How Edge, Geneva College, and CBTS Forged a Future-Forward Network
In the rapidly evolving landscape of higher education, a robust and reliable network infrastructure is no longer a luxury but a fundamental necessity. For Geneva College, an institution steeped in tradition, the challenge of an aging network threatened to impede its ability to serve a generation of students accustomed to seamless connectivity and cutting-edge technology. Thankfully, a chance encounter at an Edge conference sparked a transformative partnership between Geneva College, represented by its Vice President of Information Technology, Chris Treib, and CBTS, led by Executive Account Manager Linda Mazzo, resulting in a network overhaul that has significantly enhanced the student experience.
Turning Obstacles into Opportunities
The narrative begins in February 2022, when Chris Treib stepped into his role at Geneva College. Despite being active-duty Coast Guard at the time, he came across a position that deeply resonated with him while exploring job opportunities on the College’s website for his wife. “Even though I had a great job with a great boss and location, I felt a calling to apply,” shares Treib. “I only had two days to write my first resume and complete a long application process, while still managing the challenges of potentially transitioning out of the military.” After a rigorous interview process, including a four-hour airport interview and a 12-hour on-campus visit, Treib knew he had to commit fully. Even before knowing the final decision, he wrote his retirement letter from the Coast Guard and committed to finishing the process. In the end, what began as a spontaneous search for his wife turned into a clear calling that brought him to Geneva.
Upon entering his role, Treib inherited a network infrastructure that had served the institution for over a decade and required immediate updates and security improvements. “During my first year on campus, I implemented multi-factor authentication and updated our password policies,” shares Treib. “I also replaced our emergency call systems that were in very bad shape. On top of that, I was tasked with overhauling our cellular program, so I partnered with a managed service provider to transition all of our phones to AT&T FirstNet. This is an amazing service in higher education that I was already familiar with from my time in the military.”
At his second-year mark, students were arriving on campus with Windows 11 and were unable to connect to the network. This technological lag presented a significant hurdle in providing a modern and effective learning environment. "Our network had been there for about 14 years, and we had students coming in with newer technology and couldn't connect securely to our network,” explains Treib. “I contacted some local vendors who said all of our access points would need to be replaced. I began working with a vendor to get things up and running, and it turned out to be a fairly typical managed service provider relationship. Their knowledge was broad but shallow, and they relied heavily on the OEM to handle most of the technical work. I didn’t want to settle for this model and began exploring other potential solutions. At this time, I had received an invitation to EdgeCon and was excited for the opportunity to hear from so many great minds and engage in discussions on topics that greatly interested me. I was so impressed with the caliber of people at the conference, how well it was organized, and the strong platform it provided for building meaningful professional connections. The event helped me get my footing as someone brand new to higher ed. I received seasoned advice from people who had spent over 20 years in higher education in technology, and I immediately felt welcomed and supported.”
Forming New Connections
Treib attended another Edge conference that autumn and enjoyed meeting with vendors, joining breakout sessions to further his discussions, and meeting the team from CBTS. “Meeting Kirk Rooney and Linda Mazzo completely changed my perspective,” says Treib. “My first impression of Kirk was that he really knows what he’s doing and is clearly experienced, but not just as a typical network OEM. As a managed service provider and value-added reseller, he brought a unique, practical approach. That connection was incredibly positive at a time when I thought my options were already decided. CBTS had demonstrated experience in many spaces, including higher education, and they were willing to move quickly. I invited them to come to Geneva, and they arrived the very next week. They walked through every wiring closet we could open and examined every access point they could find.”
The initial discussions between Treib and Mazzo quickly focused on the most pressing issue: the outdated and unreliable Wi-Fi across the Geneva College campus. "Our initial discussion began with Geneva’s challenge of outdated and aging Wi-Fi across campus," Mazzo explains, underscoring the immediate need for modernization. Following their initial meeting, the momentum quickly built. Treib was particularly drawn to the comprehensive approach taken by CBTS in addressing Geneva College's network challenges. The end solution wasn't merely about replacing outdated equipment; it involved a strategic overhaul designed to meet the current and future needs of the institution and its students. “CBTS brought a fresh perspective, and as they reviewed our existing setup and vendor relationships, they asked if we’d considered Juniper. Since I hadn’t, they shared that Juniper was ranked number one in Gartner, which definitely got my attention.”
