Chattahoochee Technical College Relies on Enterasys and Siemens Enterprise Communications to Support Growth Initiatives

ANDOVER, MA--(Marketwire - May 11, 2009) - Enterasys and Siemens Enterprise Communications today announced that Chattahoochee Technical College is leveraging the virtually seamless interoperability and management features of Enterasys and Siemens' secure convergence and open communications solutions to help support a pending merger with Appalachian Technical College and North Metro Technical College.

The wired/wireless LAN solution delivered by Enterasys, the networking division of Siemens Enterprise Communications, enables secure, cost-effective video and data collaboration applications across five separate Chattahoochee Technical College campus locations, while Siemens delivers digital and IP telephony services. Together, Enterasys and Siemens solutions prioritize and secure more than 3,000 devices used by 6,200 students, 400 faculty and staff across 15 buildings, including classrooms, residence halls and educational centers. A network operations staff of only three employees manages the entire LAN/PBX/WLAN communications infrastructure using integrated management software from Enterasys. The Enterasys Network Management Suite (NMS) is designed to deliver pinpoint visibility and control to the centralized operations team through student/staff/guest role-based policies.

Chattahoochee Technical College is recognized as the largest technical college in Georgia and the fastest growing college of its size in the nation. In addition to its main campus in Marietta, the college offers four campus locations in Cobb and Paulding counties, as well as Distance Education through the Internet and its own dedicated channel, ChattCollege TV. Because of the rapid growth of the student body and the college's dedication to offering a state-of-the-art technology curriculum, it has been selected by the Technical College System of Georgia for inclusion in a strategic merger with Appalachian Technical College and North Metro Technical College -- a transaction which will complete on July 1, 2009.

"As we begin 2009, our top goal as an IT department is to ensure that this merger runs smoothly in every aspect to address student population growth, while blending disparate network infrastructures at Appalachian, Chattahooche and North Metro, without additional funding as we face Georgia state revenue shortfalls," explained Bruce Hopkins, director of Information Technology at Chattahoochee Technical College. "Since we are not able to make any new infrastructure investments this year, Enterasys' open architecture interoperability gives us confidence as we integrate three existing LAN and PBX infrastructures to continue to support VoIP, video and wireless communications."

The Chattahoochee Technical College network is comprised of Enterasys N-Series switches in the core as well at the network edge, with Enterasys Wireless switches supporting 802.11a/b/g connectivity for secure, high-bandwidth mobility. Hopkins and his team assist in stopping unwelcome protocols at the network edge by leveraging Enterasys Intrusion Prevention System (IPS), automatically locating and containing threats to remove attackers while automating responses to vulnerabilities. Identity-based policies unified across the wired and wireless networks enable bandwidth, priority and security control of applications and users based on their job function. A Siemens HiPath® 4000 converged communication solution serves as the college's telephony platform, offering flexibility and scalability as well as all the next-gen phone features in demand by students and faculty.

"We receive great support and granular management for a much lower price point than any of the other vendors we evaluated," Hopkins said. "Our partnership with Enterasys and Siemens has assisted us to achieve faster ROI, lower TCO, and gives us personalized attention. Because of this, our staff has more freedom and flexibility to focus beyond network issues -- something that is more important than ever as we strive to complete this merger."

About Enterasys Networks

Enterasys is the networking division of Siemens Enterprise Communications Group, a Gores Group company. Enterasys® network switching, routing and security solutions are used by thousands of customers in more than 70 countries worldwide to deliver business-oriented, identity-based visibility and control for voice, video, and data applications. The company's open-architecture solutions enable easy to deploy role-based access controls and prioritization for wired and wireless environments with integrated management and security that deliver investment protection, operational efficiency, and significantly reduced total cost of ownership. The Enterasys culture is centered on the principle "There is nothing more important than our customers" with industry-leading technical support. More information about Enterasys hardware, software, services and training is available at www.enterasys.com.

About Siemens Enterprise Communications Group (SEN Group)

The SEN Group is a premier provider of enterprise communications solutions. More than 14,000 employees in 80 countries carry on the tradition of voice and data excellence started more than 160 years ago with Werner von Siemens and the invention of the pointer telegraph. Today the company leads the market with its "Open Communications" approach that enables teams working within any IT infrastructure to improve productivity through a unified collaboration experience. SEN Group is a joint venture between the private equity firm, The Gores Group, and Siemens AG and incorporates Siemens Enterprise Communications, Enterasys Networks, SER Solutions, Cycos and iSEC. In fiscal 2008, The SEN Group generated revenues of approximately 3.21 billion Euros.

Siemens Enterprise Communications GmbH & Co. KG is a Trademark Licensee of Siemens AG.

Contact Information: Contact: Barry Cioe Enterasys Networks +1 978 684 1525 bcioe@enterasys.com Michelle Barry BridgeView Marketing +1 603 570 7533 michelle@bridgeviewmarketing.com