Technology
Cloud computing: Look beyond the silver lining
Cloud computing may save money but choose the wrong cloud service provider and the school could fi nd itself in breach of the Data Protection Act. Paula Williamson and Harvey Davies look at the possible pitfalls
T
here has been huge media coverage recently on the topic of cloud computing and the benefi ts it brings for schools. But what exactly is it and how can it help your school? Put simply,
cloud computing is where an organisation uses an application hosted and delivered over the internet by a third party. So, instead of your school purchasing and building its own IT infrastructure, it uses a cloud service provider (CSP) instead to host all its servers, software, databases, desktops and applications. These are all then delivered to the school over the internet meeting all of the school’s IT needs “on-demand”. This approach to school IT infrastructure brings signifi cant benefi ts including: Lower costs – there are virtually no upfront costs and schools can pay
monthly or annually based on the computing resources they actually use. Also, most software products can be licensed on the same basis. IT solutions can be deployed extremely quickly and managed, maintained, patched and upgraded remotely by your service provider. Technical support can be provided, reducing the burden on IT staff. This means that they are free to focus on critical tasks, and schools can avoid incurring additional manpower and training costs. As costs are more predictable, IT budgets can be managed much more easily. Flexibility/mobility – learners and staff can access their applications
and data from anywhere and at anytime, without consuming any of the school’s bandwidth – ideal for staff that work from home who will have access to most of your systems “on the go”. Resiliency – CSPs usually have superior disaster recovery and security
capabilities to those that schools can afford. This is because they have access to multiple state-of-the-art data centre facilities and technologies to protect schools’ IT infrastructure with round the clock engineering support. Some CSPs also offer additional data backup and IT support packages which can further ease the pressure on school resources.
Scalability – a genuine cloud computing platform allows schools to
provision resources on a fi ne-grained, self-service basis near real-time, without users having to constantly monitor and engineer for peak loads.
Research is the key However, before choosing a CSP, do your research. While price is important, not all CSPs’ solutions are compliant with the Data Protection Act 1998 (DPA) and some may be cheaper for a reason. So, what has data protection got to do with cloud computing? Where a school uses cloud services it will almost certainly engage
the DPA because these services will be used to hold and manage all sorts of personal data relating to pupils and staff. The responsibility for complying with the DPA rests on the “data controller” which, in this case, is the school and not the CSP. This legal obligation continues even
“If a school in Sussex puts its pupil database into the cloud and the cloud
service provider stores that data in New York, the school could be breaching the Data Protection Act”
when the school’s personal data is being held in the CSP’s cloud. Where a school contracts with a CSP it is likely that the cloud provider will be a data processor, processing the personal data on the school’s behalf. Why is all this important? Well, if the CSP causes a breach of the DPA,
it is the school and not the CSP that will be legally liable for potential legal action. So how do you go about choosing a CSP that will not land the school in data protection hot water? The trouble is that CSP’s vary wildly. Fledgling CSP’s arguably have a higher failure risk than the larger more established providers. But do not assume that a large well- established CSP will automatically be DPA compliant. Some large CSPs
Continued on page 36 35
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40