It is not often that you find a partner who has been there from the beginning. Through growth, renovations, relocations and expansions, Cleveland Institute of Art (CIA) has been a dedicated internet access customer since the early days—more than 13 years to be exact.
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“Cleveland Institute of Art was among the first clients to join OneCommunity’s fiber network,” says Mat Felthousen, Vice President, Office of Support Service & Chief Information Officer, Cleveland Institute of Art.
Everstream is a superregional fiber network service provider whose roots lie with OneCommunity. For a decade, OneCommunity provided high-speed broadband access and mission-based programming for healthcare, education and government customers throughout Northeast Ohio.
“At the time, OneCommunity offered something that was not accessible—a fiber service provider available to the nonprofit community, which was a compelling reason to join. In the years since, the stability, performance and cost-effectiveness of Everstream’s network have only reinforced the rationale for that decision,” Felthousen continues.
The Cleveland Institute of Art is an accredited, independent college of art and design appropriately situated in the city’s east side University Circle neighborhood—home to world-renowned museums, prestigious universities and nationally recognized hospitals interspersed with diverse restaurants and parks.
CIA has a history of excellence and innovation dating back to 1882. It offers 15 majors, ranging from drawing and ceramics to animation and biomedical art, to 600 undergraduate students.
Information technology is integrated into every aspect of life at CIA for students, alumni, faculty and staff alike.
“From our application process to course management to alumni outreach, high-speed access is critical to our campus community,” notes Felthousen.
Over the years, Cleveland Institute of Art has experienced an understandable increase in its bandwidth consumption due to the shift toward a bring-your-own-device environment as well as new residential housing options. While the round-the-clock demands of students’ course loads affect CIA’s bandwidth needs, Everstream’s Cloud direct peering connections help to mitigate the impact of students’ personal online access.
Everstream supports direct connections to its network through direct peering, allowing customers’ network traffic to go directly to Adobe, Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, Google, Netflix and others while avoiding unnecessary trips through third party networks—reducing latency and naturally increasing throughput.
“Everstream’s peer network is very strong and the direct connections ensure that our internet connectivity is not impacted,” Felthousen explains.
“When students need to share large files with professors and employers or access streaming files, they need to be able to transfer that data as quickly and as transparently as possible. We have enjoyed a very stable and very high-performing environment in the time we’ve been with Everstream,” he adds.
Everstream brings fiber-based Ethernet, internet and data center solutions to businesses throughout the Midwest. The company continues to serve nonprofit healthcare, education and government organizations. Everstream focuses on delivering best-in-class network solutions while providing an unrivaled commitment to customer service.
“What makes Everstream different is we are a 100 percent owned fiber network,” explains Bill Major, Vice President, Sales and Marketing, Everstream. “We’re able to deliver end-to-end fiber solutions—while being flexible, scalable and customizable—to meet our customers’ connectivity needs today and into the future.”
Notably, Everstream’s network has the flexibility to allow customers the opportunity to burst—or temporarily exceed their bandwidth to accommodate a spike in inbound traffic—when needed. This bursting capability has proven to be a key differentiator.
“Everstream has a very pragmatic approach that really distinguishes them from the competition,” says Felthousen. “They have a pure mission of data connectivity that is not distracted by other services. That commitment shows in the end result.”
“Everstream has been a wonderful strategic partner from day one,” he adds.
Challenges:
- Increasing demands
- Capacity fluctuations
- Fixed resources
Solutions:
- Consistent high-speed access
- Scalable growth
- Cost-effective solutions
Service Provided: