The Ultimate Guide to Higher Education Cloud Computing

Introduction

Being part of higher education, you must have heard the term “the cloud”, many a time. Yes, the higher education cloud creates endless new possibilities to transform education through innovation and to drive student success. 

Colleges and higher education universities are active, intricate ecosystems of learning and discovery across disciplines. They need a solid technology partner that’s preferably “on-cloud” to manage its complexity and keep the stakeholders connected and productive.

The blog discusses the inside out of Cloud in general, focuses on the higher education cloud applications, advantages of cloud computing in higher education, and finally the adoption of cloud computing in higher education.
 

What precisely is “the cloud”?

In simple words, “cloud computing” is shifting data and functions from local servers to the Internet, giving users access to view and share information, from anywhere, anytime, from multiple devices. 

The term also means obtaining infrastructure, platforms, and applications, through the internet, by making information technology more agile, cost-effective, impeding progress and innovation.

Cloud computing is all about transforming the way higher education institutions do business and serve their community. It offers them the option to serve not just the administrators, educators, but the bigger student community, who enter campuses with their technology devices, needs, and expectations.
 

The growing importance of Cloud Computing to an institution’s strategy

Cloud computing strategies have always been a favorite of technology professionals, IT Directors, Chief Information Officers, and Chief Technical Officers. But recently there’s an increasing level of C-level decision-makers who are keen on “Cloud” to streamline their concerned departments including Recruiting, Admissions, Academics, Institutional Effectiveness, Alumni, etc. They have started to realize cloud strategy to be an effective tool to manage costs and improve efficiency across the institution. 

In fact, the Cloud is over and above a low-cost solution to augment IT’s functionality. Tech Savvy business leaders from the education community are using it as a medium of growth to maintain a competitive edge over their competitors.
 

Cloud computing removes the typical IT constraints including longer hours taken for infrastructure improvements, disparities between systems and tools, limits resources for maintenance, and in short, frees businesses to concentrate on business strategy and innovation.
 

The switch from IT-centric to a customer-centric computing

Roughly three decades ago, the first wave of computing had mainframes with restricted functionality—only expert users could handle them. Later in the ’80s and ‘90s, there was a rush of user-friendly systems which served the needs of “moderate” desktop users in every sector. This was exactly when IT organizations were devoted to system maintenance and steady-state operations. 

It was in the last decade that IT operations moved to a more customer-centric, self-oriented model with more automated processes, and flexible, open technology platforms. 
In the current times, internet-based services flood everywhere, resulting in low-cost capacity even for independent users. Following mobile adoption, cloud computing evolved to augment collaboration, storage, mapping, email, and more.

Computing itself has become now personal. Decision-makers across the sector are selective in bringing their own personal experiences while making decisions about how cloud services fit into their organization’s strategic priorities. If in the past an organization had allocated about 80% of its IT grants for infrastructure and the remaining 20% to service delivery, today’s cloud model had changed that model. 

The IT investments are presently designed to help organizations fulfill better end-user services and its leaders to concentrate on strategy and growth.

Higher education institutions are no exception. They are rapidly embracing the power of cloud computing technology to augment the way it serves their constituents.
 

Higher education and the cloud application

The current adoption levels of cloud technology are already on the boom. 
While in North America, nearly 70 percent of higher education institutions have transitioned their email systems to Cloud, about 50 percent have stationed a cloud-based collaboration system to improvise information sharing across their campuses.

As a result, higher education institutions have a sole solution to manage their recruiting, talent management, academics, research, administration, finances, and fundraising in the cloud.
 

What are the unique needs of higher education?

• Similar to businesses, higher education institutions are adopting cloud services as it’s a cost-effective way to accomplish IT services, without the troublesome cost of upgrades and upkeep.
• Higher education institutions crave to respond instantaneously without waiting for months and years just to implement a business-critical software application. 
• Similarly, just like businesses, higher education institutions wish for a model to realize their full potential of data to make informed strategic decisions about the future.

