EarthLink Business provided The College Network, a distance learning provider, with a customized infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) solution with Cloud Hosting and Dedicated Servers, to provide backend storage in a highly scalable, replicated database cluster. http://earthlinkbusiness.com

1. CASE STUDY The College Network
“
The College Network Increases Availability,
Speed of Mission-Critical Systems
Distance Learning Provider Cuts Capital Costs, Adds Business
Continuity Plan
“
-
You can’t put a price on the availability of systems.
That’s the value of infrastructure as a service. With
EarthLink, I’m sleeping better at night.
Ryan Sallee
Chief Information Officer
The College Network
Challenges
The small IT team at The College
house, and found that it spent more
time troubleshooting hardware issues
than solving business problems.
Additionally, The College Network
needed a business continuity strategy
to enable high availability of businesscritical systems.
Solution
The College Network implemented
a customized Cloud Hosting and
Dedicated Server solution for a highly
scalable, replicated database cluster.
Results
•
Cost savings – Virtualizing with
EarthLink significantly reduced
the company’s capital expenses.
With just a SAN upgrade, The
College Network estimates it will
Business Challenges
The College Network was an early pioneer in the now billion-dollar online
education industry. Since 1992, the company and its partner universities
have provided high-quality, accessible educational programs entirely
through distance learning.
A small IT team supports the company’s growing technology infrastructure,
serving 200 employees in Indianapolis and Las Vegas and another 150
independent contractors nationwide. Like many companies its size, The
College Network struggled with covering all IT needs. Previously, the IT
team managed approximately 50 physical servers at its headquarters
and another 65 in downtown Indianapolis—all connected to storage area
networks (SANs).
“We tried to do everything ourselves. We had to be server experts when
managing the physical hardware. We really needed to get IT focused on
solving business challenges, rather than managing servers,” said Ryan
Sallee, chief information officer at The College Network.
avoid a $200,000 to $300,000
expenditure.
•
Availability – The College Network
built a business continuity
structure to ensure systems are
always on. The company has
Just as critical, The College Network needed a disaster recovery plan
to ensure that, when adult learners register or log on to access course
materials, they could get in reliably. Before, the company experienced
outages with its SAN-based infrastructure.
multi-path connectivity between
its Indianapolis headquarters and
EarthLink’s data center.
•
Higher-value IT focus – The team
has shifted its time from managing
“With online learning, our IT environment is very important,” Sallee said. “If
the systems aren’t available, then our customers don’t have access to their
course materials.”
servers to applying technology
solutions to solve business
challenges.
getinfo@earthlinkbusiness.com | www.earthlinkbusiness.com
The College Network Case Study 2013
© 2012-2013 EarthLink, Inc. Trademarks are property of their respective owners. All rights reserved.
Network handled all IT needs in

2. CASE STUDY The College Network
Why The College
Network Selected
EarthLink Business
By virtualizing with EarthLink,
The EarthLink Business Solution
Sallee saw infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) as the way to increase
reliability and take the burden of server maintenance off his team. The
College Network evaluated a handful of IaaS providers, and decided to
move forward with EarthLink Business.
the IT team shifts its focus to
higher-value activities while
letting EarthLink handle servers.
Additionally, the EarthLink team
EarthLink provided a customized IaaS solution with Cloud Hosting and
Dedicated Servers, to provide backend storage in a highly scalable,
replicated database cluster. Additionally, the EarthLink solution allowed
The College Network to continue using its existing ISP.
took the time to truly understand
direction, and continues to be
there when they’re needed.
From the first conversation with
members of the EarthLink team,
Sallee felt comfortable they had
a solid understanding of his
business needs.
“What really made the difference
was the people at EarthLink,”
Sallee said. “We felt like EarthLink
was a partner that could get us
where we wanted to be.”
“EarthLink has been top notch. I
couldn’t ask for a better support
staff,” Sallee said. “I don’t say
that about all tech partners,
though I wish I could. I have
already recommended the
service to others.”
With EarthLink Cloud Hosting, The College Network went beyond a disaster
recovery plan to build a business continuity structure. Rather than replicating
and drawing on those resources, just-in-case, the company’s IT services
are always on and available. The company also has multi-path connectivity
between its Indianapolis headquarters and EarthLink’s data center.
“Our configuration with our previous SAN was good but not the clustered,
redundant environment that we have at EarthLink,” Sallee said.
The College Network made the cutover on a Saturday evening. When staff
came in Monday, nothing was out of the ordinary. In fact, things were faster.
“They didn’t realize that the systems had moved from 20 feet away to a
few hundred miles away, and it was faster,” Sallee said. “My team did an
unbelievable job in planning and executing flawlessly. It was a huge win
for our company.”
“We have significantly upgraded our infrastructure and availability of
mission-critical systems, which makes people more efficient, processes
easier, data availability higher and customer satisfaction better,” Sallee said.
Positioned for the Future
Virtualizing with EarthLink significantly reduces the company’s capital
expenses. But Sallee sees the real benefit as availability. “You can’t put a
price on the availability of systems. That’s the value of infrastructure as a
service. With EarthLink, I’m sleeping better at night.”
Additionally, The College Network has reallocated its valuable IT manpower
on activities that bring greater value to the business while the EarthLink
team takes care of troubleshooting any systems issues.
“Now that our team isn’t managing servers every day, we’re starting to look
at business challenges and providing technology solutions to improve our
processes. Instead of fixing things, we’ll be proactively contributing to the
business,” he said.
getinfo@earthlinkbusiness.com | www.earthlinkbusiness.com
The College Network Case Study 2013
© 2012-2013 EarthLink, Inc. Trademarks are property of their respective owners. All rights reserved.
the company’s needs and