ResourcesRecent Projects

This northwestern Maryland-located Public School District was utilizing multiple sources of truth for identity services, with several different means to authenticate user identity to various applications. Data Networks provided consulting services to the School to provide a simple, scalable, and secure authentication plan for identity management. This plan ensured a long-term solution that delivers consistent user experience for all users with all applications, a self-service password reset plan, automated and secure guest access, and conditional access, user risk, and device risk policies. Data Networks also produced a comparative analysis of the School’s existing MFA features and Microsoft licensing, including cost per user for each.
Tags: K-12, K12, education, multifactor

This Baltimore-based Roofing Company was facing several IT challenges, including older hardware with no warranties or support on existing directory services and a large on-premise footprint. To create a more streamlined IT environment, Data Networks recommended a quadruple migration to an all cloud-hosted solution with all services hosted in Azure. The total solution included a new Juniper firewall, with all DHCP and DNS services migrated to the new firewall; migration from RRDC01 from on-premises to Azure Standard; migration of Home Directories to Microsoft 365 OneDrive for Business; and migration of Collaborative Shares to Microsoft 365 SharePoint Online.
Tags: commercial, cloud services

In November, Data Networks supplied 100 Dell Latitude 3330 2-in-1 laptops with Dell Pro Slim Briefcases and Dell USB-C mobile adapters to this central Maryland-located Public School District for their paraeducator and staff team members. This deployment included Data Networks’ White Glove Services, including image replication, testing, and deployment on all devices, as well as asset tagging, inventory reporting, and delivery.
Tags: K-12, K12, education, client computing, computers

The existing switches in this Towson-based Prep School’s environment were no longer supported and needed to be replaced. Data Networks configured and installed 7 new Juniper EX2300 series switches under the School’s existing Mist Management system.
Tags: K-12, K12, education, networking

In October, Data Networks reviewed this central Maryland-located Business School’s new hybrid classroom and determined a redesign was necessary, to include four 85″ HD displays installed on the opposing walls of each side of the room to enable Zoom communication with remote attendees, and two additional 55″ displays mounted in the rear of the room to contain presenter content and presenter mirrored video feed. This solution included flush surface wall mounts for the displays and an Analog Way video processor/scaler to allow Zoom content to span the four 85″ displays and allow up to 9 remote participants per display to join a hybrid session. Accommodations to the sound system, AV control, and presenter control were also made to allow for varied sizes of Zoom participants, so they remain visible in a Zoom session.
Tags: Hi-Ed, higher education, audio visual

In October, Data Networks installed 14 new Verkada security cameras and provided cabling services for this northwestern Maryland-located Health Department as part of their new physical security system.
Tags: SLG, local, government

This Maryland Public Liberal Arts College had recently completed construction on two new buildings. The College ordered new networking equipment to install in these new buildings, including Ethernet switches and wireless access points, but current supply chain shortages delayed delivery of this equipment. With the buildings already occupied, the College needed to implement an interim solution to provide Wi-Fi service to the users inside the two new buildings. As an temporary solution, the college procured 40 refurbished Aruba 300 series access points, and the Data Networks team provided services to install, provision, and test the APs into the existing wireless network environment, and provided licensing for the refurbished access points.
Tags: Hi-Ed, higher education, networking

In October, Data Networks supplied 410 Dell 3100 Chromebooks to this northeastern Maryland-located Public School District as part of their Fall device refresh. This deployment included Data Networks’ White Glove and Configuration Services, including Chromebook Management Console services, asset tagging, and Chromebook Hardware Repair Services.
Tags: K-12, K12, education, client computing, computers

This Baltimore County-based Environmental Consultant needed more control, management, security, and services to better manage their mission critical applications and garner greater IT efficiency. Data Networks recommended deploying new network components, including switches, firewalls, and internal and external access points. Data Networks’ Engineers configured the Consultant’s DHCP services and hosted them through a new Juniper SRX320 Service Gateway firewall, deployed centralized management in Azure, and created a new Active Directory Forest for all company-owned desktops and laptops. Leveraging the Consultant’s existing tenant in Microsoft 365, Data Networks deployed the most recent version of M365 Small Business Premium licensing and features and migrated all file server data for users and team shares to Microsoft Cloud Storage solutions. This solution also included a new Microsoft Azure Virtual Desktop solution, which was deployed and continues to be managed by the Data Networks team.
Tags: commercial, AD, networking

