THREE NETWORKS TOO MANY When Emeka Ibekweh, Managing Director of Technology at Ascend Public Charter Schools, started in 2013, he was responsible for managing four schools spread across four buildings, all with differ ent networks. The network equipment was very outdated, and had separate wireless controllers and slow VPN connections, requiring Ibekweh to physically be on-site to manage upgrades, firmware updates, and configurations. “Just the complexity of managing four sites with four separate networks was a nightmare, to say the least,” said Ibekweh. Beyond the complications of operating a separate network at each school, there was also very limited wireless coverage throughout each building. One of the six-story buildings only had 12 access points, which provided limited wir

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