Interview: Brian Huff, Network Administrator for Castleberry Independent School District

Brian Huff

Network Administrator for Castleberry Independent School District

To start, we ask everybody to give a brief introduction on your background and how you came to your current role at Castleberry.

Brian Huff: I've been at Castleberry Independent School District for 15 years. Before becoming the Network Administrator, I was the network assistant for a year and a half. Before working at the school, I worked in telecom as a contractor for an incumbent provider. 

Can you set up what the district's network looked like before you guys switched to a WANRack solution?

Brian Huff:  Yeah, of course, every time we went to contract with our old provider, they were looking at different products, different types of fiber, and they had to bring in new circuits. Their service worked well on the back end, but it all went downhill after you signed the paperwork. And it was very frustrating. We are still dealing with issues from our previous provider. Of all the things I had to do in my job, I lost the most time on that. I spent more time on the phone with our old provider than I would have liked. My secretary and I spent hours and weeks every year wasted trying to deal with their billing. It was just a constant nightmare. 

How did you know it was time to switch providers?

Brian Huff: Our previous provider was time-consuming, and I just started saying, "Hey, we've got to find something better than this." Our region center decided to go out and do their own wide area network, encouraging all the member districts to jump onto that bandwagon. They were using a competitor, and they had a good product. They offered a ten Gig fiber connection. You could do ten Gig connection to every one of your endpoints and to the Internet. But in the end, I would pay a lot more because they had to pull my E-Rate eligibility in to pool it with other districts in the area. We would spend thousands a month, which is way more than we're paying now.

Tell us a little about the E-Rate Process. 

Brian Huff: First, I was nervous, as I was new to E-Rate and had to do it myself. It was terrifying to think, what if it goes downhill? What if we don't get funded? What do we do? So many different things were scary about the process, but I felt very confident once I met Rob, WANRack's CEO and founder, and the team at WANRack.

Once we saw the response to our form 470 from WANRack, we knew it was the solution for us! It seemed too good to be true, but the more we got into it, I started looking at what WANRack would provide at the price they would do it for. I was like, wow! We will get much more than we currently get with our current provider or at the region center for so much less. My only thought was surely they have the billing figured out and simplified! 

The biggest thing I wanted out of my 470 was getting away from the incumbent, and WANRack was the avenue for just that!

Do you think one of the main drivers for switching from the incumbent's solution to a WANRack solution was the billing issues you had previously dealt with? 

Brian Huff: It was, but so was the price point. But most of all, we wanted to find a partner we could work with. We wanted someone we didn't have to babysit all the time. We were looking for a solution and partner that did the work; we wanted to save time. WANRack does it all for us and makes our network seamless. Whenever I did something with our previous provider, there were many pieces of the puzzle. They would change the fiber product, and they would change the fiber coming into my building, and then they would change the equipment. It was never-ending and caused us tons of scheduled downtime. And so, we just had to jump in and make some changes on something different, and WANRack promised me that they could do the SPI method where they were billing E-Rate for their portion and billing us only for our portion. It was seamless and helpful! I've been happy with WANRack. We have never had a problem, let alone a billing problem! 

You already touched on this a little, but how did you know it was time to upgrade and switch to a private network? 

Brian Huff:  Oh, we needed to increase our bandwidth, and that was a big point. We were at a 1 Gig pipe to the Internet at the time, and 1 Gig pipe to all of our campuses, which was becoming a choke point. We needed more bandwidth.

How does what happens daily in the classroom factor into your guys' network upgrade process? 

Brian Huff: We were ahead of the curve in many ways. For several years, our students have been one-to-one from elementary all the way through on certain devices. Back in 2015, we were at a point where we were starting to see issues with our current bandwidth not being able to meet our needs. 

What changes did you want to see in your network upgrade? 

Brian Huff: Simplicity. As I mentioned with our previous provider, they always brought in new equipment and never removed old ones. It just piled up! It is nice to hear that I don't have to rely on somebody else's equipment with WANRack. WANRack provides me with the SFP to light the fiber, and I am good to go. I am not storing or cooling anyone's equipment! WANRack is just a simpler and easier solution.

What specifically about the WANRack value proposition excited you and ultimately said yes, this is what we want for our district? 

Brian Huff: Everyone told me I was crazy for building out my own network! There were no large upfront costs to do it because of E-Rate and matching funds that were available then. Why would I choose the alternate route that would cost me thousands a month versus hundreds a month with WANRack? When I tell others about the service I get with WANRack, their jaw drops! 

When did your planning process start? 

Brian Huff: It was a short planning process. At the end of November and the beginning of December, we started to take it seriously, and I began to talk to my bosses about it. We needed to do something drastic. My director was excited about the WANRack solution and loved the idea of making a change. 

Did you have a lot of hoops and jumps you had to go through? Or any obstacles you didn't expect that were challenging? 

Brian Huff:  You mean internally? Yeah, we went to the board. I had several maps, drawings, and spreadsheets to show them what our plan was and what our current situation looked like. I proved where our district could go with WANRack, encouraging the board to take the leap. They were concerned about what would happen if this plan fell through, but ultimately they were ready and willing to let us take a chance.  

What are some of your key takeaways from working with WANRack, and what advice would you give to other schools that are thinking about a project like this or maybe not thinking about a project like this?

Brian Huff: As far as schools thinking about a project like this, don't be scared. I was scared to death just because what if this idea came back and landed in my lap? Another thing is to plan accordingly. Note: I didn't hire a consultant, and I could do it myself - and we got awarded, so it's possible it's not that difficult. Follow the guidelines and the guidance you're given, but don't be scared. 

Key takeaways would be to have a scoring matrix to fairly score and see what is being offered to you from all vendors! Are you getting apples for apples? This is what I had to do to convince my bosses and say, "You know, look, we could go with our current provider (the easy route), but it's gonna cost us more in the long run. We put our scoring matric next to our "easy options" and said, "What do we get with them? What are we paying for? And here are all the different benefits." We laid it out and said, wow, look at all the extras we are getting with the WANRack solution. It just makes sense! 

Has WANRack lived up to its proposed value proposition?

Brian Huff:  100%, yes! Happy, satisfied customer right here!