In October, Data Networks’ RFP response was awarded by this Baltimore-based Public University to provide IT consulting services for implementing a new endpoint management solution leveraging Microsoft Intune. The University was seeking to improve its current overall device management strategy, with the intent of leveraging existing management applications, to create a more efficient and streamlined device and software management environment. As the sole contractor awarded to implement a new solution, Data Networks performed a series of discovery and analysis services to provide a consistent and intuitive end-user computing experience and delivered an effective and integrated endpoint management solution that addresses deployment, updates, security, remote support, monitoring, and reporting for the University leveraging Microsoft Intune.
Tags: Hi-Ed, higher education, identity management, bid, proposal

In October, Data Networks onboarded this Baltimore County-based Environmental Consultant as a new fully Managed IT Services customer with 35 users. In addition to managing the Consultant’s enterprise and client device environments, this contract also includes three additional Managed Modules: Managed Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD), Managed Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery (BCDR), and Managed Software as a Service (SaaS) Protection.
Tags: commercial, support, MSP

In October, Data Networks onboarded this southern Maryland-located Health Department as a new Co-Managed IT Services customer. In addition to providing centralized services, technology alignment, strategic IT planning, and Service Desk support for the Health Department’s client environment, this contract also includes two additional Managed Modules: Managed Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD) and Managed Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery (BCDR).
Tags: SLG, local, government, MSP

In September, Data Networks supplied 250 Dell Latitude 5530 laptops to this Annapolis-based Maryland State Tax Agency as part of their client device refresh.
Tags: K-12, K12, education, BCDR

In September, Data Networks onboarded this southern Maryland-located Liberal Arts College as a new Managed IT Services customer to manage the school’s network. This contract offers the College a full-time Network Consultant to assist in developing and implementing a network performance optimization plan, plus network monitoring and management to keep their network operating at peak efficiency.
Tags: Hi-Ed, higher education, MSP

In September, Data Networks supplied 1,550 Dell Latitude 5430 laptops and 200 Dell Latitude 3120 laptops to this Eastern Shore-located Maryland Public School District as the second phase of a 2-part teacher laptop refresh deployment.
Tags: K-12, K12, education, client computing, computers

In August, Data Networks was awarded an E-Rate funded contract to supply and install new network switches for this Eastern Shore Maryland-located Public School District. This contract included services to configure 2 Juniper SRX4100 firewalls and 1 Juniper SRX320 firewall, following the rules and zones on the School’s existing firewalls.
Tags: K-12, K12, education, e-rate, erate, federal program, networking

In July, Data Networks designed a new wireless network and access point placement for this North Carolina-based Water Utility Company. This solution included deployment of 40 Mist AP33 wireless access points, as well as configuration of the Mist Portal for the new APs and wireless network. The new wireless network included new Wi-Fi networks, including an 802.1x authenticated user network, a Guest Network with no peer-to-peer communication, and a DMZ wireless that includes customer tablets that only communicate to a single server.
Tags: SLG, local, government, networking

In August, Data Networks supplied 30 Dell Mobile Precision 3571 workstation laptops, 28 Dell OptiPlex 3000 desktop computers with 20″ Dell monitors, and 28 Dell Precision 3660 workstation computers with 20″ Dell monitors to this northeastern Maryland-located Public School District as part of their Laptop and Desktop Project. This deployment included Data Networks’ Configuration Services, including image replication, testing, and deployment on all devices, as well as asset tagging, inventory reporting, domain configuration, and packaging and delivery. Data Networks also performed onsite installation of the new devices in addition to deinstallation of existing computers. These devices also include Data Networks’ Hardware Repair Services, where our Configuration Center team manages replacement part order and delivery, onsite technician repairs, and Service Desk Support.
Tags: K-12, K12, education, client computing

This Towson-based Prep School’s existing server hardware hosting their Veeam Backup and Replication service was approaching its end of useful supported life, and the School had an older server with an out of date operating system (Windows Server 2016 Standard). The School needed all existing backup history, jobs, archives, and policies preserved from these servers. Data Networks deployed a new Dell PowerEdge R550 server to host the School’s Veeam Backup and Replication service where all backup jobs are created and managed by a new server instance, deployed the newest version of Veeam’s Backup and Replication server on a new Windows Server operating system, and verified configuration and replication to the School’s Veeam Cloud Connector in Azure.
Tags: K-12, k12, education, disaster recovery, BCDR

In July, Data Networks supplied 265 Dell OptiPlex 5000 desktops to this southwestern Maryland-located Public School District as part of their authoring systems technology deployment, enabling teachers to create learning content for students.
Tags: K-12, K12, education, client computing, computers

This Eastern Shore-located Local Government Agency was facing an outdated mail system and security solution, leaving their users susceptible to cyber threats. The Agency was also leveraging several solutions that were not integrated together, increasing management time, expense, and mistakes. Data Networks recommended purchasing a cost-effective Microsoft 365 bundle and modernizing the Agency’s mail system and Fileshare data by migrating to Exchange Online Software as a Service (SaaS). This new cloud-hosted solution improved the Agency’s identity management, and Data Networks ensured an easy transition to the new capabilities and provided IT administration with in-depth best practices and resources to help leverage their new investments.
Tags: SLG

