Global leader in networking that transforms how people connect, communicate and collaborate, Cisco,has announced that MEED Networks in Nigeria will deploy a Cisco Borderless Network at Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) the largest university in Nigeria and second largest in Africa, second only to Cairo University in Egypt. The Cisco optic-fiber campus network links the faculties, halls of residence, digital laboratories and libraries of ABU's three major campuses - Shika, Samaru and Kongo - with 65 plus locations offering a minimum of 2GB connectivity. The new infrastructure will enable ABU to deliver high-speed Internet and intranet access to more than 40,000 students and staff as well as facilitate enhanced e-learning, online applications and multimedia communication services for all campus residents.Cisco 6500 Switch series combined various high capacity Cisco Campus Switches (such as Cisco 3750s and also the 2960s) have been deployed across the campus network. Additionally, Cisco Network Management and monitoring was also factored in using Cisco's ACS Server appliance, as well as security firewalls to ensure protection of the campus all-round.Speaking on the development, Professor Abdullahi Mustapha, vice chancellor of ABU, said, 'Due to its huge staff and student population as well as the increasing demand for converged network services and bandwidth, ABU needed a state-of-the art network infrastructure that would cater for its technology needs of the future. MEED Networks were able to deliver this requirement through the deployment of Cisco technology solutions which met our needs to the letter. Today, ABU's campus backbone network is viewed as the technology foundation for all campus endeavors in Nigeria, supporting teaching, learning, research, administration, and community outreach.'For Said Rechchad, general manager, Cisco Nigeria, 'Enhancing and supporting education in Nigeria is one of our Cisco goals, so we are honored to be associated with another landmark higher educational project in Nigeria. The Cisco Borderless Network Architecture delivers significant innovations that allowed thousands of our customers to accelerate the transformation to a dynamic networked organization - connecting anyone, anywhere over any device, and realize substantial business benefit. This is the benefit that our technology solutions will bring to ABU.'Sherif Adeyanju, chief executive officer, MEED Networks explained that having an understanding of the requirements of the institution led to building a solution that is tailore-made to suit it. Said he, 'Having understood ABU's requirements, MEED built a solution that perfectly solved ABU's issues while also bringing additional services to the campus environment. Our solution was to build a scalable campus network, having each services zoned off as components, while providing a huge backbone infrastructure having increased bandwidth, network convergence, reliability and redundancy as its key focus. The Cisco solution is highly scalable in that, each additional service or expansion that is required can be added as a module without having to affect the entire infrastructure. This indeed is a land breaking project in terms of academic adoption of technology in Africa and we at MEED Networks are proud to have been a part of it.
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