Interview: Luis Tenorio, Network Administrator for Somerton School District
Luis Tenorio
Network Administrator for Somerton School District
Recently our team got the opportunity to interview one of our current and long-time customers Luis Tenorio, the Network Administrator for Somerton School District, located 3 hours southwest of Phoenix. Somerton School District is a current customer of WANRack. We sat down and asked Luis to tell us all about his network upgrade experience! He filled us in on his tips, tricks, and guidance for planning and designing a network overhaul!
Luis, tell us a bit about your background and how you came to your current role at Somerton School District.
Luis Tenorio – Network Administrator
I started at the district in 2012 as a computer technician and transitioned to Network Administrator in 2014. I have worked for the district for a little over ten years. Over the course of my time, the district has grown; we are now a district of 7 schools! Daily I deal with everything network related, WAN, LAN, Telephone, etc. My IT team is small but mighty; they all wear multiple hats!
Set up the District’s Network before WANRack. How long was the school with the incumbent?
Before building our private fiber network with WANRack, we were with an incumbent provider. Our provider was oversubscribed, and we were just one of thousands of their customers on “our network.” We had only a 500 MG connection and one wireless point-to-point connection. At the time, our provider did not have fiber to service the one wireless point-to-point connection.
How did you know it was time for a Network Upgrade?
We knew it was time for an upgrade because the demand was consistently increasing; we had more students than we ever had and were starting to introduce a 1-1 initiative with iPads. We quickly realized that we needed to increase our network’s bandwidth. With our old provider, we knew that our cost would skyrocket as we increased our bandwidth.
What were the specific changes you wanted to see in the Network Upgrade? Tell us what WANRack Solution you chose and what you liked most about the offering.
We were looking for a solution that could grow with us well into the future.
We went through the E-Rate process and submitted an RFP because we wanted to see what else was out there! After receiving a few bids and evaluating them, we realized the value of the product WANRack was providing us with! The benefit of switching to WANRack was that it was private and just for us! We are the only customer on our network! We pay for the bandwidth we need and have more than enough, which is okay because we pay a fixed rate! There is no longer worry about when we need more and having to pay more! This was huge! We knew it would be a process and a large undertaking, but it was worth the investment!
When did you start planning for this upgrade, and what did your timeline look like?
We submitted the 470 and went from there! Hadn’t really considered having our own network as an option! We thought this would be super expensive and impossible for a district like ours! We thought we would renew with the incumbent, but then we saw all our options, and switching to WANRack just made sense!
What are some of your Key Takeaways from this process? What advice would you give other K-12 IT directors and teams that are going through this planning and upgrading process?
My biggest piece of advice to others going through this process would be to stay open-minded. We didn’t think this was feasible, and if we didn’t have an open mind or explore all options, we wouldn’t have our own private network. WANRack educated us on how we could make a private network possible! They presented us with options to leverage and use E-Rate and State Match funds! We don’t know if these funds will be around in the future, so if I were you, I would take advantage of them now!
What do the next five years look like for the Somerton School District and Network?
Growing with WANRack!
