Over the past decade, education has been making a slow but inevitable transition toward the cloud. Technology has changed the way teachers teach, students learn and schools function. The last few months have made this transition come to a rapid fruition. Suddenly, students of all ages are using distance learning full-time, and the reality has revealed the potential and the need for continued growth.
Understanding the Cloud for Educational Purposes
The cloud has become an important part of how society operates. Businesses rely heavily on the cloud to give employees ample access to virtual work spaces without breaking the budget. Individuals use the cloud for their own personal storage and access needs as well. Many schools have been much slower to embrace it.
This is to the detriment of universities, schools, teachers and students. Secure cloud infrastructure offers real advantages. It is the future of education. If you are ready to use cloud computing services to improve education standards, then now is the time to make that transition.
The Benefits of a Secure Cloud Infrastructure in Education
Since cloud security solutions leverage the internet to provide access, educational services can be reached anywhere and at any time. All parties in the educational system are brought together in a single, unified space. Since schools can invest in multi-cloud solutions, there is little need for onsite servers.
Instead, with secure cloud solutions, schools can invest their resources in more useful ways. In fact, when you look at the depth and range of benefits, you will quickly see why cloud security products are the best way for education to move forward.
Give Students a Boost of Productivity
Schools and educational institutions aren’t the only ones who benefit from secure cloud infrastructure. Students are given access to more flexible resources, are more motivated to read and buy their course content (textbooks and readings) and therefore are more engaged in their learning. The learning platform has a huge impact on student engagement, so it’s important to ensure this platform is as informative, flexible and engaging as possible. With students becoming ever-more digital savvy learners, student motivation is likely to improve considerably by offering a platform for learning which new students are comfortable with.
Save Money on Overhead Costs
Cloud security products minimise hardware for education facilities, resulting in lower management and infrastructure costs. Instead of expensive books, information is more readily available in the cloud. On a management level, time and money is saved in enrollment, assignment tracking and more. As cloud computing is pay as you go, this solution is also more cost effective in that you aren’t investing outright in hardware.
More Security Options Than Ever
Many schools improve their online infrastructure when they switch to a more secure cloud platform. Institutions need to invest heavily on IT security solutions to ensure data protection. Data protection is considerably more complex and sophisticated when managed by an external provider and service. These types of data protection options are more secure and do not rely solely on internal staff. Given education facilities house so much student data and informational data, the security of this asset is essential. The risks involved in a breach of data security for education facilities can mean the release of a lot of personal data for students and employees. Ensuring you have a complex security system for your data is essential.
Scale the Cloud to Your Needs
University and school enrollment is not a constant variable, and is not always something that can be predicted. Therefore, schools need to be flexible enough to respond to a variable student population from year to year.
Scalability also refers to student usage. The cloud is able to handle traffic spikes more effectively than in-house servers. During large events like registration or assignment submission, there is less risk of outages or throttling. By contrast, during slower periods, output is scaled back to reduce and manage waste more appropriately. The best part is that schools do not have to worry about these changes. Such scalability is inherent to the cloud.
Meet the Needs of Modern Students with Accessibility and Mobility
In so many ways, the traditional educational approach is unrealistic and outdated. In all other parts of life, students are already using technology in dynamic ways. The fact that their schools do not offer such options often seems limiting.
Students can easily access content, applications and data from any device, anywhere. Effectively, they can learn remotely, travelling or on campus. Enrollment is made easy and participating in group activities becomes seamless with no barriers in place to ensure deadlines are met.
This mobility is also beneficial for schools. With more accessibility in the cloud, teachers have more freedom and school enrollment can grow.
The Bottom Line
Ultimately, the cloud is the future of education. Cloud security services make learning more accessible for students, more dynamic for teachers and more profitable for schools. It is time for schools to be ready and willing to make this transition for the good of the system overall.