This Baltimore-based Private High School was facing several server challenges, including out of date hardware, complex and burdensome IT management load, and a difficult to scale solution incapable of meeting their growing server needs. Data Networks recommended migrating all mission critical workloads to Azure Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) and removing all on-premise server workloads, recreating all compute, storage, networking, and other security policies in Azure. This solution created better value by offering a more sustainable and long-term investment strategy that increases security and reporting and leveraged the School’s existing investments in Microsoft.
Tags: K-12, K12, education, data center

In July, Data Networks installed a new LAN and WLAN for this southern Maryland-located Health Department to support the wired and wireless clients in the Department’s new building. This new wireless network supports multiple client types, including phones, laptops, and tablets, as well as multiple operating systems. This new LAN and WLAN deployment also included 2 new Juniper Mist EX3400 Ethernet switches, 12 Juniper Mist AP33 access points, and an APC Schneider Electric Smart-UPS. The new wireless network leverages Juniper Mist’s Cloud AI Management tool, providing AI-driven proactive automation and self-healing capabilities, lowering Wi-Fi operational costs and reducing manual IT tasks for the Health Department.
Tags: SLG, local, government, networking

In July, Data Networks supplied 300 Dell OptiPlex 3090 desktops to this southwest Maryland-located Public School District as part of their Tech Mod technology program.
Tags: K-12, K12, education, client computing, computers

In July, Data Networks supplied 450 Dell Latitude 5430 laptops to this Eastern Shore-located Maryland Public School District as the first phase of a 2-part teacher laptop refresh deployment.
Tags: K-12, K12, education, client computing, computers

In July, Data Networks supplied 296 Dell Latitude 3120 laptops to this Eastern Shore-located Maryland Public School District as part of their student device refresh.
Tags: K-12, K12, education, client computing, computers

In July, Data Networks supplied 400 Dell Latitude 3330 2-in-1 laptops with Dell Pro Slim Briefcases and Dell USB-C mobile adapters to this central Maryland-located Public School District for their newly hired staff members. This deployment included Data Networks’ White Glove Services, including image replication, testing, and deployment on all devices, as well as asset tagging, inventory reporting, and delivery.
Tags: K-12, K12, education, client computing, computers

This public school district needed to improve their previous backup, replication, and disaster recovery services. Data Networks was awarded the opportunity to replace the existing backup solution with a Veeam-based solution, as well as the hardware and services necessary for deployment. Data Networks configured the solution to leverage optimized traffic pathways for backup and replication, configuring and deploying replication targets in the Disaster Recovery site. The solution included a fully functional hypervisor based on VMware’s vSphere and a hypervisor controller on VMware vCenter for the Disaster Recovery site to offload replication between the backup to disk appliances to the hardware. Data Networks also provided guidance on leveraging the DR site to host application-level redundancy to avoid wasting investments while providing for better performance and availability.
Tags: K-12, K12, education, BCDR

This North Carolina water authority needed to increase security and risk management, improve reporting and compliance, and increase management of their devices both on-premises and remotely. Data Networks provided a Microsoft EMS E3 solution using Azure cloud services that increased their Microsoft Security Score, improved management and monitoring of endpoints and users, protects identity sensitive data, and provides access to a classification system to successfully improve the security of the company as a whole.
Tags: SLG, local, government, agency

Data Networks has been awarded a multi-year contract to supply this Maryland public school district with Dell Latitude 5520 laptops, Latitude 3310 2-in-1 laptops, OptiPlex 7780 all-in-one desktops, and Precision 3560 workstations with accompanying peripherals. In addition, Data Networks will provide installation and repair services throughout the life of the contract to ensure the district receives the products and deployment services they need. Data Networks will continue to provide these schools with the support, management, and equipment they need to operate at their highest potential.
Tags: K-12, K12, education, client computing, computers

Data Networks, partnered with Biztec, provided this Maryland community college with an integrated security camera system with built-in infrastructure to handle the school’s current and future needs, providing state of the art access control while remaining user friendly and cost-effective. The solution included monitoring and access control for all secured doors on the school’s campus. Each door set is called out individually in the security system, and each door is a modular addition, providing the context necessary to scale the system up or down and help plan for future expansions. Data Networks’ solution, based on Verkada, utilizes high quality, industry standard hardware with proven reliability and performance.
Tags: Hi-Ed, higher education, physical security