"Without Edge, I would have never met CBTS, and I would have never had that insight or the knowledge and the deep understanding that CBTS brings to the table. Edge is the IT ecosystem for leaders in higher education and brings everyone together by fostering the best and brightest ideas, connecting them with what practitioners are experiencing on the ground, and pairing that insight with the expertise from industry. That’s what makes this community so powerful. CBTS is our superhero and has been our most trusted advisor for all things technology. We have developed a great pattern for communicating our needs and leveraging their expertise to plan and execute projects that make a strategic impact on campus.”
Treib was immediately impressed by Juniper’s AI-driven capabilities, particularly in solving one of the most common and frustrating issues in any IT environment: unreliable Wi-Fi. “We’d get the same call almost every day where a student’s Wi-Fi wasn’t working, and normally, that’s a really tough issue to solve without the right tools,” says Treib. “But Juniper’s AI platform would allow us to ask smart, context-driven questions like: Who are you? Where are you located? When did you last connect? And what changed between then and now? The AI does all the sorting and analysis in the background, which was a breath of fresh air for us.”
The CBTS team also explained that Juniper’s system could detect broken cables across the network. “At first, I thought I’d know if we had broken cables,” Treib recalls. “But after we implemented the system, it actually found broken cables we had no idea about. That discovery explained some odd behavior we’d been seeing in certain buildings. Our network had enough redundancy to mask some of those failures, but Juniper exposed the root cause and gave us the ability to increase our capacity with the simplicity of adding up power supply. We could see CBTS was on our side and could help us do a big refresh in a meaningful way. Their tier three engineers are amazing and have helped us through our network cutover.”
For the hands-on work, Treib likes giving college students the opportunity to gain practical experience and contribute to the mission of Geneva while attending school. “During my time in the Coast Guard, I mentored cadets and recognized the shortage of skilled talent in the tech field,” shares Treib. “This is another reason why I was drawn to Geneva College. I was suddenly surrounded by talented young minds who are looking for a place in the world. I encourage our students to be interns and develop real-world skills. I also held a class on IT project management and IT systems engineering. Our Juniper reps were fantastic and joined for a few days to give an overview of their architecture and an introduction to the Mist AI platform. While we waited for hardware to arrive, we used that time to build the project plan, work on configuration, and prepare for implementation. Four of my students earned Mist certifications, and two of them went on to receive their associate-level certification from Juniper, which sets them leaps and bounds ahead of their peers. With a group of twelve students, they developed an incredible system of working together and assigning different roles, and were able to deploy 389 access points in a week and a half.”
Building Strategic Partnerships
This hands-on deployment was made possible through close collaboration with CBTS, whose longstanding partnership with Edge played a key role in bringing cutting-edge technology and expertise to Geneva College. Linda Mazzo shares details about the CBTS journey with Edge, “Our long-term relationship with Edge via the EdgeMarket co-op dates back several years.” She continues, “Initially, we partnered with Edge to help improve communication and collaboration efficiency at Edge member institutions. Through our Hosted Enterprise Unified Communications as a Service solution (UCaaS), organizations gained access to on-demand communications and applications that delivered scalable collaboration services faster, helping to improve business agility and better meet an organization’s needs.”
Flash forward to 2025, Mazzo elaborates, “Our relationship with Edge has grown into a true partnership, where we are both working to solve members’ issues around technology and telephony challenges. We’ve worked closely with the Edge team to offer members a variety of options that bring positive outcomes. In addition, we’ve built out a connection to the EdgeNet network to provide our services on the existing network-to-network interface (NNI) that Edge currently offers its members. With this approach CBTS has engaged with many long-standing members of the Edge community, including Passaic County Community College, Stockton University, and Middlesex College and brought on new members such as Jackson Township.”
The CBTS affiliation provided Geneva College with a level of assurance regarding CBTS's expertise and understanding of the unique needs of educational institutions. Treib attests to this noting, "They immediately showed that they had experience across a wide number of verticals, including higher ed." This prior experience in the higher education sector was a crucial factor in building trust and confidence.
