MCNC Secures Access from Anywhere for Staff and 1.5+ Million Students

Leading the digital transformation charge in education

MCNC is a technology nonprofit that builds, owns, and operates a leading-edge broadband infrastructure for North Carolina’s research, education, nonprofit healthcare and other community institutions. As these organizations have become more reliant on digital resources and the internet, MCNC wanted to expand its technology portfolio and offer shared services to their customers to best deliver scalable, comprehensive security.

The proliferation of student devices in kindergarten through 12th grade, coupled with the demand for access to numerous educational applications and internet-based services made blocking inappropriate content and providing a comprehensive defense against internet based threats and cybercrime a top priority. MCNC turned to the cloud for better performance, scalability, and reduced complexity in managing disparate technologies and devices.

“Schools in North Carolina rely on technology and digital resources for instruction, testing and school administration, and protecting these resources is critically important to achieve their academic missions,” said Chris Beal, MCNC’s Chief Information Security Officer. “MCNC needed a solution that could scale centrally instead of trying to scale at each customer’s premise to best meet the growing demand from students, teachers and staff in a wide geographic area. Zscaler gives us that ability as well as an efficient way to maintain protections and controls to ensure students have a safe educational experience.”
 

A secure, scalable access solution for 115 districts

MCNC chose Zscaler Internet Access to provide scalable, secure internet access for the educational institutions and their students—regardless of the device they’re using. ZIA delivers an organization’s security needs via the world’s largest security cloud, protecting users with policy-based internet access and real time, inline protection from malware and other more advanced threats. By locating the security stack in the cloud, Zscaler brings the internet gateway closer to the user for a faster experience, and enables organizations to embrace local internet breakouts to realize the benefits of cloud and mobility.

“We are proud to support the mission of MCNC and NCREN to protect students, faculty, and staff of North Carolina schools when using the internet,” said James Kohler, head of Public Sector for Zscaler. “Schools and districts are challenged to enhance public instruction through digital learning while at the same time protecting students from inappropriate content and internet threats. And they have to be able to scale to meet the growing demands of each campus. Zscaler is an ideal solution to meet these challenges.”