The YMCA of Greater Boston, America’s first Y established in 1851, has modernized its networking infrastructure to support a growing number of Internet of Things (IoT) devices and other connected applications, while providing facility-wide connectivity for its members and visitors.
The organization teamed up with Hewlett Packard Enterprise to deploy the Aruba Instant On cloud-managed wired and wireless networking solutions. The deployment is expected to reduce network management costs by 50%.
As one of the largest private social services providers in Massachusetts, with an annual operations budget of over $84 million, the YMCA of Greater Boston is utilizing its new network across 24 locations to innovate and digitize operations and provide guest Wi-Fi to more than 70,000 members and a total of nearly 2 million annual visits by members, program participants, visitors, and business partners.
“Given our expansive mission to innovate services that drive stability, health, wellness, learning, connection, and opportunity for all in our communities, it’s imperative that we have seamless and always-on connectivity,” said Philip DeFeo, IT manager at the YMCA of Greater Boston.
“As a philanthropy and government-funded non-profit organization, it’s also critical to maximize our resources by adopting reliable and cost-effective technology solutions, including wired and wireless networking infrastructure.”
The organization selected Aruba Instant On Wi-Fi 6 AP22 Access Points (APs) and Aruba Instant On Smart-Managed 1930 Switch Series as its future-proof infrastructure. The solutions enable the YMCA to support the skyrocketing number of employee, guest, and operational devices at its facilities, including IoT-enabled technologies such as digital signage, TVs, exercise equipment, HVAC sensors, and security systems.
The YMCA of Greater Boston is now evaluating options to retire some legacy network firewalls, particularly at smaller Wi-Fi-only childcare and camp locations, to reduce the organization’s physical infrastructure footprint and help meet sustainability objectives.
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