Universities are Investing Wisely to Build a Smarter Cloud

Like most initiatives in higher education — technological or otherwise — cloud migrations do not happen overnight, nor do they happen all at once. It can be hard to convince leaders at institutions, particularly those who have been around for decades or longer, to depart from the norm.

Many higher ed IT pros relish the data center. A physical representation of their institution’s data provides peace of mind that everything is operating the way it’s supposed to. But times are changing, storage solutions are evolving, and colleges and universities are increasingly adding cloud options to their technology environments. Regulatory constraints often dictate which workloads can be moved to the cloud, particularly at research institutions that rely on federal dollars, but institutions continue to lean into the flexibility the cloud offers where possible. This tends to be in their application environments.

According to the 2024 CDW Cloud Computing Research Report, nearly 59% of higher education institutions have moved at least half of their apps to the cloud, compared with just 45% of overall respondents. In our most recent issue on “A Smarter Cloud,” we highlight the ways higher education institutions are making intentional choices in the applications they’re moving to cloud environments.

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Higher Education Is Working Smarter in the Cloud

For many institutions, the cloud represents a new way of thinking and working. At Alexandria Technical and Community College, IT leaders were initially unsure about moving their phone system to the cloud, but after some research they discovered the benefits: flexibility, reliability and cost savings. “The more I looked into it, it was clear to me that cloud phones had come a long way,” says Joni Leuthardt, voice administrator.

Sometimes, universities employ cloud applications and realize they could be operating more efficiently. At the Universities of Wisconsin, merging productivity and collaboration software from two tenants to one helped streamline collaboration efforts across the administrative office. “We can introduce new products and features without worrying if one tenant is the same as the other. Trying to keep those systems aligned all the time was a hard proposition,” says Chris Spadanuda, senior director of IT operations.

Cloud implementation is an important part of digital transformation efforts in higher education, but it’s not a one-size-fits-all exercise. The key is determining where the cloud’s efficiency and flexibility features will make the biggest impact at your institution.