Here are other unique reasons, those concerning their culture and mission, which affect how their decisions about cloud computing are made. 

Commitment to students:

Today’s higher education students come to campuses with many connected devices and with high expectations about when and how they want to use them. 

Higher Education Institution IT departments should have the capability to provide greater connectivity between the campus and student platforms with 24/7 access to secure, scalable, reliable networks. They should have the ability to allow them to create, deliver, share, and access content campus-wide, on a substantial amount of devices. After all, cloud computing is all about meeting student needs as it is about running a powerful campus.

A synthesis of finance models

The higher education finance models are complex and include various combinations of tuition, philanthropy, financial aid, investments, public funding, etc. Only a cloud could offer a helping hand.
 

Collaborative decision-making model
 

The governance of higher education is more of a participatory culture with top-down decision-making.

Cloud-based models come as a great relief when making stakeholders are involved in the collaborative process. An effective cloud strategy will require designing a framework that’s built around the needs of all the stakeholders involved. Right from students to faculty, faculty to staff and management, and board members to alumni, it engages all stakeholders early in developing an institution-wide cloud strategy to address IT challenges specific to higher ed campuses.
 

What are the advantages of cloud computing in higher education? The 4 C’s - capability, capacity, cost, control

While cloud model is not the only elixir, they do make your IT deliver more meaningful solutions, especially when delivered by a vendor who has a real pulse for the typical higher education demand. Such a high-end service could offer benefits in four key strategic areas, which are called the 4 C’s.

• Capability
• Capacity
• Cost
• Control

Capability

Capability is a key to staying in competition in an environment where new technologies are introduced almost daily. Cloud Services offer this. They have the potential to run everything on campus, right from infrastructure to software applications to collaborative tools.

Capacity

With the online way of learning, cloud services are becoming the need of the hour. Online learning demands a rich toolkit to handle the changing demands more effectively and to scale up better graduation rates. And cloud services provide fascinating ways to do that just right!

Cost

To a greater extent, cloud services reduce costs. But it depends on the kind of services you adopt, the resources you allocate, the service-level agreements you negotiate, etc. It is true that cloud services offer greater flexibility and predictability when it comes to costs. They provide greater agility, speed, and cost control. As a matter of fact, the cloud can reduce infrastructure costs by up to 30–40 percent. 
 

Control

Transitioning to the cloud doesn’t mean losing control. 

As it is, higher education institutions are careful about handling risks with data security and mandated compliance as their top priorities. There are IT managers who remain skeptical of being able to deliver the same level of security in the cloud vs. in-house. But truly, a cloud vendor often has facilities for added security with rigorous processes. They rapidly implement security updates required to meet the institution’s stringent compliance protocols. Still, while risks exist, including chances of downtime, SLAs can assist institutions to manage and alleviate risks with the same or more flexibility as you do now.
 

Adoption of cloud computing in higher education
 

It has always been argued whether or not to adopt the cloud and has been to a greater extent answered by various stakeholders in institutions including students, faculty, and staff, who rely on cloud services every new day.

It’s not about how and when higher education professionals in IT can begin the cloud transition–rather it’s about how they perceive and practice technology. All said and done, managing the change calls for a partner who truly understands higher education and the benefits the cloud can deliver to your constituents and to your mission.

Creatrix Campus is a cloud-based higher education campus management solution that transforms classrooms and campuses with secure infrastructure tools to collaborative analysis that yields new insights. 

Creatrix Cloud cuts through your existing complexities and offers a quick fix for analytics, storage, big data, and other technological With training, support, and resources from Creatrix, your institution can get started with greater confidence.

• Highlights of Creatrix cloud platform;
• Dependable security to scale up
• Completely open-sourced
• Possess powerful data and analytics
• Designed to perform

What are the specific needs of your institution? Contact our specialist. Our sales team can find the right solutions for you.