It's no secret that public schools have needs that often go unfunded. So when a school district gets the opportunity to earmark funds for technology enhancements, they need to make sure they get the best.

After years of school budgets cuts, the Manteca Unified School District (MUSD) received a one-time gift from the state legislature to reinvest funds back in their schools. The district made the decision to create a "Going Digital" initiative. This initiative was created to completely overhaul the district's entire network infrastructure.  This infrastructure overhaul wasn't child's play as MUSD serves more than 32,500 students spread out over 32 campuses in California's Central Valley. The district was given a time limit to complete the project-it had to be finished in nine months.

Using Cisco products such as Cisco Aironet 3700 Series Access Points, Cisco Catalyst 6500 and 2960-X Series switches, the school district completely updated their network. Thanks to devices supporting 802.11ac next-generation wireless standards, students are able to take advantage of their new wireless network. This means students can compete against classmates in digital quiz games or learn how to use a 3D printer. But this technology doesn't just make the lives of students easier. By using management solution data, the district can locate lost devices, view usage statistics and learn about individual user's connections from a central location. It can also quickly fix problem areas by giving the MUSD IT staff the ability to spot issues and fix them quickly.  The network is scalable so that new technologies-such as a physical security system-can be added in the future.

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