The Challenge
A small public school district with around 150 employees identified a Wi-Fi security gap. This prompted leaders to ask the district’s technology partner for a better way to authenticate staff and student network connections.
The partner suggested certificates as an alternative to passwords, explaining why they provide stronger security and a better user experience. But the challenge was finding a provider that could secure multiple campus Wi-Fi networks across different vendors, as well as a variety of user devices.
Three out of four schools in the district had the same wireless vendor, while the fourth had a different one. Additionally, the district had three Mobile Device Management (MDM) platforms for the various device types in use, each of which has a different certificate enrollment path. This complexity meant that the district needed a security solution that was vendor-agnostic and scalable across school locations.
The Solution
The district’s technology partner pointed to the SecureW2 JoinNow Platform for its multi-MDM, multi-vendor support and cloud-based management.
Deployment started at one school, with plans to expand to the remaining schools that share a wireless vendor. Apple device enrollment and MDM integration was completed first, followed by SCEP integration for Chromebooks. The JoinNow platform serves both wireless environments from the same cloud infrastructure, so no changes are needed when the other three schools come online. A few implementation sessions covered the full initial scope.
The Results
- Successful certificate issuance. Apple devices and Chromebooks received certificates through MDM integration with the JoinNow platform, enabling certificate-based authentication.
- Vendor-agnostic RADIUS server. The same SecureW2 cloud infrastructure serves all wireless environments, regardless of differing vendors.
- Security at scale. As the district completes MDM integration for Windows devices and brings the remaining three schools online, the same SecureW2 cloud infrastructure will serve the entire district without modification.