Much of the talk around cloud computing has to do with how it can help businesses. While the technology can and does help businesses grow, organizations in other sectors, such as education, see huge benefits in migrating their workloads to the cloud.
In uncertain times, governments are tightening their belts, and education is often one of the first – and most – affected by any budgetary cuts. This, together with the fact that many schools and universities have switched to online instruction, has made cloud not only an attractive option for educational institutions, but one that ensures viability going forward.
Cost certainty
On a basic level, cloud computing is about moving IT out of school buildings. This reduces or eliminates costs associated with supporting applications, data and servers. Cloud service providers do all the grunt work, such as upgrades and server maintenance.
Learn how to launch your first workload in the cloud
With cloud, software and infrastructure are pay-per-use: consumed and paid for according to need. This aspect alone makes cloud computing something every educational institution under unprecedented financial pressure should seriously consider.
Certainty and efficiency
But money is just one factor. The cloud brings certainty and efficiency to educational institutions in other ways, including:
- Going paperless – Digital learning is here to stay, and that means more exercises and assignments being completed online. The cloud gives teachers, administrators and students a central hub from which to access important documents, task guidelines, academic records and other supplemental materials.
- Storage and backup – The cloud provides students and faculty with a place where they can reliably back up their assignments and supplemental documents. In terms of security, regular backups of all these documents means virtually no risk of ever losing student data.
- Collaboration – Bring-your-own-device is no longer “cool” – it’s just the way things are, especially since the first COVID-19 lockdown last spring. The cloud is opening up this new world of virtual collaboration. Students can collaborate from different locations, and educators can share learning materials with colleagues.
It doesn’t matter if your organization is an SMB or in education – cloud can make a huge difference in how you compete, not just in an era of uncertainty.
Henry Ford once said you can’t build your reputation on what you plan to do. But moving from “planning” to “doing” doesn’t have to be complex or arduous. On April 20, ITWC CIO Jim Love and experts from Amazon Web Services and NorthBay will meet to discuss the basics of the cloud and the benefits it can bring to your company, no matter what sector you’re in.
Love and his guests will talk not only about what cloud is and the benefits it brings but also about how and when you should launch your first workload to the cloud, and how other companies have done so.
