Before cloud computing, companies needed to house large data centers in order to provide managed services to their clients. This required companies to invest large amounts of money in land, electricity, materials, and labor. As the National Institute of Standards and Technology defines it, cloud computing gives businesses and end users access to unlimited amounts of computing power without the high cost of hosting servers. This shift is now transforming cloud computing in education as well.
Cloud Computing for More Efficient Curriculum Resources
The education industry can benefit highly from cloud computing. Cloud computing in education is a new concept that more and more institutions are beginning to adapt to and implement. Educational institutions using a private cloud can make their curriculum more efficient and direct more resources to teaching. For example, a professor might want to write their own class material. A dedicated cloud would let the institution store the materials digitally for all students to access. This saves the cost of publishing the materials or paying students to self-publish them. This can be especially beneficial to institutions that aim to provide a lot of financial aid to students.
Saving Physical Space
Cloud computing in education has great benefits when it comes to physical space. Institutions often have limited space, and supporting a large server network can end up using valuable space. You can expand a private cloud as much as you want and never have to worry about filling up physical space.
Cloud Computing Offers Scalable Power and Bandwidth
One of the most valuable benefits of cloud computing is you can increase power and bandwidth whenever needed. In a self-hosted computer network at the institution, this would mean replacing servers and finding a place to store the old ones. It would also mean replacing network equipment and possibly needing the ISP to run new cable. These costs can all be avoided with cloud computing.
In a cost-sensitive industry such as education, cloud computing provides many savings, such as support for bring-your-own-device policies. This lets institutions focus on their main goals while still providing the computing power that students and faculty need.
