SiO
The Student Welfare Organization SiO, or simply SiO, was founded in 1939 at the University of Oslo, the only university in Norway at that time. From day one, the organization’s goal has been simple: to make life easier for local students. However, the means to achieve this are anything but simple. Today, the organization offers a complex range of services that span the entire city and surrounding municipalities, including approximately 9,000 housing units, health clinics (including general practitioners, dentists, psychiatrists, and psychologists), kindergartens, career counseling, gyms, cafés, canteens, and more.
NetNordic delivers Extreme Networks to SiO
Sometimes trust is a two-way street.
What do running a leading managed network services company and providing social services to over 71,000 students have in common? In both cases, you won’t get far without your partner’s trust. For these kinds of values, SiO – Norway’s oldest and largest student association – can rely on support from NetNordic and Extreme Networks!
Although SiO was originally only linked to the University of Oslo, it now collaborates with a total of 28 affiliated educational institutions. However, the network was built long before that, meaning the organization has faced a good number of challenges.
“What we had before was a very complex system with many growing pains. The solution could not scale with the growth of the organization. Control became more and more evident with each passing year.”
Jan Henrik Glenne, Systems Manager at SiO
“Even the washing machines are connected.”
Being an early adopter has many advantages, but it also has certain disadvantages. SiO started building a large network early on, and over the years, the network technologies and standards they used simply became outdated.
Our IT environment covers more than 60 buildings spread across Oslo and its surroundings. It consists not only of employees’ computers, cash registers, or PoS terminals, but also, and perhaps more importantly, many smart building IoT devices. Devices such as access controls, door locks, fire alarm sensors, ventilation systems, and security cameras.
"What we had before was a very complex system with many growing pains. Students can check their availability online, reserve specific days and times, and pay for the service—all via SiO's website. We also have six really large fitness centers with state-of-the-art equipment. Equipment like treadmills with Netflix and other streaming services, which are quite bandwidth-intensive.”
It is obvious that there are just as many things that can go wrong as there are technologies that need to communicate and collaborate. But who hasn’t experienced minor administrative issues during their studies? Well, SiO’s case is quite different. If a student residence were to lose connectivity, students would not have access to their online courses. Or even access to their apartments, for that matter.
A friend in need…
To overcome the problems and challenges that have accumulated around the network over the years, SiO turned to NetNordic for help. NetNordic is an Extreme Black Diamond Partner and the leading integrator in cloud and infrastructure in Norway. Our specialization is in products and services for business-critical infrastructure.
“Inadequate network capacity and many highly complex, or even impossible-to-fix issues, were challenges SiO faced. Vulnerability to changes, long and frequent downtimes, and no control or overview of the network were the biggest challenges that needed to be addressed,” says Arild Steen, Sales Director for Operators & Utilities at NetNordic Norway.
“Given the scope, size, and complexity of the project, we offered SiO a technically sound and highly flexible Network-as-a-Service solution based on our excellent, long-term partnership with Extreme Networks.”
Scalable, cost-effective family of edge switches
To address the issues of inefficiency and lack of scalability, NetNordic recommended using Extreme Network. Utilizing their scalable, cost-effective family of edge switches: the ExtremeSwitching X440-G2 and X435 series, combined with a handful of core fabric switches. The edge switches are powered by ExtremeXOS – a highly resilient operating system that provides continuous uptime, manageability, and operational efficiency.
ExtremeSwitching X440-G2 series
“What we deliver to SiO is a complete Network-as-a-Service solution. This means that we are responsible for designing, building, deploying, and managing the entire network infrastructure for the customer. This way, the customer doesn’t have to worry,” says Knut Arne Nygård. “ExtremeCloud IQ – Site Engine provides us with a comprehensive, unified dashboard with a detailed overview of users, devices, ports, and applications. The detailed overview covers both wired and wireless networks, allowing us very effective inventory and network topology management.”
“I was actually impressed by what NetNordic showed us during the meetings. Such a level of control and visibility has clearly enabled the IT team to drastically reduce average repair times, which—given the fact that most young people are not the most patient users—has gone a long way for us,” adds Jan Henrik Glenne. “Previously, I used to spend every day moving from place to place providing solutions to problems. Today, we can feel more network stability, capacity, bandwidth, and efficiency, and that is also reflected in the feedback we receive from many of our third parties.”
A matter of trust
You don’t see a customer entrusting their entire network to an external party, but when you do, you need to know that there is a lot of trust in the air. Especially when we talk about a project of this kind. And that is exactly how it is between SiO and NetNordic.
“We have different networks divided into several VLANs. For example, since we provide medical services, we need a connection to the Norwegian health network, so the network is much more focused on security because there is a lot of sensitive patient data,” explains Jan Henrik Glenne. “But aside from the guest networks and the employee network in our office, we have an operational VLAN for all maintenance. All the building’s IoT devices, such as access controls or video surveillance, are connected to this network.
Contact us at NetNordic if you would like to know more about the solution provided.