Brand New Special School, Brand New Network but how?

[dsmith8]

Hello Everyone,

 

We are currently in the process of having a brand new 160 place special school built for us.

 

This will see us build a brand new network as we currently piggy back of a secondary school we are sharing a site with running a RM CC4 network.

 

We have our own SIMS server but and O365 but as this will be a completely new network we are exploring all our options particularly moving towards cloud. We have explored going the Google route etc but want to know if you had the opportunity to have a brand new from the ground up network what would you do.

 

We have already explored a number of local schools who have said Google intrigues them but we want to make informed decisions so are looking at everything from Hybrid Cloud to Google maybe even changing MIS.

 

Happy to have phone calls arranged etc.

[Jcx500]

Did this last year, We went with One Powerful Vm Host, Office 365, and a few other cloud services

[bald_pig]

If I had the opportunity to start from scratch, I'd be looking at going completely cloud based, either Gsuite or Azure AD, it depends on what software your staff are using on a day to day basis.

[dsmith8]

As we have the opportunity to effectively to start from scratch we are in the same frame of mind about going cloud. We mainly use office apps and SIMS (wish they'd hurry up with a cloud product). We are mainly trying to find if anyone has done this what servers have they got etc.

[Jcx500]

We still have 20+ Vm's but azure ad is looking like the way forward for new schools

[FishCustard]

I would recommend a converged virtualisation appliance over Azure AD (there may well be legacy applications that won't integrate with it, and you'll probably need on-site servers for some things), but I would definitely use Office 365 for email, and possibly some of its other features depending on your use case.

 

If you already use Office 365, there is no benefit to moving to Google, and plenty of downsides for you and your users in terms of migration snags.

 

We're a special school (200+ students) and recently built a new site and network - PM me if you want to chat further.

[PotNoodleTech]

I'd keep an onsite server for sure, can run a few virtual servers on it like your SIMS server - but would certainly look at using azure and other cloudy things for a totally new build.

 

It sounds fun!

[mavhc]

We have gsuite and o365, have to pick one for email but the rest is fine. Sync both from AD

 

Make sure they don't skimp on ethernet just because wifi is most common. Make sure you have fiber installed for internet. Always takes 3 months longer than they say, so start ordering it now. And a backup line on another isp for when that one goes wrong.

 

Could go anywhere from everyone runs ChromeOS downwards. RDP to a virtual machine for what's left of Windows stuff. What are exam requirements?

 

Optimum solution is to have everything on ethernet, cameras, doors, phones, gates, alarms. And have a fully redundant network stack. Pro: network basically never fails. Con: software is harder to config for switches.

 

How much of the school's work will be outside the school? That's where the cloud advantage comes in. Make sure everyone has a 2FA method, and not sms because that's lame. Phone apps or usb/bt/nfc devices.

 

Make sure the phone/gate/door/2fa systems are open and use the same standard authentication devices, want 1 fob for everything.