A key aspect of the successful partnership was the strong rapport and mutual trust that developed between Geneva College and CBTS. Treib speaks highly of Mazzo and her team: "From the very beginning, the team at CBTS, and Linda specifically, were very responsive. They were willing to come on site. They were willing to meet with multiple stakeholders across campus to truly understand the pain points that the students, the faculty, and the staff were feeling." This proactive and collaborative approach was instrumental in building a strong foundation for the project.
"From the very beginning, the team at CBTS, and Linda specifically, were very responsive. They were willing to come on site. They were willing to meet with multiple stakeholders across campus to truly understand the pain points that the students, the faculty, and the staff were feeling."
Mazzo echoes this sentiment, emphasizing the importance of understanding the client's needs, "It's critical for us to listen to our clients, to understand their challenges, their goals, their vision." This client-centric approach ensured that the solutions proposed by CBTS were tailored to the specific requirements of Geneva College.
The efficiency and expertise demonstrated by CBTS throughout the network upgrade process is another aspect that resonated with Treib. "They were able to handle complex technical issues including tier two, tier three calls that most vendors would be passing on to the OEM." This level of technical proficiency and commitment to resolving issues directly was a significant advantage for Geneva College.
The successful implementation of the new network has had a tangible impact on the Geneva College community particularly the improved experience for students, faculty, and staff. "I'm so happy to work with our students or faculty or staff. The team of CBTS, the team at Juniper, to make this project a success," he remarks, highlighting the collaborative effort that led to this positive outcome. "I couldn't have done it without them. And so happy for the work that we did to make the student experience on campus even better."
Mazzo also expresses pride in the partnership and its positive impact. "The partnership between Geneva and CBTS has been fantastic," she affirms. The success of this collaboration was further recognized when Geneva College received an award at an Edge conference. As Mazzo explains, “This award acknowledged their innovative approach to really solving a problem, taking a very outdated infrastructure and really future-proofing it for their student body." Treib attributes this recognition, in part, to the comprehensive solutions provided by CBTS, noting that their entire kind of a holistic view of utilizing multiple components of Edge’s solutions and executing quickly and flawlessly really led to that award.
Achieving Network Transformation
Looking back on the journey, Treib emphasizes the pivotal role that Edge played in connecting Geneva College with the right partner. "Without Edge, I would have never met CBTS, and I would have never had that insight or the knowledge and the deep understanding that CBTS brings to the table. Edge is the IT ecosystem for leaders in higher education and brings everyone together by fostering the best and brightest ideas, connecting them with what practitioners are experiencing on the ground, and pairing that insight with the expertise from industry. That’s what makes this community so powerful. CBTS is our superhero and has been our most trusted advisor for all things technology. We have developed a great pattern for communicating our needs and leveraging their expertise to plan and execute projects that make a strategic impact on campus.”
“Our relationship with Edge has grown into a true partnership, where we are both working to solve members’ issues around technology and telephony challenges. We’ve worked closely with the Edge team to offer members a variety of options that bring positive outcomes. In addition, we’ve built out a connection to the EdgeNet network to provide our services on the existing network-to-network interface (NNI) that Edge currently offers its members. With this approach CBTS has engaged with many long-standing members of the Edge community, including Passaic County Community College, Stockton University, and Middlesex College and brought on new members such as Jackson Township.”
“CBTS also has strong relationships with a range of OEMs, and they were able to connect us with Juniper as the right fit for our needs,” continues Treib. “Juniper recognizes the value of higher education and how it contributes to the community. They were especially interested in this partnership because students were directly involved and could see the opportunity not only to support a real-world deployment, but also to have students earn Mist and Juniper associate certifications—credentials they’ll carry with them into their careers. It spreads Juniper’s brand through our talented students, and at the same time, it opens doors for those students to connect with Juniper for future employment.”
The story of Geneva College's network transformation is a testament to the power of collaboration, the importance of understanding client needs, and the impact of strategic partnerships. Through the initial connection facilitated by Edge, the expertise of CBTS led by Linda Mazzo, and the vision of Chris Treib at Geneva College, an outdated infrastructure was replaced with a future-forward network, significantly enhancing the learning and working environment for the entire college community. The dedication, professionalism, and genuine commitment that underpinned this successful endeavor demonstrates how a well-forged partnership can bridge the technological divide and empower institutions to better serve their constituents.