San Diego School District Unites Its 202 Schools With Cisco IP Technology; Significant Cost Savings Expected Over the Next Five Years.

PHILADELPHIA -- Cisco Systems(R) (Nasdaq:CSCO) today announced that San Diego City Schools (SDCS) is deploying a Cisco converged Internet Protocol (IP) network infrastructure in all of its 202 schools and district offices. The Cisco IP-based network is expected to improve SDCS's communication and student achievement by running voice, video and data applications through one centralized network. As a result of this centralization, significant cost savings are expected over the next five years, enabling more efficient delivery of Web-based applications to desktops across the district.

SDCS is currently rolling out Cisco IP phones to enable desktop video conferencing for all principals in the district. With this solution, principals may no longer have to travel to a central location for staff development training, saving valuable time and money. The district is also working on making available delivery of its board meetings over their IP Network, and has plans to deliver online professional development videos for teachers and curriculum materials for students. The district hopes to complete installation of the entire IP infrastructure over the next five years.

Today's announcement was made at the National Education Computing Conference (NECC) in Philadelphia, where Cisco (booth #1630) is demonstrating its suite of K-12 networking solutions that help districts achieve educational excellence and administrative efficiency, while reducing costs and increasing school productivity.

"We needed to update multiple data systems in our district. And our infrastructure needed to support those systems," said Michael Casey, executive director of IT for SDCS. "By working with Cisco, San Diego City Schools now has the technological foundation to efficiently organize our data and enhance communications across the district. This gives teachers and administrators more time to focus on our children's education. Cisco is enabling us to successfully incorporate new technologies to modernize our operations while helping to reduce costs."

The district implemented an overhaul of its entire network infrastructure to consolidate the functions of voice, video and data. This included their Wide Area Network (WAN) and Local Area Network (LAN) plus adding advanced technologies such as Cisco's Content Delivery Engines for video distribution. All schools in the district now have access to highly secure IP video distribution. The district has already seen many benefits from its converged IP network, including increased scalability, security and bandwidth savings. Most importantly, the network has helped to streamline communications across the district. Significant cost-savings are also evident, which the district expects to continue receiving during the next five years as it deploys additional Cisco technology currently in testing at its pilot school.

"San Diego City Schools is an excellent example of how Cisco technology enables applications that help districts become more efficient entities," said Charles Fadel, global lead, education for Cisco Systems. "Plus, by converging voice and video communications the district is also able to integrate technology into the curriculum to provide students and teachers with the best learning resources available."

IP-based solutions are among the portfolio of offerings that Cisco is demonstrating this week at NECC to help educators to "create truly connected schools, and be part of a connected community." Cisco will be displaying its education product portfolio including:

--Cisco Network Solutions for Education

--Cisco Direct Line Solution for K-12

--Cisco IP Video Conferencing Solution for K-12

--CiscoSecure Wireless Solution for K-12

--Cisco Networking Academy

The entire suite of Cisco's K-12 solutions, programs and resources are now available. More information on Cisco's Education Solutions can be found at www.cisco.com/en/US/strategy/education/index.html.

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