However, most of us are probably making use of the cloud without realising that this is the case; whenever we access our Gmail or Hotmail accounts, or upload a photo to Facebook, we are using
the cloud. The potential benefits and risks, however, are more apparent. We will try and shed some light on defining cloud computing and then explore the opportunities and risks that adoption poses, with particular focus on (higher) education institutions.
the cloud. The potential benefits and risks, however, are more apparent. We will try and shed some light on defining cloud computing and then explore the opportunities and risks that adoption poses, with particular focus on (higher) education institutions.
Defining the cloud
The benefits of the cloud
In many senses the primary advantages the cloud brings are to do with cost and efficiency, which are closely intertwined. Essentially the capital costs of computing can de done away with if an organisation relies on the public cloud, buying virtual server time and storage space on demand. Expenditure on IT becomes operational, rather than capital. Moreover, the physical space required for racks of servers is no longer necessary and the organisation no longer incurs energy costs for running and cooling its servers.
Why Is Cloud Computing Important?
McKinsey suggests that “using clouds for computing tasks promises a revolution in IT similar to the birth of the web and e-commerce.”7 Burton Group concludes that “IT is finally catching up with the Internet by extending the enterprise outside of the traditional data center walls.”8 Writers like Nicholas Carr argue that a so-called big switchis ahead, wherein a great many infrastructure, application, and support tasks now operated by enterprises will in the future be handled by very-large-scale, highly standardized counterpart activities delivered over the Internet.
The prospect of a maturing cloud of on-demand infrastructure, application, and support services is important as a possible means of:
• Driving down the capital and total costs of IT in higher education
• Facilitating the transparent matching of IT demand, costs, and funding
• Scaling IT
• Fostering further IT standardization
• Accelerating time to market by reducing IT supply bottlenecks
• Countering or channeling the ad hoc consumerization of enterprise IT services
• Increasing access to scarce IT talent
Adoption of Cloud Computing in Higher Education
On the other hand, higher education is a relative late adopter in the applications and IT support arena. This relates chiefly to the unique policy environment that regulates the acquisition, storage, and dissemination of higher education information (FERPA, HIPAA, GLB, and others) and also to a unique perspective that arises from viewing one’s organization as perpetual. On a less noble note, colleges and universities rarely account for the total cost of delivering IT infrastructure, services, and support and rarely pay for key cost drivers such as space and utilities directly and hence have no easy means of comparing the costs of self-operation and sourcing alternatives. Colleges and universities also have legitimate and pressing IT security concerns and a high sensitivity to adversepublicity.
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