IT Success Story | Cariboo-Chilcotin School District

CASE STUDY

How School District 27 Built a Security-First IT Culture in the Heart of BC

With IX Solutions as a long-term partner, the district transformed a fragile IT foundation into one of the most well-architected environments in the province.

Running IT for the Cariboo-Chilcotin School District—or School District 27—is no small undertaking. With nearly 5,000 students, 1,000 staff, and 20 schools spread across 23 sites, the district covers a geographic area the size of Switzerland—stretching six hours from east to west across the northern interior of British Columbia. Sean Cameron, Director of Instruction, oversees the district's IT department alongside a lean team of five. Skilled as they are, the complexity of the environment demands more than any small team can carry alone.

"Our team is skilled," Sean says. "But identifying trusted partners that can augment what we're able to do ourselves and help us move forward with more complex IT initiatives—that's where our partnership with IX originates."

A District Ready to Move Forward

When Sean assumed oversight of the IT department, the district was operating on outdated systems without a clear roadmap for where it needed to go. Hardware was aging, enterprise security was limited, and the path forward wasn't well-defined. Knowing that an honest external view was the right place to start, Sean commissioned a formal IT optimization roadmap—a structured assessment that surfaced the gaps and helped prioritize what needed to happen first.

With that roadmap in hand, the next step was finding the right partner to execute it. For Sean, that wasn't a difficult decision. He had previous experience working with IX Solutions at another school district, and he trusted their work, their culture, and their ability to deliver. SD27 has been working with IX ever since.

From Fragile to Secure: Building the Foundation

IX began with the network—architecting and leading a full Aruba deployment, including wireless access points, switches, and a complete redesign of the district's virtual network architecture, alongside network access control using Clearpass. From there, the partnership expanded into a multi-layered security uplift that touched every corner of the environment.

IX now supports the district across:

Network infrastructure design and deployment (Aruba/Clearpass)
Certificate-based endpoint security
Firewall review and zero-trust hardening
Microsoft 365 A5 security configuration and optimization
Microsoft Defender for Endpoint management
BitLocker disk encryption
Defender for Office email security
Conditional Access policy optimization
MFA review and re-implementation
Ongoing support block for internal team augmentation

A standout moment came when the district upgraded to Microsoft 365 A5 licensing and a flood of security alerts followed. Rather than ignore them, Sean engaged IX.

"When A5 got turned on, all of a sudden all these alerts and notifications started coming in," Sean recalls. "I asked the IX team: what do we do about this? They said, 'we're going to have to do some configuration.'"

That configuration work—and the knowledge transfer built into every engagement—is what sets the partnership apart.

"School District 27 approached our security uplift as a true partner—curious, well prepared, and genuinely invested in finding the right solution for their environment," says Eddie Moncada, Modern Security Consultant at IX Solutions.

"Their team wasn't afraid to ask hard questions and push back where necessary, helping us design a custom solution that significantly improved the district's security posture without disrupting their day-to-day operations."

A District Equipped for What Comes Next

The distance School District 27 has traveled is significant. Today, Sean points to a security posture and network infrastructure he'd put up against any district in the province—and the IX team agrees.

"It's a really integrated and robust security platform," Sean says. "That's a significant accomplishment for a district our size—and it's only possible by working with a partner like IX."

It’s an assessment that Chris King , Vice President at IX Solutions, wholeheartedly agrees with.

"School District 27 has done something genuinely rare—deliberately transforming a once at-risk environment into one of the most secure, well-architected, and resilient K–12 IT environments in British Columbia," says Chris. "That doesn't happen by accident. It takes disciplined planning and a security-first culture, and their team has built both."

Beyond the technical outcomes, the partnership has given Sean and district leadership something equally valuable: confidence. When Sean brings an initiative to the Superintendent, he knows IX has reviewed it. When a technician wants a second set of expert eyes before committing a change, IX is a phone call away.

"We couldn't afford to have all these experts in-house," Sean says. "But we don't need them full-time — we need five percent of that person on a specific project. That's what the partnership gives us."

That peace of mind now reaches the very top of the organization.

“Because of IX Solutions’ involvement, my educational leadership team and I are able to remain fully focused on our core mandate of supporting students and ensuring their success,” says Cheryl Lenardon, Superintendent of Schools. “Their partnership continues to play a vital role in the growth, stability, and improvement of our schools.”