Schools Archives | SonicWall

We know how much value SonicWall network security brings to our customers, and we know how much value our partners add when incorporating our solutions into their solutions for our customers.

The case of Calistoga Unified Regional School District is an excellent example.

Calistoga is in California’s Napa Valley. The district has more than 850 students, divided among an elementary school, junior/senior high school and an alternative-program continuation high school for students between the ages of 16 and 18. Administration offices are in a separate building near the junior/senior high school.

The district felt that its existing content-filtering services were not providing all the functionality it needed. Calistoga couldn’t get the flexibility and granular control over content filtering it needed to define different roles and access permissions for students, faculty and staff.

Like all K-12 school districts, Calistoga’s content filtering is there to protect against inappropriate and malicious web content, as well as to control application access.

“Our No. 1 priority is making sure that the students are protected,” says Jenna Burrows, Calistoga’s Director of Business Services.

Regulatory requirements regarding content filtering are also part of the picture. The Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA), is the most directly relevant. Content filtering is also important with regards to the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), which protects students’ personally identifiable information (PII) from unauthorized disclosure, and is a requirement for districts to be eligible for discounts through the federal E-rate program.

Faced with a clear need to upgrade their content-filtering capabilities, Calistoga turned to their local managed services provider, Napa Valley Networks (NVN). NVN has been a SonicWall partner for more than 15 years. NVN recommended SonicWall’s Content Filtering Service for Calistoga.

But NVN didn’t stop with content filtering. After an initial audit of Calistoga’s network, they uncovered an issue with the district’s gateway. NVN’s Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, Kyle Lumley, says the existing gateway “didn’t give them the control or feature set that they needed.”

NVN’s recommendation for Calistoga was a SonicWall SuperMassive 9800 next-generation firewall with High Availability capability.

All well and good so far. More granular, customizable content filtering and a new gateway to provide better control for the present, as well as being better able to handle future increases in networked devices and utilization.

Then came the 400-pound gorilla. How could Calistoga afford to pay for these improved capabilities? School districts work under very tight financial constraints.

Fortunately, NVN and SonicWall had a solution.

Calistoga leveraged SonicWall’s Security-as-a-Service (SECaaS). Rather than paying a large amount upfront as a capital expenditure, Calistoga pays a much more manageable monthly fee which fits within its operating budget. Burrows says this is a much more reasonable solution for the district.

Additionally, much of the cost is eligible for discounts through the federal E-rate program.

NVN coordinated the transition to the new gateway and Content Filtering Service. All went well, even in the face of tight deadlines. Calistoga’s happy with the results.

Read the Case Study here.

Read Calistoga Case Study

Getting a discount on something you’ve purchase is always a little exciting. We all like to feel like we’re getting a bargain and saving money. After all, who doesn’t need some extra cash? Budgets always seem to be tight.

This is especially true for schools and libraries. Funding is frequently limited and in tough fiscal times state and local governments need to make cuts with education often feeling the brunt. That’s where the Schools and Libraries Program, also known as the E-rate Program, comes in. E-rate enables qualified school and libraries to receive discounts ranging from 20 percent up to 90 percent on telecommunications and information services in order to make them more affordable.

How does a school or library qualify for discounts through E-rate? The chief requirement is compliance with the Children’s Internet Protection Act (***) which was enacted by Congress back in 2000. *** is designed to protect students from obscene or harmful content on the internet. To comply with the *** mandates, schools must show that they have an internet security policy in place that includes technology protection measures. *** certification also requires that the school’s internet safety policy include monitoring of students’ online activities and education of minors on appropriate online behavior.

The list of services eligible for discounting comes from the FCC. The Eligible Services List (ESL) is divided into two funding categories, aptly named Category One and Category Two. Category One services bring a particular service to a school such as internet access and phone. Category Two services operate onsite within the school boundaries. Examples include firewalls, wireless access points, switches, caching, WAN optimization and cabling.

As an individual, finding a discount on something we want to purchase tends to be pretty simple, whether it’s sifting through print material or finding a code online. For schools and school districts applying for E-rate discounts the process is slightly more challenging. Applicants must complete FCC Form 470 to advertise open bids from prospective providers. The bidding process remains open for at least 28 days during which vendors submit quotes. Once the bidding process period has ended, the school evaluates all the bids and chooses the vendor who will provide the services. The entire process from bid to purchase can take 6-9 months. It’s a little more complicated than this, but that’s the general idea.

If you’re a school, school district or library in need of network security, can E-rate help? The answer is absolutely. As I mentioned earlier, firewalls, wireless access points, switches and other products security vendors offer are typically eligible for discounts within Category Two. The firewalls will protect your network from a variety of cyber attacks including ransomware which has seen a resurgence. The use of high-speed wireless is almost ubiquitous in classrooms these days and can be secured by having all wireless traffic scanned by the firewall. WAN optimization improves the student online experience by enabling WAN applications to run faster.

Finding these products from a single vendor doesn’t have to be difficult. SonicWall can help. Download our white paper, “K-12 network security: A technical deep-dive playbook” for information on our network security solutions to learn how.

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