Data Networks was awarded to provide this Maryland private school with a managed business continuity and disaster recovery solution. This project included a secure cross-platform data protection solution with infinite cloud retention, as well as ransomware vigilance and detection. Data Networks installed and remotely configured the physical, on-premise appliance to support the school in the event of a server failure or other outage, where a production instance would spin up in minutes on the appliance to provide continuity for the school. This solution also delivers business continuity from the cloud, where in the event of a disaster, Data Networks would prioritize configuration and connectivity to the cloud to return the school’s systems to operational as quickly as possible.
Tags: K-12, K12, education

Data Networks provided 335 2-in-1 Chromebooks to this Maryland public school district as part of the district’s laptop refresh leveraging Emergency Connectivity Funding (ECF) to provide the district with devices for the coming school year.
Tags: K-12, K12, education, client computing

Data Networks provided this Maryland roofing contractor with a managed BCDR solution to protect the company from any consequences of a potential outage. Data Networks installed the BCDR appliance and continues to provide managed services for the company in the event of disaster.
Tags: commercial, managed support

In December, Data Networks was awarded delivered 5,500 Dell Latitude 3310 2-in-1 laptops in response to this Maryland public school district’s RFP for their teacher laptop refresh. This deployment also provided White Glove services for the client devices, including imaging, asset tagging, inventory reporting, and logistics for delivery to each school.
Tags: K-12, K12, education, client computing, computers

In December, Data Networks and its subcontractor began a security assessment and Penetration Test for this local Maryland school to identify vulnerabilities in the school’s network and provide recommendations for remediation. The assessment is conducted remotely and includes a Vulnerability Scan Assessment for three consecutive quarters, executing scans against the environment to identify vulnerabilities using a mix of manual and automated tools. The scan searches for threats due to network devices, web sites, firewalls, and employees divulging sensitive data. At the end of the three quarter-long scan, Data Networks will present a report documenting the results, in addition to a remediation plan to correct security holes in the school’s network.
Tags: K-12, K12, education, audit

This private Maryland university needed to upgrade their existing firewall to better protect and extend the school’s wireless network. Data Networks reviewed the school’s existing firewall configuration and determined the changes required for the new firewall, including network configuration of IP addresses, vLANs (IRBs), zones, rules, screens, and HA configuration requirements. Engineers unboxed and connected the new Juniper SRX firewalls at Data Networks’ Staging and Configuration Center, where they were tested for basic functionality and configured to match the school’s design requirements. The new firewalls were then delivered to the school and installed during a planned outage, where the existing firewalls were disconnected, powered down, and removed from the rack. Data Networks Engineers verified security functions and full network connectivity through the new SRX firewalls, including internet, internal networks, and all vLANs/subnets.
Tags: Hi-Ed, higher education, networking

In November, this Maryland University needed to move 180 end user client devices to a new location, and required assistance with site tear down, tagging, inventorying, and packing the devices, as well as deploying, connecting, and troubleshooting the devices at the new location. Data Networks provided a team of end user client specialists to identify, inventory, label, tear down, and pack all of the devices at the primary location, ensured all equipment was loaded and transported to the new site, and then deployed, connected, and configured all of the equipment at the new site. Data Networks’ Client Services team ensured a smooth transition over the course of 2 weekends and verified functionality of all 180 devices before leaving the new site.
Tags: Hi-Ed, higher education, computers, peripherals

In November, Data Networks worked with this Maryland University to create new private IP subnets, vLANs, and VxLANs, allowing the school’s servers to be managed on a single, reliable, and scalable network infrastructure. Data Networks Engineers also readdressed host systems, VDS, and NSX systems to the new private IP addresses, vLANs, and VxLANs, and configured the routing and switching required for the new IP addresses in the university’s virtual environment.
Tags: Hi-Ed, higher education

This quarter, Data Networks delivered 2,000 Dell Latitude 5420 laptops to this North Carolina public school system as part of the district’s laptop refresh leveraging Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) funding.
Tags: K-12, K12, education, client computing, computers

In October, Data Networks delivered 2,500 Dell Chromebook 3100 laptops to this Maryland public school district as part of their annual Fall device refresh. This deployment also provided White Glove services for the client devices, including unboxing, enrolling, confirming proper Wi-Fi settings and realm policies, asset tagging, replacing power cords, and installing the Chromebooks in carts at each school.
Tags: K-12, K12, education, client computing, computers

This Maryland public school district was facing storage challenges due to their outdated and unsupported NAS server. The district needed to upgrade their NAS solution and dissolve the management siloes between their data protection and disaster recovery strategies while working with a limited budget and a small internal IT team. Data Networks designed and implemented a geographically diverse, high availability virtual DFSN/DFSR solution, leveraging Veeam’s hypervisor-based backup to protect the data in production and ensure business continuity.
Tags: K-12, K12, education

