Zayo Group Holdings, Inc., a leading global communications infrastructure platform, announced today the launch of ENA Ally®. This new offering is part of Zayo's education-centric professional and managed technology services portfolio that has been enhanced by its recent acquisition of ENA. Zayo's unique hardware-neutral service approach gives K-12 school districts access to ENA by Zayo's team of dedicated, experienced engineers who solve IT workforce and cybersecurity challenges, regardless of the school's infrastructure.
With ENA Ally, K-12 school districts can now leverage specialized technical expertise to optimize their network infrastructure and technology systems with ease. The portfolio of services is managed and performed by ENA by Zayo's experienced project managers and engineers, enabling K-12 school districts to collaborate and lean on a team of network and cybersecurity professionals without hiring additional IT staff. Signature services within the suite include Wi-Fi, Cybersecurity and Private LTE connectivity.
"The education sector plays a critical role in maintaining and growing our overall socioeconomic well-being. Our top priority is to provide our K-12 customers with solutions to help alleviate some of the immense challenges they are facing and ensure students have safe and equitable access to digital learning opportunities, regardless of their infrastructure," said Michael McKerley, president of ENA by Zayo. "With ENA Ally, schools can leverage nationally recognized engineers to address workforce shortages, enable them to secure their digital learning environments and bridge the digital divides that exist both on and off their campuses."
The ENA Ally technology services will address the numerous challenges school districts face today, including:
- Workforce Shortages and Hiring Challenges: School districts are in crisis management mode and are scrambling to fill a rapidly increasing number of vacancies. According to a recent Gartner Survey, IT workers have the lowest intent to stay in their jobs compared to all corporate functions, and 7 in 10 digital leaders say their company cannot keep pace with change due to worker shortages. ENA Ally technology services, i.e., customized consulting and implementation, support K-12 school districts as they face workforce shortages and hiring challenges, specifically the cost of hiring new employees with the necessary technical expertise in areas of the country where it's hard to recruit and keep new talent.
- Increased Cybersecurity Risk: In the past two years, school districts have experienced a sharp increase of attacks and only 14% of school districts describe themselves as "very prepared" to deal with a cyberattack. The cybersecurity crisis in school districts recently led The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency CISA) to identify K-12 schools as one of three priority sectors that will be a primary area of focus for them.With ENA Ally, school districts can leverage ENA by Zayo's expertise to engineer secure digital learning and operational environments, as well as receive ongoing network security management to address cybersecurity challenges.
- Outdated Wireless Infrastructure: Many school districts operate off of outdated infrastructure, which can lead to malfunctions and costly loss of productivity. ENA Ally offers a comprehensive suite of all-inclusive and à la carte Wi-Fi/WLAN services with flexible management and hardware options, as well as the ability to design and build private LTE networks customized to fit individual school districts' unique needs and to help achieve their unique connectivity goals.
As a part of ENA by Zayo's commitment to delivering exceptional customer care, the ENA Ally services are tailored to meet individual school districts' needs. This commitment and level of service are reflected in ENA by Zayo's 99% customer satisfaction rate and world class Net Promoter Score (NPS), which measures customer loyalty.
As an example of ENA Ally in action, ENA by Zayo was contracted by Hillsborough County Public Schools (HCPS) to upgrade its infrastructure, in a short period of time.
"At Hillsborough County Public Schools, we are committed to building future-ready digital learning environments that support our students and staff," said Dr. Thomas Weeks, chief technology officer of Hillsborough County Public Schools. "We commissioned ENA by Zayo to implement a cost-effective solution to upgrade our aged switching and wireless infrastructure at our district's administrative sites. The resulting solution provides the district with the overall benefits of increased productivity, reduced costs, and greater speed and reliability for accessing our data."
This new portfolio comes following the closing of Zayo's acquisition of ENA in June of this year. With the acquisition of ENA, Zayo connects over 19,000 K-12 schools around the U.S.
To learn more about ENA by Zayo's ENA Ally Technology Services, please visit https://www.ena.com/solutions/technology-services/ena-ally/.
