Overview

A leading Kenyan university faced major IT challenges impacting students, staff, and campus networks:

• Thousands of unmanaged student devices
• Malware and virus infections spreading through class networks
• Spam and phishing attacks targeting student emails
• High video streaming traffic (Netflix, Showmax, YouTube) consuming WAN and EduRoam bandwidth
• Rising bandwidth costs

Challenges

The university, with over 1,000 connected devices, experienced:

• Frequent virus and spyware infections from student downloads
• WAN usage hitting 90% capacity throughout the day
• WiFi congestion due to torrents and video streaming
• Exam system latency affecting online assessments
• Spam traffic flooding campus email servers
• Annual bandwidth costs of KES 18 million, with growing demand

Fortinet Solution

The university deployed Fortinet FortiGate 400E in a high availability (HA) setup with:

• AntiVirus + Sandbox to block malware from student devices
• Spam and Phishing Filters to secure email communications
• Application Control to restrict torrents, proxies, and VPNs
• Rate Limiting for social media and streaming during peak hours
• Wireless NAC (802.1x) integrated with FortiAuthenticator
• Network Segmentation for Admin, Students, WiFi, VoIP, and Library systems

Results & Outcomes

• Suspicious traffic dropped by 98%
• Exam portals and e-learning platforms stabilized
• Video streaming traffic reduced by 55% during learning hours
• Spam and phishing blocked across all student emails
• Campus WiFi reliability improved significantly

Financial Impact

• KES 4.2 million annual savings by avoiding bandwidth upgrades
• Fewer network outages → reduced lost learning hours
• IT support workload reduced by 40%