In October, Data Networks was awarded to deliver 144 Dell OptiPlex 7780 All-in-One desktop computers in response to this Maryland public school district’s RFP.
Tags: K-12, K12, education, client computing, computers

This local religious group found that their current internet and network provider was inadequate for their users’ needs and approached Data Networks for a network upgrade proposal. Our Networking Solutions Architect completed a Site Survey of the current network and designed a new LAN, WAN, network, and firewall configuration that delivered secure, wireless internet access with 16 new Mist APs. The new solution leverages Mist’s AI capabilities to provide predictable and reliable Wi-Fi while lowering operations costs and manual IT tasks.
Tags: non-profit, nonprofit, church, commercial, networking

In September, this local public school system requested a Wi-Fi user authentication solution that was virtualized and integrated the File Share into the disaster recovery solution, while minimizing costs, increasing availability, and simplifying management. Data Networks deployed an NPS/Radius solution based upon Microsoft Windows Server 2019 and created a secure, geographically diverse, high availability solution with common namespace to prevent site failures from impacting file access.
Tags: K-12, K12, education, internet

This local independent prep school was facing phishing attacks and needed to protect its vulnerable users from intrusion and bad attachments, while also fostering a better culture of security for its users. In order to protect against broad volume-based attacks and secure email and collaboration tools from zero-day, malware, phishing, and other security compromises, Data Networks deployed and configured the Microsoft Defender for Office 365 Mail Security. This solution leveraged the school’s existing Microsoft capabilities, reducing shelf-ware, and increased security while integrating their security solutions with a consistent management plane.
Tags: K-12, K12, private, education

In September, Data Networks designed a network upgrade solution for this Maryland county public health department. The health department’s existing Cisco switches were EOL and were not configured for centralized management, preventing visibility into the network’s performance. Data Networks recommended replacing the outdated and unconfigured network equipment with 8 modern, managed Juniper switches, leveraging Mist’s AI-based solution to provide predictable, reliable, and measurable visibility into network performance. The solution also included Fiber Optic cabling to deliver a faster, more reliable and resilient uplink between network closets.
Tags: SLG, local, government, healthcare, networking

In September, a Data Networks’ water utility customer located in North Carolina discovered a need to reduce the overhead on their block storage, preferably moving their vast amount of archived data to a cheaper and higher capacity storage solution. Data Networks recommended leveraging Azure Hybrid Benefit from their Microsoft and Azure Tenant to move low access data off the high-performance data block to make room for applications and data which required access to IOPS. The solution designed and implemented by the Data Networks team met the customer’s specified compliance criteria by deploying a cloud-hosted SMB file service that synchronized data with on-premises storage while also securing the customer’s data and providing archive management.
Tags: SLG, local, government, agency

This local biopharmaceutical company needed to refresh their SQL server licenses and increase their local capacity, as well as a properly documented SQL server built as a VM in Hyper-V. Data Networks developed a solution to deploy additional storage to a new Dell PowerEdge R440 host server and configured the storage as a resource accessible by the Hypervisor, providing a new instance of SQL with fresh licensing and additional capacity to the local host, with the added ability to rapidly adopt new platforms.
Tags: commercial, medical, pharmaceutical

In August, this local university required a wireless upgrade for an on-site university church. Data Networks developed a WLAN solution to provide fiber cabling from a nearby student hall to the church, CAT6 cabling to the sanctuary for the new access points, as well as access point installation and provisioning. A new Juniper EX2300 Compact Ethernet Switch was also provided, installed, and configured to support the new wireless network.
Tags: non-profit, nonprofit, religious, Hi-Ed, higher education, networking

This local Maryland university needed better maintenance and update cycles for their VMware investments and Dell servers while facing a strict security requirement: nothing could directly contact the internet. In order to securely update the university’s data center investments, Data Networks developed a solution to deploy a new physical host server with an update proxy for their VMware Update Manager to cache updates without requiring secured systems to be connected to the internet. This solution also included an update proxy deployment for the Dell Server Update Utility to cache Dell server updates as well as a new vSAN Witness Appliance deployment.
Tags: Hi-Ed, higher education

Aging infrastructure, with most systems near end-of-warranty, non-redundant fault domains, and limited scalability of existing investments inhibited this local biopharmaceutical company’s business growth. The expansion of their manufacturing and production staff created a need for a scalable solution with greater availability that leveraged existing investments, limited re-licensing costs, and delivered better maintenance options. In July, Data Networks configured new Microsoft host servers and a new shared storage platform for the customer. This solution migrated the existing virtual machines to the new cluster; merged the customer’s domain objects- including users, computers, attributes, and policies- into the new, reconfigured domain; and integrated the existing backup solution into the new cluster.
Tags: commercial, medical, pharmaceutical

