IT_CoffeeNeeded

Hi Everyone! I have been pushing to get the green light on a project to replace all my switches on site to an up to date solution (Have been for multiple years) I have managed to get multiple surveys completed from companies who have provided reports on the current state of the network which agree this needs to be done to meet the DfE guidelines. Switches are not my area of expertise in terms of which product is best / cost effective / reliable as this would be the first major project for switches I am running (After 20 years in IT) Proposals I have had use Meraki/Aruba/Alcatel switches. Problem I am having is justifying the cost and how it would be more beneficial to go for a more well known brand (Which I am confident will meet all DfE standards) instead of a cheaper solution just to reduce cost. A third party consultant they contacted (Without informing me but that's a different story) has recommended purchasing TP links for the site instead, as apparently the other proposals are over spec'd. Previously this consultant recommend Ubquiti. We were allowed to purchase 1 a few years ago but none since due to cost (Ironically). Thoughts? Bit of extra info if this helps! 1200 students 41 Switches in total Current switches are Alcatel (21 in total all POE) HP Procurve [2006 models] (20 nonPOE) Core is out of warranty and past EOL They don't wish to spend money..... External consultant has a lot of influence on a key decision maker Thanks again!

Had this issue a number of years ago (still occasionally happens but less and less now) What we did was changed the students usernames starting from the new year 7 intake in September. We changed the student username to include STU** at the beginning (** being year. For example Joe Bloggs starting Y7 in 2023 would have username stu23j.bloggs) Slow fix but now all students here excluding a couple year groups have the stu in front of their usernames/email addresses.

That's a nice story to hear, that they put faith in your recommendations and they realised you were correct and thanked you for it.

I have been down the leasing route with them also.... They see this also as a waste of money. The phrase between a rock and a hard place comes to mind.

I fully agree, the consultant was bought in to agree with the higher ups. They don’t wish to listen to myself or the MSP for advice as they deem it expensive. (They are wanting to get rid of the MSP also) The irony of all this is…. They bought in another 3rd party consultant prior to this one who was neutral. Agreed with my viewpoints but his recommendations was also deemed too expensive. Definitely keeping a look out for another job opportunity!

250 computers left needing to be replaced which is quite a lot considering how much they are willing to invest. A decent sized school. income on the bench marking is over 10million for the year 23-24. Our AV comes as part of the bundle with the ISP which saves a bit of money each year. The MSP is a very small contract that covers escalations in case something arises. (Good to have an escalation point in the event of a disaster or cyber attack imo) which I rarely use.

As my name suggests I started this post and went for a coffee Thanks for all the responses so far! Its great for my own mental state that I wasn’t overreacting. Going to try and respond to all posts at the same time….. They are currently against purchasing the ESU despite it being £1 per licence for the first year, the advice by the consultant is running windows 10 without updates is a minimal risk and a risk worth taking to save some ££ (we are only talking at about £250) I have kept as much of a paper trail as possible to cover myself. The school love to do things verbally to avoid paper trails, and generally ignore emails I send outlining concerns. We have been given permission to start purchasing cheap machines (£100-£180 each) to replace older machines but they prefer to do this in batches of 10-20….. each year…… starting this coming financial year…… On average our budget since 2018 has been £60K a year. This is to cover all costs in IT including MS licences, ISP, AV etc etc our finance team is definitely interesting to work with. Majority of our PCs are not compatible with Windows 11 due to the age (12 years+ is some of the more updated ones! Students regularly complain about the login times etc. We do have some SLT on our side however there is quite a lot of politics going on at the moment which means they are not wanting to rock the boat so to speak. There is a connection between the 3rd party consultant and someone higher up which makes things more difficult. I don't think we are in feasible position to put Chrome OS onto machines as all our software and network is Microsoft based.

Hi All, Where I work, I have been repeatedly raising the importance of needing to purchase new computers to be ready for when Windows 10 becomes EOL. (Been raising this since the initial announcement) Due to lack of investment, we are not in a position to be fully Windows 11 compatible by Windows 10 EOL. Due to this, the SLT approached a 3rd Party IT Consultant instead of our current MSP a few years ago to gauge the current position of IT to see if I was over reacting. (This is a whole other story which I shall not bore you with) The recent advice given from this IT consultant has me concerned as my employer is readily happily to follow his advice, which has gone against my own. His advice regarding windows 10, which was said during a meeting with the leadership team. We should manipulate the registry settings on the non windows 11 compatible machines, to install Windows 11 onto them. (The computers in question are 12+ years old) Purchasing the Windows 10 extended licences for the security updates is a waste of money. And the risk of a virus/cyber attack is low so its worth the risk to save money. I voiced my concerns regarding the above, but the feedback is that I am over reacting and need to work with them on these points (There is many more points and suggestions raised but I don't wish for this post to become an essay) Any input would be appreciated.

Fully agree. We looked into having a 1-2-1 solution a while ago but our our infrastructure needs updating to really effectively support this which is costly (New switches and WIFI points required) Another sticking point is the funding aspect each year, do we get parents to contribute to the cost or fully fund this ourselves (Start up costs would also be high in the transitional period) With the current cost of living crisis we decided it was unfair to add an extra bill onto parents, and with educational funding being 'tight' our 121 project is shelved.

Vandalism has happened in every school I have been in some worse than others! In one school I was placed there was sixth form building which we were regularly replacing Mice/Keyboards (sometime 5-10 times a day) In the end we agreed (School and myself) we don't replace any equipment until half terms. Students were upset that they were unable to access any IT for the first few weeks, but were informed the reason why. In the end after replacing all the missing equipment weeks later, the amount we had to replace became very rare. My theory is the students realized they were being punished as a group for some of their friends actions, and put an end to it themselves. Side note - One thing is that I have noticed is the vandalism/theft happens more when the equipment becomes older.

We have CTouch Boards and a similar issue occurs with them unfreezing themselves. This is due to Powerpoint auto changing the display to extended mode for the presenter view. When the teacher freezes the board and comes out of the presentation the settings switch back to duplicate. This thread may help /forums/windows-10/234439-pc-losing-duplicate-extend-settings.html

I am sure there is a cloud based CCTV system, but this would be a most costly long term solution compared to purchasing an NVR with CCTV cameras (Which most Schools have I think) Also if the CCTV footage is stored off site you will probably need to complete a DPIA.

I agree getting external advice is always beneficial especially when I have a knowledge gap. I have reservations on this particular consultant after he also recommended the school could reduce costs by continuing to use Windows 10 for an additional 3 years beyond its EOL as long as our antivirus is up to date. So I thought it would be best to reach out to the community for the switches

Thanks all for your advice on this, it has been really helpful.

Hi All, My current network infrastructure is old and I have been looking into replacing the switches for a while now. The types of switches I have been looking at, are Layer 3 switches (Going for 48 port POE switches to vastly expand our POE capacity. brands I have looked into is Alcatel, Aruba and Ubiquiti) Problem that I am having is my secondary school has sought advice from an external consultant who has advised purchasing 'cheaper' layer 2 and layer 2+ switches to complete this project (small kick in my ...... that they are seeking external advice but that's another story) My knowledge on switches is basic overall and I was hoping for some advice on whether this was indeed a feasible solution that the external consultant has proposed. small added context. - We have 12 VLans on the network - Our current POE capabilities is maxed, and require more switches with POE capability - Majority of the cabling is Cat5e - External consultant has also asked why we have not considered Wifi7 for the school. - Consultant is recommending Layer 2 and Layer 2+ switches valued at roughly £600 I do have my own opinion on his recommendations, but would like to know the community's opinion.