Case Studies University of Illinois Housing Facility Provides Uninterrupted Internet Access with the Barracuda Link Balancer

Edit This Case Study Record

	University of Illinois Housing Facility Provides Uninterrupted Internet Access with the Barracuda Link Balancer

University of Illinois Housing Facility Provides Uninterrupted Internet Access with the Barracuda Link Balancer

Technology Category	Cybersecurity & Privacy - Network Security Networks & Connectivity - Gateways Networks & Connectivity - Network Management & Analysis Software
Applicable Industries	Education
Applicable Functions	Facility Management
Use Cases	Building Energy Management
Services	System Integration
Challenge	Residents of Europa House, a certified housing facility for the University of Illinois, faced significant issues with Internet connectivity. The single cable connection provided was insufficient to handle the bandwidth-intensive activities of approximately 100 residents, including accessing university web resources, online libraries, research databases, and other essential academic and non-academic resources. Network administrators received numerous support calls regarding Internet latency, which hindered students and faculty from completing critical coursework and accessing necessary resources. Read More
About Customer	Europa House is a certified housing facility for the University of Illinois, accommodating around 100 residents during the academic year. The facility also houses graduate students, post-graduate students, and visiting faculty members during the summer. Europa House provides network resources to its residents through a 100Base-T Ethernet local area network called EuropaNet. This network connects all computer ports in the facility to the Internet, enabling students and faculty to access online university resources and browse the web. The residents utilize EuropaNet to access various university web resources, including the online library, research databases, course materials, student portal, file sharing, blogs, and email. Additionally, they access other non-academic resources such as audio and video streams, which can be bandwidth-intensive. Read More
Solution	After extensive product research, Europa House chose the Barracuda Link Balancer 430 for its affordability and comprehensive feature set. To complement the existing single cable link, two additional cable links were added to ensure Internet uptime and improve application availability. The Barracuda Link Balancer 430 was easily integrated into the existing network infrastructure, balancing traffic across three cable connections. The Barracuda Link Balancer provided the ability to define Quality of Service (QoS) rules for prioritizing web applications and accessing other online resources based on the type of web request. For example, it was configured to ensure that access to critical academic resources and applications received high bandwidth priority. This resulted in an immediate increase in Internet connection speeds and a drastic reduction in support calls. Additionally, the built-in firewall of the Barracuda Link Balancer replaced the in-house built firewall, allowing for the configuration of network address translation (NAT) and port forwarding rules to secure the network monitoring server and other internal Linux servers. Read More Log in to view content
Contents

Technology Category

Cybersecurity & Privacy - Network Security

Networks & Connectivity - Gateways

Networks & Connectivity - Network Management & Analysis Software

Applicable Industries

Education

Applicable Functions

Facility Management

Use Cases

Building Energy Management

Services

System Integration

Challenge

Residents of Europa House, a certified housing facility for the University of Illinois, faced significant issues with Internet connectivity. The single cable connection provided was insufficient to handle the bandwidth-intensive activities of approximately 100 residents, including accessing university web resources, online libraries, research databases, and other essential academic and non-academic resources. Network administrators received numerous support calls regarding Internet latency, which hindered students and faculty from completing critical coursework and accessing necessary resources.

About Customer

Europa House is a certified housing facility for the University of Illinois, accommodating around 100 residents during the academic year. The facility also houses graduate students, post-graduate students, and visiting faculty members during the summer. Europa House provides network resources to its residents through a 100Base-T Ethernet local area network called EuropaNet. This network connects all computer ports in the facility to the Internet, enabling students and faculty to access online university resources and browse the web. The residents utilize EuropaNet to access various university web resources, including the online library, research databases, course materials, student portal, file sharing, blogs, and email. Additionally, they access other non-academic resources such as audio and video streams, which can be bandwidth-intensive.

Solution

After extensive product research, Europa House chose the Barracuda Link Balancer 430 for its affordability and comprehensive feature set. To complement the existing single cable link, two additional cable links were added to ensure Internet uptime and improve application availability. The Barracuda Link Balancer 430 was easily integrated into the existing network infrastructure, balancing traffic across three cable connections. The Barracuda Link Balancer provided the ability to define Quality of Service (QoS) rules for prioritizing web applications and accessing other online resources based on the type of web request. For example, it was configured to ensure that access to critical academic resources and applications received high bandwidth priority. This resulted in an immediate increase in Internet connection speeds and a drastic reduction in support calls. Additionally, the built-in firewall of the Barracuda Link Balancer replaced the in-house built firewall, allowing for the configuration of network address translation (NAT) and port forwarding rules to secure the network monitoring server and other internal Linux servers.

Impact #1	The Barracuda Link Balancer 430 was easily integrated into the existing network infrastructure, balancing traffic across three cable connections.
Impact #2	The ability to define Quality of Service (QoS) rules allowed for prioritizing web applications and accessing other online resources based on the type of web request.
Impact #3	The built-in firewall of the Barracuda Link Balancer replaced the in-house built firewall, allowing for the configuration of network address translation (NAT) and port forwarding rules to secure the network monitoring server and other internal Linux servers.

Impact #1

The Barracuda Link Balancer 430 was easily integrated into the existing network infrastructure, balancing traffic across three cable connections.

Impact #2

The ability to define Quality of Service (QoS) rules allowed for prioritizing web applications and accessing other online resources based on the type of web request.

Impact #3

The built-in firewall of the Barracuda Link Balancer replaced the in-house built firewall, allowing for the configuration of network address translation (NAT) and port forwarding rules to secure the network monitoring server and other internal Linux servers.

Benefit #1	The Barracuda Link Balancer 430 can handle up to six WAN links.
Benefit #2	Europa House added two additional cable links to the existing single cable link to ensure Internet uptime and improve application availability.

Benefit #1

The Barracuda Link Balancer 430 can handle up to six WAN links.

Benefit #2

Europa House added two additional cable links to the existing single cable link to ensure Internet uptime and improve application availability.

Download PDF Version

Overview

University of Illinois Housing Facility Provides Uninterrupted Internet Access with the Barracuda Link Balancer

Operational Impact

Quantitative Benefit