In July, a local Maryland perp school’s domain controllers were running older versions of the Windows Server OS (2016), which is no longer supported under Microsoft mainstream support. The school needed to update the existing domain controllers to Windows Server 2019 with the latest update while maintaining services availability. Data Networks performed the upgrade to Windows Server 2019 while preserving the school’s existing roles, services, features, configurations, and data, with no interruption in service throughout the update process.
Tags: K-12, K12, private, education

In July, this Maryland local prep school needed to provision student learning labs on-demand and provide access to student resources through familiar interfaces, while increasing student awareness of cyber and IT security. The solution needed to be easily scalable and leverage existing investments and capabilities to provide multiple students simultaneous access to the on-demand labs. Data Networks designed and implemented Veeam’s Sandbox On-Demand/Virtual Labs/SureBackup, a solution that’s easy to manage, deploy, and use and helps build greater familiarity with the school’s capabilities by leveraging their existing Veeam investment. This Veeam solution allows students to seamlessly access and complete learning labs while providing IT administration with easy oversight and management.
Tags: K-12, K12, private, education

In April, Data Networks to completed a vulnerability and risk assessment to provide visibility into the vulnerability of assets deployed in a local prep school’s network. The assessment consisted of scanning to identify networked assets, determining potential vulnerabilities, and assessing potential vulnerabilities. Data Networks’ engineers completed this assessment by conducting an external and internal vulnerability scan on 1 external and 25 internal IP addresses and provided a final report and presentation to the customer documenting the vulnerabilities found and remediation recommendations.
Tags: K-12, K12, private, education, audit, networking

In April, Data Networks provided a new server deployment plan and migration services for a Baltimore-based religious organization, ensuring operational continuity with their current applications, data, and services during the transition. This project included analyzing and preparing the existing host server for the migration services, deploying the new server with Windows Server 2019, configuring the out-of-band management (iDRAC), and configuring and deploying the Hyper-V on the new server. Data Networks also deployed two new Virtual Machines- one configured as a File Server to act as a target for the existing file shares from the source server, and one configured as an Active Directory Domain Controller. All servers then joined the existing domain; permissions, roles, and policies were synchronized to the new domain controller; and all file shares, files, and permissions were migrated to the new servers.
Tags: non-profit, nonprofit, church

This quarter, Data Networks was awarded to supply this Maryland public school district with 2,000 Dell Latitude 3310 laptops as part of the district’s laptop refresh leveraging CARES Act funding.
Tags: K-12, K12, education, client computing, computers

In May, Data Networks delivered upgrades to this private Maryland college’s existing LAN to support a new VoIP phone system solution. This project required 24 Juniper Networks EX series switches, which were designed, configured, and integrated into the school’s existing LAN infrastructure by Data Networks’ Professional Services team.
Tags: Hi-Ed, higher education, networking

A Washington state public school discovered their SQL database, running on a physical server, was aging and no longer under support. Data Networks assessed the district’s environment and recommended deploying an optimized Virtual Machine for hosting SQL. Data Networks provided services to migrate the district’s data and preserve their applications from the existing physical server running Windows Server 2008 R2/SQL 2008 to a new virtual server with SQL 2019 with minimal downtime or interruption in services.
Tags: K-12, K12, education, Microsoft

A Washington state public school district has foundational services integrated into their Identity and Access Management systems, based upon Novell/MicroFocus’ NetIQ eDirectory platform. In addition to all access control policies managed through eDirectory LDAP services, the district also leverages the full complement of bundled services included with the NetIQ Identity and Access Management suite. As NetIQ’s eDirectory market share continues to fall, the district needed to evaluate the institutional impact of different IT portfolio investment strategies, and decide whether to purchase a different solution with a phased deployment or retain and extend their existing solution. Data Networks delivered consulting services to provide estimates of the impact of retaining the existing NetIQ suite of products. Data Networks also provided comparative data on the impact of migrating to Microsoft Active Directory services with an estimated business case proposal for migrating to the AD solution, as well as a project budget plan, implementation plan, timetables, and feature/functionality comparative data.
Tags: K-12, K12, education

A recent IT security audit revealed that this local prep school needed to maintain compliance with supported versions of their operating systems, hardware, and software to better secure and protect school data. They also determined the need to improve their disaster recovery capabilities – without deploying any physical infrastructure – by leveraging a more geographically diverse replication strategy, and the need to increase availability of the existing primary datastore for their vSphere infrastructure. Additionally, they wanted to address the short supply of 10GbE ports within their environment, with only a single 10GbE port on each controller attached to the SAN switches in the current shared storage platform.

