New College Leicester: Access all areas - safely

New College, Leicester is a secondary school with over 800 pupils.  They had previously worked with us to upgrade the ICT provision at the college, and the next logical step was to look at the safety of the pupils accessing the internet and the measures which could be taken to protect them from the very real threat of exposure to unsuitable sites.

The school invested in Lightspeed Total Traffic Control, which runs on all of their 550 workstations and is controlled centrally.

Iain Fallon, ICT Manager at New College, says of the system "it is extremely competitively priced, quick to install, easy to manage, has all the flexibility a school could need and it's reliable".

Challenge: To implement a safe way to integrate Web 2.0 tools and resources, and to build in flexibility to facilitate teaching needs throughout the curriculum and across all key stages.

Solution: Implement Lightspeed Total Traffic Control 7 across the entire IT estate - including mobile users - incorporating Security Manager, Web Access Manager, and Network Traffic Manager.

Results: A safer learning environment for students, and multiple policies rolled out which can be changed quickly and easily to accommodate individual lessons and curricula.

View the PDF case study here or read in full below.

Having upgraded the ICT provision at New College, Leicester - a secondary school with around 800 pupils - the next step was to look at the safety of the pupils accessing the internet.

The school invested in Lightspeed Total Traffic Control, which runs on all 550 workstations and is controlled centrally.

“The potential to expose pupils to pornography and unsuitable sites is a very real threat to their learning environment" sys Iain Fallon, ICT Manager at New College. Iain joined New College after Lightspeed had been intalled. He says "I wasn't at New College when the decision was made to use Lightspeed - but I'm glad it was chosen". He says of the system "it is extremely competitively priced, it's quick to install, easy to manage, has all the flexibility a school could need and it's reliable - it clearly out-classes its competitors".

Iain Fallon is impressed by the versatility, and the comprehensiveness, of the Total Traffic Control system. The system allows monitoring of all incoming and outgoing mail - stopping viruses by using a comprehensive virus database and application integrity checking. It also centally manages and reports desktop scans.

Iain says "Stopping viruses from getting into the system saves so many headaches, but it's only part of the picture of the TTC system". He goes on to say "The Web Access Manager (incorporated within TTC) allows us to set multiple policies for different age ranges and set criteria to the smallest detail - we can even unblock certain areas for specific teaching needs, at the touch of a button. So a request for a change for an individual lesson is really no problem at all - deployment is a doddle! The system is so sensitive to our needs, and yet so simple to administer".

So why Lightspeed?

Lightspeed Systems are one of the fastest growing private companies in the US, and are consistent winners of "technical" awards for over 5 years. They provide internet filtering, spam locking and email usage solutions for schools and colleges. They are respected and trusted specialists. Buying Lightspeed means buying great value, quality and support.

Put simply, Total Traffic Control gives an all-in-one solution for email archiving, filtering, antivirus, bandwidth management, spam blocking and more - cutting IT expenses while simplifying IT administration.

Regulations, policies, safety and security all make an internet filter essential in schools. But overblocking limits the potential of the Web to promote participatory learning and acquisition of 21st century skills. Web access management needs to do more than filter inappropriate content - it needs to balance educational Web 2.0 use with network security and student safety.

Lightspeed Web Access Manager provides an intelligent solution for web filtering - offering features for customization, granular policy control, safe Web 2.0 access, and mobile filtering - to ensure that inappropriate sites are no longer a click away, but that valuable content remains available to users.

Lightspeed Email Manager helps you ensure that your Acceptable Use Policies on email usage are being enforced without hindering staff's ability to work and communicate. Email Manager lets you monitor, regulate, report on, and archive all messaging communications.

Lightspeed Security Manager allows you to easily maintain the health of computers across your network by stopping known and unknown threats to your servers and desktops. Security Manager protects your valuable network resources from unwanted access with its advanced, stateful inspection of network traffic.

And The Future?

Iain and the management team at New College are so impressed with Lightspeed that they are now looking to incorporate the Lightspeed Power Manager into their system. Optimising power usage will allow them to reduce their expenditure on running computers which are not in use.

And a last word from Iain "Total Traffic Control is a brilliant product - it ticks every box; competitively priced, reliable, offers every level of protection that's needed, flexible, easy and intuitive to use - and with superb technical support to back it up. Definitely 'Best in Breed'".