Almost five years into the SNUP (Schools Network Upgrade Project) almost all New Zealand schools now have modern gigabit networks installed.

The Ministry of Education has also recently started its SNUP wireless programme.

The next challenge is going to be the managing of these networks. Especially with the explosion of wireless tablets and smartphones entering the network. That doesn't even start to cover the smart whiteboards, projectors and surveillance systems more and more schools are putting onto the network.

This also isn't an issue for just educational institutes; almost any organsation of any size has or will encounter the same pain point.

Allied Telesis is partnering up to help solve this complex nightmare.

The networking brand was the winner of the fixed network upgrades for schools, plus has a large number of enterprise clients throughout New Zealand.

Their solution is to bundle up clever network monitoring software with their support team members into a new solution called Net.Health (NZ version of what they call Net.Monitor in other countries).

There is a basic version of the solution available at no cost. While a more advanced version including both the software and the access to the support technicians is a paid offering.

The latter isolates problems that are network and non-network related, saving customers time and money. Non-network issues include those found in print server, SAN server set up, Firewall configuration and Google Docs configuration.

The customer and IT contractor can view the dashboard together, which is a good starting point when trying to isolate a problem.

Allied Telesis also pro-actively informs customers about WiFi access points not working in a particular area.

The more detailed advanced package, which provides automated monthly reports, is now available from local Allied Telesis distributors Connector Systems and Exeed.

White labeling of the software is also possible if it's being bundled up into an even larger support contract.

The software selected in the bundle provides a very graphic interface to help diagnose all sorts of network issues. The software can diagnose these issues regardless of the brand of networking equipment.

So in theory non-Allied Telesis network users could down the software free of charge and benefit.

One can obviously see the benefit for Allied Telesis and its existing thousands of school clients, but the offering should also be of serious interest to enterprise and business clients throughout.

More information about the solution is available here.

Those resellers and system integrators interested should contact Allied Telesis on 0800 114 141 or one of their New Zealand distributors Connector Systems or Exeed.