automatically kept confidential from other network users. In addition, the increased scalability achieved as a result of this implementation means that new services and solutions can be spun up quickly when required, allowing the IT Operations team to be highly responsive to the needs of the university.

In terms of initial feedback from the project, survey figures recently collected by the university show that 85% of staff at AMBS now rate Wi-Fi satisfaction at four-out-of-five stars, with 80% reporting that speed and reliability is excellent.

“Our aim is for our network to be a platform for growth and expansion. With our digital infrastructure now pivotal to forming connections with students and clients in the modern age, we’ve expanded on our established strategic relationship with Roc Technologies and HPE Aruba Networking to modernise our network. Following the success of the project at the AMBS, we’re now looking towards a rollout across the rest of the University of Manchester campus,” says Paul Westhead, Network Architect at The University of Manchester.

“We’re delighted to have played a key role in enhancing the digital backbone of a higher education institution as prestigious as the University of Manchester. The key to success in the project was the close collaboration and partnership between Roc, HPE Aruba Networking and the university to achieve the end goal of modernising the AMBS network. Key stakeholders from each organisation were aligned, cooperated with each other, and focused on achieving the outcomes that the technology could ultimately deliver,” says Chelsea Chamberlin, Chief Technology Officer at Roc Technologies.

“Via our collaboration with Roc Technologies and the University of Manchester, we’ve helped to deliver a future-ready network at the AMBS that provides seamless connectivity, advanced security and AI-driven automation. This modernised infrastructure supports today’s digital learning and lays the groundwork for continued innovation across the university,” says Mark Weeks, Director of UK and Ireland, HPE Aruba Networking.