Intelligent CIO North America Issue 31 | Page 58

CASE STUDY the use of a Digital Twin for the campus . Other research opportunities include smart greenhouses , autonomous farming and various data-intensive projects .
“ Cal Poly continues to lead in the development of a digital campus . We ’ re driving innovation for smart buildings and smart agriculture by introducing new devices and applications , and now we have a more reliable way to get data from point A to point B . Federated Wireless and AWS are giving us the 5G backbone to make the digital campus a reality ,” said Bill Britton , Cal Poly ’ s Vice President for Information Technology Services and Chief Information Officer .
“ Our work is all about Learn by Doing , ensuring students , faculty and staff have access to the latest technology to advance research and innovation . Federated Wireless and AWS are enabling us to bring the power and privacy of 5G to our campus faster .”
The unique multi-tenancy capabilities of private wireless ensure the solution can partition private network resources for different requirements and user groups . This means the private 5G resources can scale to accommodate projects starting with the DxHub as well as various organizations on campus including IT services , facilities and academic research .
“ Our customers want simple , fast and dedicated wireless connectivity to enable their mission-critical applications ,” said Sameer Vuyyuru , Head of Worldwide Business Development , Telco Industry at AWS .
“ The combination of AWS with Federated Wireless ’ s Private Wireless Network for Your Enterprise helps simplify the process to build , deploy and manage private wireless networks , making it easier for more customers to realize the benefits . We are pleased to work with Cal Poly to leverage these benefits to accelerate learning and innovation across its campus .”
We asked Bill Britton , Vice President of Information Technology , CIO , at Cal Poly , further questions to find out more .
Can you explain the concept of the Digital Campus and how Federated Wireless and Amazon Web Services have helped make this a reality ?
Generally speaking , university CIOs have been working to create a truly digital campus to deliver a high-quality , high-performance experience for students , faculty and staff . The speed with which we all needed to move to distance learning underscored this .
Built on AWS Snowcone , an ultra-portable and rugged edge compute , storage and data transfer device connected over Federated Wireless shared spectrum deployed on AWS , the 5G private wireless solution is designed to deliver secure , reliable connectivity in highly remote environments where last-mile connectivity has traditionally been the greatest barrier to deploying innovative new applications and devices . Running on AWS allows Cal Poly to deliver cloud-based applications across its expansive and geographically diverse campus locations .
“ It ’ s become very clear that private wireless is a major piece of the puzzle for enterprises to realize the massive potential of IoT and cloud automation ,” said Iyad Tarazi , CEO of Federated Wireless . “ Our work with AWS is about giving customers the easiest path to get started with private wireless while creating seamless , supported integrations . We ’ re proud to streamline this offering for entities that are eager to get started with private wireless and 5G .”
Federated Wireless is part of the AWS Independent Software Vendor ( ISV ) Accelerate Program , a cosell program for AWS Partners who provide software solutions that run on or integrate with AWS . The program helps drive new business and accelerate sales cycles by connecting the participating ISVs with the AWS Sales organization .
Cal Poly moved to the cloud , leveraging AWS back in 2016 . At the same time , we began to establish the Cal Poly Digital Transformation Hub powered by AWS ( DxHub ) to provide students with hands-on learning opportunities to design cloud-based solutions for public sector organizations .
Working now with Federated Wireless and AWS on 5G private wireless deployment , we are moving closer to a truly digital campus , providing students and faculty with seamless experiences in using massive amounts of data and furthering the exploration and use of cloud-based applications .
Examples of this include the digital twin that our Smart campus is developing with faculty and students from the College of Architecture and Environmental Design and College of Engineering .
Another example is the Ag Tech innovation our College of Agriculture , Food and Environmental Sciences is leading in exploring autonomous farming and the use of autonomous tractors .
Why was it important for Cal Poly to deploy a private wireless network ?
As a polytechnic university , we focus on Learn by Doing and want to ensure we ’ re creating innovative ,
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