| Network integrator, NetStar Networks, has scooped a $1.8 million three-year deal with the Association of Independent Schools of Victoria (AISV) to supply an IP network for up to 200 potential schools.
NetStar marketing director, Oliver Descoeurdes, said the integrator was responsible for building, supporting and managing the central core providing broadband and instant connectivity to rural regional schools in Victoria.
The deal is part of the association's Victorian Independent Collaborative Technologies and Online Resources project (VICTOR) that seeks to supply a common IP communications network.
"We built the core which is essentially a routing platform and shared services such as proxy server caching, web content security that different schools could access," he said. "We're quite strong already in the education space, but a deal this size and of this visibility reinforces our credibility in this area.
"It gives us a good methodology to approach other organisations in other states."
The infrastructure will be predominately based on Cisco equipment including high-end core routers as well as web filtering security.
'Individual schools will have the ability to set individual security policies in regard to what websites are allowed to be accessed, " Descoeurdes said.
NetStar estimates up to 200 Victorian schools have access to the offer. There are seven sites going through the pilot phase.
"AISV is not expecting every school to take this up, but they're making it available to everyone, so depending on the number of schools, the deployment time could take about six months, but it may vary, "he said.
NetStar has also built centralised Quality of Service (QoS) control into the infrastructure so schools will have the ability to implement video conferencing in the future.
"We're also providing centralised billing so that AISV can bill individual schools based on their usage, " Descoeurdes said.
In other news the integrator has expanded its national presence by opening an office in Brisbane. NetStar also has offices in Sydney and Melbourne.
"We're expanding fairly rapidly at the moment," Descoeurdes said. "We see Brisbane as a growth market because its economy and we've already got some customers there, so this is a huge plus for them. We are looking at future geographic growth."
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