WA education inks $35m Cisco deal

in brief Western Australia's Department of Education and Training has inked a five-year, $35 million deal with Optus subsidiary Alphawest to supply Cisco networking hardware to schools around the state.

The department's manager of infrastructure and telecommunications Glenn Veen said it would be mandatory for the state's 800-odd schools to use the deal to purchase Cisco hardware, with it being optional for TAFE colleges. He said the deal was worth about $35 million over five years.

Because of the remoteness of many of the state's schools, Veen's team has used a standard operating environment approach to see standardised network hardware supplied, with devices being pre-configured and shipped out to staff that often didn't have a high degree of IT literacy.

"The arrangement with Cisco and Alphawest now means schools do not have to be IT experts, easing the burden of decision making as well as the difficulty of the procurement process," said Veen.