To meet the school’s IT security needs, Data Networks refreshed the existing VMware host servers with new Dell PowerEdge R640 servers configured with the latest version of VMware’s ESXi operating system; reconfigured the 10GbE SAN connectivity; reconfigured the backup and replication solution leveraging our Veeam DRaaS solution; secured and encrypted data hosted outside of the school to prevent unauthorized access; and deprecated the existing disaster recovery infrastructure, including all host servers.
Tags: K-12, K12, private, education

With operating costs for their existing MicroFocus NetIQ identity manager solution rising, and MicroFocus platform expertise dwindling, the university’s CITS determined the need to replace their identity manager solution, as well as build in-house administration and management expertise for the new solution. Data Networks recommended and deployed Microsoft’s Identity Manager (MIM) to provide the university with a modern platform, leveraging their existing licensing and providing parity with existing capabilities. Data Networks also provided the IT team with a knowledge transfer and support services to enable a warm transition from external services provided by Data Networks to internal services and administration provided by the university’s IT Administration.
Tags: Hi-Ed, higher education

Due to ad hoc purchasing of individual Microsoft licenses rather than bundling, Clene was facing an expensive challenge managing their Microsoft 365 subscriptions. Looking to adopt a better licensing model with as little interruption in services as possible, Clene utilized Data Networks’ Microsoft expertise to build a more organized and aggregated subscription package that controlled spending while also providing access to better services and capabilities. Data Networks recommended and implemented a subscription plan tailored to Clene’s specific needs and our Professional Services team managed the transition to the new licensing to minimize the transition impact.
Tags: commercial, biopharmaceutical, pharmaceutical

This small college has struggled to maintain their existing identity and access management solution, resulting in many siloed solutions and an overwhelmed IT administration. Leveraging the MEEC agreement, they invested in Microsoft’s Academic A5 licensing to resolve device and user management across the campus. But due to the nature of their existing environment, deploying a single identity management platform was continuously delayed, creating high security vulnerabilities. Data Networks worked with them to deploy and integrate Microsoft’s Azure Active Directory Premium P2, leveraging their existing investment in Microsoft Identity and Access Management solution suite, to clean-up and integrate older user, device, and group management solutions into the new, modern identification and access management solution.
Tags: Hi-Ed, higher education

Due to COVID-driven increase in demand on their production Dell EMC VxRail hyper-converged infrastructure, Data Networks determined this university health center’s DR site required more capacity to support the desired service levels for their infrastructure and to prevent capacity contention if production workloads needed to fail over to the DR site. To increase the capacity of the VxRail infrastructure, without requiring the expansion of compute or VMware licensing, Data Networks recommended deploying 6 new drives (2 per node) and expanding the existing VMware vSAN volumes to the maximum size supported by the new drives. This solution was quickly designed and deployed to ensure the Health Center would not face any impacts of production downtime due to capacity restrictions of their existing infrastructure during the pandemic.
Tags: Hi-Ed, higher education, BCDR, hyperconverged, HCI

OWASA’s configuration at their Waste Water Treatment Plant consisted of Microsoft’s Hyper-V clustered on an HPe StoreVirtual Virtual Storage Appliance (VSA). The software-defined hyper-converged solution was recently announced to be reaching its end-of-support lifecycle in HPe’s portfolio. Additionally, OWASA’s data capacity needs were growing beyond the expandable capabilities of the VSA, and local networking capabilities were limited to 1 GbE of traffic. OWASA needed a solution that could scale both horizontally and vertically.

Data Networks recommended and implemented a Microsoft Hyper-V cluster deployment leveraging Microsoft Server 2019 Data Center Edition, replacing the existing cluster hosts systems with new Dell R640 servers. Additionally, Data Networks deployed a new pair of Juniper switches as a “Top-of-Rack/LAN & SAN Aggregation layer,” creating a modern, scalable solution with more dynamic performance to meet OWASA’s IT capacity requirements.
Tags: SLG, local, government, agency, hyperconverged, HCI

After a recent Wi-Fi access upgrade in the college’s residential facilities, a passive Wi-Fi survey identified areas where signal coverage was inadequate requiring additional wall-mounted APs in the bedrooms of some dormitories. Data Networks recommended, configured, and installed 131 new Aruba AP505H Access Points in the dorms – plus an additional 19 spare AP505H Access Points were delivered to allow the customer to add additional coverage in other areas, as required – providing total Wi-Fi coverage across the college’s residential facilities.
Tags: Hi-Ed, higher education, internet

In December 2020, Data Networks was chosen to complete the school’s Chromebook Refresh for the 2020-2021 school year. This refresh project included imaging, White Glove configuration, and hardware repair services for 943 Chromebooks.
Tags: K-12, K12, education, client computing, computers

