20 | ROUNDTABLE: MOVING TO THE CLOUD | PRIMARY AND SECONDARY Read a related story: click here A cloud on the horizon?
Rebecca Paddick asks some of the sector’s experts: is cloud technology really for everyone?
NAIMISH GOHIL chief executive and founder of Show My Homework
Although it is constantly evolving, cloud computing has been available for some time. Is now the time for the education sector to make the leap?
Naimish Gohil: Absolutely. We are moving faster and faster into a connected world where everything we need is accessible via the cloud from almost any device. The benefits this brings inside and outside of the classroom is immense for teachers, students and parents.
TOM DAVY CEO, Panopto EMEA
LIZ SPROAT head of education, EMEA at Google
Tom Davy: Each year we see more and more institutions opting for a cloud-hosted implementation of our lecture capture solution. Some of the key reasons institutions cite for moving to the cloud include increased scalability, cost reductions and their need to reduce strain on existing infrastructure. Is the cloud right for all institutions or in all scenarios? Not necessarily, which is why we want to make sure we have an alternative for institutions for whom the cloud just isn’t an
option.Thinking more broadly about cloud- hosted services, even if core IT offerings, such as virtual learning environments (VLE), email system or lecture capture platform might be hosted on their own servers, there are myriad ways in which teachers and their students will be interacting with cloud-based tools like Skype or Dropbox on a daily basis – many of them without even realising it. The question is more; how much do institutions want to shift to the cloud?
ROB DEACON professional services director, PSU Technology
Liz Sproat: In our opinion yes, but to really understand why, we first have to consider what the cloud really provides to the education sector. Most of us are used to using cloud services at home – whether that’s email, instant messaging or social networks for example. These services let us easily communicate and collaborate with our friends and family. At school, we’re ultimately after the same thing – to be able to share and collaborate with people around us and learn in new, engaging ways. We see it providing collaboration tools such as docs, spreadsheets, calendar and groups, communication tools such as mail and hangout, storage and lots of it – in the case of Google as much as 30GB per user, and enterprise level management tools that allow you to manage your learners and teacher to meet your educational needs.
Rob Deacon: While the term ‘cloud’ has been around for many years and solutions have become more affordable, it’s only in the last 18 months or so that cloud technology has been really opened up to the
masses. Hosted infrastructure was only previously used by larger corporate organisations, but its adoption by the education sector has already started with cloud deployment in universities and larger schools. I would expect this trend to filter down to smaller educational organisations over the next 12 to 18 months, as industry confidence in the technology’s reliability, scalability and security continues to grow, and total cost of ownership continues to reduce.
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