Modern Infrastructure for a Traditional School

Introduction

Founded in 1924, the Ecole Internationale de Genève (Ecolint) is the world’s first international school, home to over 1,000 staff members and over 4,300 students representing more than 140 nationalities. With three campuses, two in Geneva and one in Canton de Vaud, and a century-long legacy of educational innovation, Ecolint is a vibrant community where diversity, inclusion and global citizenship are at the heart of learning.

From pioneering the International Baccalaureate to championing education for peace, Ecolint continues to inspire young people to think critically, act compassionately, and contribute meaningfully to the world. At Ecolint, academic excellence meets a deep commitment to humanity, preparing students not just for university, but for life.

Educational Activities and Community Services

Ecolint provides K-12 education to students from families working for international organizations in Geneva, as well as local families seeking an international education for their children. A wide range of extracurricular activities are offered, covering sports, languages, STEM, music, performing arts, visual arts and more. Additionally, vacation camps are organized during school holidays. Ecolint also provides various student services, including lunches, cafeteria services, transportation, printing services and bookroom services.

How Technology Interacts with Our Ecolint Community

• Primary School: Students utilize school-provided iPads and laptops, which are stored in charging trolleys and made available across classrooms for various educational purposes.
• Secondary School: Students follow a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policy and use Google Classroom for daily tasks and homework assignments.
• Staff: All staff members are provided with laptops by the school.
• Connectivity: Students, staff, parents and visitors have access to the campus Wi-Fi, which provides connectivity to internal services and the Internet.

Infrastructure

The three campuses feature four data centers that consolidate the routing functions for 21 buildings across the different sites. The ICT department delivers technological services to over 300 classrooms and dedicated spaces for teachers, students, and administrative staff.

The current scale of our ICT network infrastructure includes four data centers, more than 30 network cabinets, 110 distribution switches and 600 access points – all to provide stable connection for more than 6000 school-owned networked devices (laptops, iPads, servers, screens, IoT devices, etc.) as well as private devices.

Challenges and the search for a partner

In 2016, Ecolint set out to find a solution to unify its wired and wireless networks. The existing management and monitoring systems for both networks were complex to operate, making it difficult to trace the root cause of network security incidents.

Our research focused on identifying a robust partner with proven experience in network hardware and related software solutions. We visited other educational institutions in Switzerland to gather their insights and knowledge, with a particular emphasis on the network management tools being offered.

Vendor compatibility was another critical requirement. It was not feasible for the school to replace all network equipment simultaneously. Therefore, we needed a solution that could ensure seamless network operation for a minimum period of three years to accommodate a phased equipment replacement plan. Our management team prioritized two key aspects: longer equipment lifecycles and cost optimization.

Why we selected Huawei

The selection of Huawei was primarily driven by three key factors: Firstly, their technology supports our service quality focus by providing a reliable and seamless network operation, which allows us to concentrate entirely on the quality of services delivered to our community. Secondly, their responsive support is highly valued by Ecolint, as their support services consistently deliver fast and satisfactory results. Furthermore, Huawei provides cost efficiency; their innovative solutions help us reduce both IT and non-IT investments, significantly improving our overall operational costs.

The migration journey

After selecting Huawei as our partner, we began the migration process in the summer of 2017. The initial measure involved replacing all distribution switches. Huawei’s service team provided the necessary expertise and workforce for the onboarding and deployment across every network cabinet.

The following year, in the summer of 2018, we replaced all core switches. The process was exceptionally smooth; we were genuinely impressed by the simplicity of the task. By integrating the WLAN controller into the new core switches, we were ready to deploy a new wireless network. At that time, we successfully implemented a Wi-Fi 5-capable wireless infrastructure that served us very well.

Embracing innovation: a continuous process

To support the continuous renovation of our school infrastructure and the construction of new facilities, we have strategically embraced Huawei's innovative network technologies across our campuses. This includes deploying Passive Optical Network (PON) solutions, which are already benefiting two schools on one campus and are planned for a new building under construction on another. Beyond new deployments, we have actively modernized our existing network: we have replaced our distribution network for improved connectivity and modern Power over Ethernet (PoE) capabilities, upgraded our Wireless Controllers, and are continuously upgrading our WLAN Access Points to new Wi-Fi 7 models, with plans to replace our core switches next summer.

Strong Partnership with Huawei

This constant infrastructure evolution is crucial for meeting the growing demand for seamless, highly capable connectivity from our community, especially with the integration of Internet of Things (IoT) solutions throughout our buildings. Thanks to our joint past and present experience across a wide range of projects, we have strengthened our partnership with Huawei and are confident that we will continue to benefit from this strong collaboration.