GCHD required a refresh of its servers, storage, networking, and software at both of its outdated data centers in order to meet organizational compliance requirements. The goal was to reduce maintenance management overhead and add a holistic solution with enough capacity, performance, and capability not only to refresh the virtualized infrastructure, but also to deliver a robust virtual desktop infrastructure while controlling project costs. To provide GCHD’s data center with longevity and ease of management, Data Networks replaced the existing VMware vSphere infrastructure (including all servers, storage, and networking) with a dense HCI on the Dell EMC VxRail platform, utilizing Dell SmartUPS devices and additional VMware vSphere licenses.
Tags: SLG, local, government, agency

Data Networks discovered that RCPS’ applications and data were hosted on outdated data center infrastructure with operating systems in extended support. The existing storage had limited scalability, preventing incremental scale-up investments for capacity or performance issues, and the school’s bandwidth needs had outgrown the 1GbE switching network. In order to better leverage RCPS’ IT investments and increase efficiency, administration, performance, and availability, Data Networks upgraded the existing hypervisor with Windows Server 2019 Data Center hosts configured in the Hyper-V hypervisor role, and upgraded the compute, networking, and storage configurations with 2 Dell PowerEdge R640 servers, 2 Dell PowerSwitches, and a Dell PowerVault storage array, respectively.
Tags: K-12, K12, prep, private, education

This year, Data Networks has won several client deployment projects with Dorchester County Public Schools. In Q1, DCPS ordered 100 Dell Latitude 3300 laptops and 60 Dell Latitude 5510 laptops to be imaged and deployed into Anywhere Carts by our Professional Services team. More recently, DCPS teamed up with Data Networks Account Executive Amy Bateman to leverage CARES Act funding to purchase and deploy an additional 330 Dell Latitude 5410 laptops, 60 Dell Latitude 5510 laptops, 1,000 Dell Urban Backpacks, and 900 Dell Latitude 3310 laptops.
Tags: K-12, K12, education, computing, computers, peripherals

Data Networks recently supplied MCPS with 25 Dell EMC PowerEdge R540 servers and 25 Dell EMC SmartUPS 1500s to run and store video data for the district’s new security cameras. MCPS also used CARES Act funding to purchase 1,500 Dell Latitude 3410 laptops to support the special education distance learning initiative and 150 Dell Latitude 3310 teacher laptops for the new school year.
Tags: K-12, K12, education, client computing, computers

Data Networks provided a complete solution that will allow the University to continue managing its existing wireless network while also allowing a potential new office tenant to manage a subset of the WLAN with their own SSIDs, authentication methods, and related configuration options. Data Networks engineers designed, deployed and configured the solution which involved relocating 3 existing Aruba APs and installing 30 additional Aruba APs. A new Aruba Mobility Controller was deployed, and the existing Mobility Master was configured to support MultiZone, a feature of the Aruba solution that allows the management of separate WLANs on the same APs, under separate management/traffic zones and by a different controller.
Tags: Hi-Ed, higher education, networking, access points, internet

With storage investments for its VDI environment reaching end of life, UMD asked Data Networks for refresh recommendations that would require minimal service downtime. To provide them with the long-term reliability, performance, capacity, and ease of management they sought, Data Networks engineers replaced the existing spindle-based SAN with a Dell EMC Unity 380F all flash array. They leveraged the University’s existing 10GbE switches for connectivity between the hosts and the new Unity storage array, as well as the school’s existing VMware vSphere licensing. The migration was accomplished all at once with minimal interruption in service availability.
Tags: Hi-Ed, higher education, virtual desktop

QACPS was concerned about its ability to deliver increased compliance and reporting against a growing set of applications and external security threats. Data Networks supplemented the district’s array of existing end-user compute management solutions with Microsoft’s System Center Configuration Manager. With expert deployment and configuration provided by our senior network engineering and Microsoft application team, the district is better able to manage patching, security, and compliance for third-party applications; resolve findings highlighted by audit authorities; and control and manage costs across the organization.
Tags: K-12, K12, education

Data Networks designed a new primary datacenter infrastructure for OWASA to be staged, built and configured remotely at our Baltimore-based Staging and Configuration Center, facilitating easier onsite deployment. The new solution includes migration from a Dell/EMC FX Chassis to a 3-node Dell PowerEdge R640 cluster. To support independent scaling of storage from other components of the infrastructure, a Dell EMC Hybrid 380XT 10Gbps iSCSI SAN will be deployed to replace the existing storage solutions. A hybrid solution such as this allows OWASA to easily scale both performance and local capacity without having to make investments in more compute, networking, or disaggregated storage solutions. Finally, (2) Juniper EX4600 Multi-Gig Switches will be deployed to act as top-of-rack switching to interconnect the hyper-converged hosts.
Tags: SLG, local, government, agency, hyperconverged, HCI