Extreme Networks has established one of the largest cloud-managed network infrastructures in Borås Stad, Sweden, transforming the municipality into a smart city. The new infrastructure delivers faster and more advanced connectivity, extending secure public WiFi for its citizens, local government, schools and services, while automating and simplifying network management for the IT team. The transition to smart cities is designed to provide more sustainable resources to residents while improving quality of life and fueling business innovation.
Municipalities in Sweden are required by law to provide critical welfare services such as schools, childcare, social services and elderly care, among others. The departments and institutions that power these services require a robust, secure network infrastructure to share information seamlessly and securely. As a result of the global pandemic, Borås Stad has also worked to roll out new services such as Wi-Fi connected medical wristbands which allow immediate contact with doctors, real-time heartbeat monitoring and user location information – making reliable, high-speed WiFi critical for proper care.
The ExtremeCloud IQ platform reduces the complexity of network management, streamlines operations, lowers maintenance costs and provides visibility into actionable data and insights from network usage to performance.
Borås Stad as a smart city is another example of how Extreme Networks is helping to lay the groundwork to integrate 5G and WiFi and deliver cloud-based networking services to gain more visibility and better manage networks across the city. Extreme helps provide a seamless connectivity and authentication experience between 5G and WiFi networks, ensuring uninterrupted connectivity for users.
Key Benefits:
Advanced public WiFi connectivity: Borås Stad has deployed approximately 3,500 ExtremeWireless WiFi 6 Access Points to deliver reliable coverage, improved network capacity and faster data speeds across the city’s services. As a result, Borås Stad can deliver seamless digital experiences in sectors such as education and healthcare, attracting businesses to the city and supporting rapid economic growth in the region.
Streamlined network management and insightful data: ExtremeCloud IQ has given the city’s IT staff full oversight of its network infrastructure, enabling nearly all operations to be accessed and viewed in a single cloud network management solution. By reducing the complexity of managing the networking infrastructure, the 3-person engineering team can scale, manage and maintain over 3,500 access points and millions of connected devices with ease. Additionally, ExtremeAnalytics enables the team to optimise the network and leverage insightful usage trends to improve consumer experiences.
Andrzej Kardas, Chief Technology Officer, Borås Stad said, “Extreme Networks has been a key partner in helping us to build a smart city that meets the current and future demands of our citizens. Leveraging Extreme’s solutions, we’ve created an advanced cloud-managed network that helps us roll out new initiatives through seamless, world-class public WiFi – with minimal overhead, management and maintenance required on our end. We’re proud to have established Borås Stad as a modern and dynamic smart city.”
Boris Germashev, Senior Regional Director Northern & Eastern Europe at Extreme Networks, said, “Borås Stad was struggling to provide its growing population with fast and reliable public WiFi, resulting in connectivity issues that absorbed a lot of the IT teams’ time. But with the deployment of ExtremeCloud IQ, Borås Stad has proven that with the right cloud-managed network and solutions, a city can cost-efficiently streamline all networking operations, increase connectivity and enhance services without complicating its fundamental infrastructure. Borås Stad has now established a strong and functional network to provide the best possible public service benefits for its users.”
