Computing for schools and universities: networks that support the campus

In a school, the network has two weeks a year to fail without consequences — and it's never the weeks it fails. Classes with projection, online assessments, school management platforms, a secretary, a library, and Wi-Fi for hundreds of students at the same time: the IT infrastructure of an educational institution is a production infrastructure with peak hours every day of the school year. DataRoad provides IT for schools, colleges, and higher education institutions — networks, Wi-Fi, security, and systems — with the rule of doing heavy interventions outside of the school year and having someone on hand when the class is starting.

What is different in an educational institution

Hundreds of users logged on at the same time

An office of 30 people has 30 laptops and 30 mobile phones. A school of 600 pupils has, at 8:30 am, 600 mobile phones connecting to the Wi-Fi at the same time, plus the classroom laptops, interactive whiteboards and library tablets. The Wi-Fi has to be designed for density — access points in every room, centralised management, per-user limits — rather than coverage.

Three populations in the same network

Students, teaching staff and administration cannot share the same network. Segmentation — separate networks with different access rules — protects grading sheets, student data and accounting from whoever is experimenting with things in the next room. It is the first thing we design and the most frequently absent from the networks we inherit.

Minors' data

A school holds personal data of minors: identification, health, family situation, assessments. The GDPR treats them with heightened demands. Encrypted backups, defined retention, role-based access and an incident response plan cease to be good practices and become obligations.

Academic calendar

A rewiring or a server migration is not done in November. We plan heavy interventions for school holidays — summer, Christmas, Easter — and leave only operations and support for the term time. The school knows in September what is going to happen until July.

Decades-old buildings and separate pavilions

Lecture blocks, sports hall, canteen, library, reception — often separate buildings, linked by cables where nobody knows the routes. Fibre connections or wireless bridges between blocks and one rack per building, properly documented, are the foundation for the network to last the next decade.

What we provide to schools and universities

• Structured cabling and certification of all rooms, with patch panels per block and fibre links between buildings. See wiring and networks.
• High-density Wi-Fi with one access point per room where needed, separate networks for students, teaching staff, administration and visitors, and centralised management. See wireless networks for business.
• Firewall and content filtering — access control, administrative network protection, age-appropriate filtering for students. See managed firewalls.
• Servers, stations and platforms — secretary's office, library, computer labs, integration with the school management platform and Microsoft 365 Education or Google Workspace for Education.
• IP video surveillance in the accesses and common areas, with retention and access in accordance with the rules applicable to spaces with minors. See CCTV for businesses.
• Backups and business continuity — encrypted and tested copies of the school data, recovery plan for the start of the academic year. See managed backups e disaster recovery.
• 24×7 monitoring (Premium 365) and support during school hours - through the contract IT Unlimited, with proactive monitoring and a quick response when class is starting. Support in Portuguese and English for international schools.

Real-life cases

• Forward College – Lisbon (University of London) — the European higher education institution chose DataRoad for the complete installation of its campus computer network, structured cabling and Wi-Fi in Lisbon, featuring firewall and security, separate networks for students, teaching staff and administration, and dedicated Unlimited IT support, in both Portuguese and English. case summary Describe the challenge: dozens of students and teaching staff connected simultaneously, online classes and assessments, and zero tolerance for failures during the academic term.
• National School of Public Health — complete installation of computer cabling on the Lisbon premises, for internal communications to meet the demands of teaching, research and academic management.

How we work with a school

What is put in writing

• The annual schedule of interventions, aligned with the school term breaks, agreed with the management before the start of the year.
• Network segmentation: which networks exist, who accesses each one and with what rules.
• The as-built documentationstructured cabling plan, racks, point certification and inventory — handed over to the school.
• The backupswhat is copied, how frequently, for how long, and the result of the last restore test.
• The response time during school hours and what counts as a critical incident (a room without a network during an assessment is critical; a library printer is not).

Frequently Asked Questions

Schools and universities are one of the sectors in which DataRoad has specialised, next to hospitality, clinics, offices and multinationals, public sector e embassies and international organisations.

Where we operate

Nationwide, with our own on-site team and a physical presence primarily in Greater Lisbon. We have dedicated pages for Lisbon, Cascais, Oeiras, Sintra, Leiria, Coimbra e Porto. See all areas of expertise.

Case of success and recommended plan

See how the campus network and IT support were at the time the case of Forward College, in Lisbon and get to know the IT Unlimited Premium, With local, remote and telephone support for the school year.

Contact us

Se a sua escola quer chegar a setembro com a rede pronta, a primeira visita é sem compromisso — e faz sentido marcá-la antes do fim do ano letivo. Ligue +351 211 459 950 (weekdays, 09:30–13:00 and 14:00–18:30) or write to sales@dataroad.pt.