Cloud computing has transformed workflows and business processes for organizations across all industries.

For institutions in higher education, cloud computing is a comprehensive solution that caters to the needs of students, faculty, and staff.

A few years ago, there were several concerns and ambiguity surrounding the adoption of cloud in higher education, however, the tide has steadily gained momentum and many universities and colleges are slowly adopting cloud computing solutions.

With universities and colleges being allocated budgets for their development needs, school leaders are constantly looking for ways to develop new systems and enhance existing systems, in order to improve workflows and productivity, while having to remain sensitive to the significant cost of doing so.

Cloud computing presents higher education institutions with the ability to both enhance their systems, and save on costs while doing so.

In this blog, we’ll look at some of the benefits for higher education institutions when they take that next step and adopt cloud solutions!

Benefits for Higher Education Institutions in Moving to the Cloud

Cloud services provide organizations with the support required to progress, expand, and develop into new areas, providing scalability and versatility, while reducing the cost of maintaining and updating physical IT infrastructure.

As it relates to higher education, in a recent CDW study on cloud computing, IT staff from various institutions outlined several benefits that their institutions derived from moving to the cloud.

These benefits include:

• Decreased IT related expenses due to significantly reduced physical infrastructure
• Optimized workflow efficiency resulting in improved processes
• Enhanced mobility for students and staff enabling greater productivity levels
• More opportunities for development and innovation resulting in the ability to offer a wider range of services
• Reduced burden on IT support staff leading to resources being focused on more important projects

With reduced physical IT infrastructure, companies can save on the costly expenditures of maintaining and upgrading local servers.

This collaterally allows the IT department to focus their attention on other crucial issues affecting the organizations, not having to worry about troublesome and complex server maintenance and upgrading, among a host of other problems caused by physical IT infrastructure.

Organizations in every industry are focusing on increasing productivity, and enhancing mobility and mobile access for users.

The ability of cloud computing solutions to optimize workflows and processes, and enhance student and staff mobile access to a wide range of services and applications, makes cloud computing a valuable option for higher education institutions.

Moving Forward and Embracing the Cloud

With the majority of early concerns surrounding cloud solutions having been answered, executives from higher education are surely changing their attitude towards cloud based solutions, with many schools adopting the modern technology.

Recent studies have suggested that more than 60% of universities and colleges across North America have transitioned and moved their email services to the cloud.

It can be realistically expected that schools in higher education will make the complete shift to the cloud in the near future, with decision makers beginning to embrace the potential benefits of moving up to the cloud!

Embracing Secure Cloud Printing

Secure cloud printing solutions are comprehensive and cover everything from simple file storage and access to optimizing complex business processes and workflows.

One of the most attractive cloud solutions for higher education would definitely be secure cloud printing.

By consolidating and eliminating print servers, schools can reduce their printing infrastructure related costs when adopting cloud printing!

With less printing equipment to manage and maintain, along with the absence of print driver configuration complexities, institutions can also reduce their support costs, and IT administrators in higher education can focus on other important tasks.

Cloud printing solutions also enable students and staff to print directly from their own devices, simplifying printing and maximizing user productivity, while ultimately supporting the primary focus of higher education, delivering a quality education!

What are some of the benefits that you have seen at your institution after adopting cloud printing? Let us know by leaving a comment below!