THE PRESENTATION SCHOOL DEPLOYS ALL-WIRELESS CAMPUS WITH MERU NETWORKS' WIRELESS LAN SYSTEM

Private School Benefits from 75% Reduction in Cabling Costs
 

Sunnyvale, CA — October 31, 2006

Meru Networks, the global innovation leader in wireless infrastructure for the All-Wireless Enterprise, today announced that The Presentation School (TPS), a private K-8 school located in Sonoma, California, has deployed an all-wireless, campus-wide network for its students, faculty and staff using Meru's Wireless LAN (WLAN) System. Serving 190 students and 25 employees in four buildings, the innovative school has created an advanced technology infrastructure to support its unique curriculum.

Entering its ninth year of operation, The Presentation School offers students an integrated curriculum, emphasizing high expectations, active learning, and the arts. The school recently moved to a new, state-of-the-art, 4.5 acre campus and wanted an equally advanced technology infrastructure for students and staff to use in their daily campus life. Working with technology consultants from GreenIT of Sonoma, California, TPS wanted a networking infrastructure to support both its current and future needs, while minimizing costs and reducing the environmental impact. GreenIT recommended a wireless LAN that could deliver both voice and data applications while substantially reducing the costs associated with a wired network. At the same time, wireless technology would help TPS minimize the environmental impact of IT systems by reducing the amount of plastic-coated copper cabling in school buildings and by completely eliminating many traditional school system components such as overhead paging, televisions, and synchronized clocks and bells.

After evaluating several wireless solutions, TPS concluded that Meru's Wireless LAN System was the best solution to meet the School's current and future needs for providing scalability, ease of deployment and support for both data and toll-quality voice.

"Implementing a flexible, scalable and secure infrastructure that could help us integrate technology into the student educational experience was a top priority during the design process," said Richard Hodges at GreenIT. "With Meru's Wireless LAN System we accomplished our goal of deploying a converged wireless network that supports VoIP, high speed Internet access and all of the School's educational applications, and delivers the added benefits of cost reduction and minimal environmental impact. The WLAN has already resulted in improved communication between faculty, parents, and administrators. The Presentation School is excited about the enhanced learning environment we can now offer to students."

With its WLAN deployment, TPS realized a 75% reduction in its copper cabling budget. These savings were used to help fund the purchase of Apple computers for students in the classroom and for faculty and staff. The WLAN currently delivers high-speed Internet access with controlled content for every part of the school, email and voicemail for faculty to communicate with parents and administrators, and Voice-over-IP so faculty and staff can stay in touch as they roam about the campus.

"The Presentation School's network is an example of the kind of groundbreaking, All-Wireless deployments that are possible with Meru's Wireless LAN System," said Fred Corsentino, VP of Worldwide Sales, Meru Networks. "With the right infrastructure, private schools, public school districts, colleges and universities alike are realizing that they can achieve benefits that go far beyond convenient email and Internet access. As demonstrated by The Presentation School's deployment, the benefits of an All-Wireless Campus extend to improved communications, enhanced learning in the classroom, significant cost savings in both the initial deployment and ongoing operational expenditures, and even reduced environmental impact."

About Meru Networks
Meru Networks is the global leader in wireless infrastructure solutions that enable the All-Wireless Enterprise. Its industry leading innovations deliver pervasive, wireless service fidelity for business-critical applications to major Fortune 500 enterprises, universities, healthcare organizations and local, state and federal government agencies. Meru's award-winning Air Traffic Control technology brings the benefits of the cellular world to the wireless LAN environment, and its WLAN System is the only solution on the market that delivers predictable bandwidth and over-the-air Quality of Service with the reliability, scalability, and security necessary to deliver converged voice and data services over a single WLAN infrastructure. Founded in 2002, Meru is based in Sunnyvale, California. For more information on Meru Networks and its products, visit www.merunetworks.com or call (408) 215-5300.

About GreenIT
GreenIT is an information technology consultancy with a mission to integrate the principles and practices of sustainability and environmental responsibility into the design and management of information technology systems. Based in Sonoma, CA, GreenIT provides research, education, design, and management services to public and private sector clients. For more information on GreenIT visit www.GreenIT.net or call (707) 933-0299.