USEK selects HP to improve communications across university campuses

HP today announced that the Holy Spirit University of Kaslik (USEK) will improve communications for students, staff and alumni by adding a secure, agile network based on HP FlexNetwork architecture to its existing virtualized HP Converged Infrastructure. 

Under the five-year agreement, HP will deliver, implement and support a high performance, centrally managed HP network infrastructure to boost the reliability of USEK’s data transfer and communications. Based on open standards, the new network will integrate easily with USEK’s existing HP servers, storage, printers, scanners, laptops, desktops and high end workstations to provide a flexible, easily scalable platform that will enable the IT team to meet future demand.  

USEK is a private Catholic higher education institution founded by the Lebanese Maronite Order to provide university teaching and scientific research to meet the requirements of the labour market. Located in the heart of Mount Lebanon, USEK hosts more than 7,500 students, 900 staff, four campuses, 15 academic units and 40 laboratories. 

“We needed to provide the USEK community with the most reliable, user-friendly services,” says Ziad Eid, IT Director, USEK. “Rreplacing the old network with HP FlexNetwork architecture will radically simplify IT tasks, making it easier to manage and significantly lowering our IT costs. The HP Networking solution will not only improve service reliability and availability but also reduce power consumption to support our green initiative. This project was one of a kind in the Middle East.” 

 HP Network Consulting Services will implement a core-to-edge HP network solution to deliver cloud and virtualized applications across USEK’s infrastructure. At the network core, dual redundant HP 10508 switches will deliver 99.999 percent uptime while at the aggregation layer, energy-efficient HP 5500 Switch Series with the latest traffic prioritisation technologies will ensure secure, resilient connectivity. At the access layer, intelligent HP 5120 switches will deliver wire-speed connectivity to users and client devices. The HP switches will be consolidated into virtualised communities with HP’s innovative Intelligent Resilient Framework (IRF) virtualization technology, which will boost reliability by reducing network complexity. 

The entire physical and virtual network will be centrally managed with HP Intelligent Management Centre (IMC) software, which unifies the management of network resources, services and users. HP IMC will ease the workload on USEK’s IT team, reducing operating expenses, while enabling an integrated, cohesive  bring-your-own-device (BYOD) strategy which will provide an excellent opportunity to address both security and network performance issues with existing and new customers. 

“We learned how to manage, configure and install HP Networking in no time” notes Mr. Abdo Karaki, Head of USEK’s Network and Security Division. 

“USEK needs a secure, centrally orchestrated network environment that can be scaled from the data center to the network edge to address future IT needs,” says Salah Isawi, managing director, HP Jordan. “As well as the best total cost of ownership with lifetime warranty on most of the products, HP offers a collaborative approach to achieving USEK’s business continuity, reliability and green objectives.”