Australian museum Case Study

The solution

Affinity Blue started by installing HPE Aruba Networking ClearPass Policy Manager to optimise WiFi and network management. This simplified guest access control, gave staff full visibility into the network, and significantly improved security. The upgrade also resolved a major challenge with managing student iPads used during school tours. Previously, staff had to manually wipe and re-authenticate each device using generic logins—posing both security and usability issues. But this policy manager automated this entire process.

HPE Aruba Networking ClearPass also played a critical role in installing Eduroam. Unlike other roaming services, Eduroam enables users to access the internet at education centers using their own university credentials, verified by their home institution. For users, it’s as simple as logging into a portal with your student ID; but on the backend, the host institution must ensure that its network is not only capable of handling the additional load, but also able to maintain a secure connection for authentication. Affinity Blue worked with the museum’s IT team to ensure that their network infrastructure was configured correctly, using HPE Aruba Networking ClearPass as the lynchpin to automate authentication requests and ensure secure communication between user devices and the network.

Beyond the initial network refresh, Affinity Blue has worked with the museum over recent years to consistently upgrade their infrastructure. “We initially came in during a transition between two generations of IT managers at the museum,” said Neon Islam, Technical Director and co-founder of Affinity Blue. “The previous manager had focused on quick-fix solutions that worked at the time but led to long-term issues. We helped facilitate the handoff and streamline their architecture, ensuring the new manager had an efficient system that could scale with their needs.”