The South African education sector has had to rapidly embrace online learning during the past year. But with schools, colleges, and universities quick to use new pathways to continue with class, there is increased pressure on their IT environments, especially given the amount of legacy infrastructure still in place.
By Fatima Mkandla, Channel Manager at Nutanix Sub-Saharan Africa
Couple this to the fact that in South Africa the only way we are going to bridge the digital divide is by fast tracking digital learning and giving students access to digital resources as-a-service via inexpensive devices – and it is clear that the procurement model or education systems must itself change. How? The IT infrastructure of education must become more adaptable and move away from the traditional Capex approach. It is now about cloud-based consumption in an Opex environment where educational institutions across South Africa increasingly use instructional videos, live chats with teachers, and even document sharing platforms.
Going the distance
Even though distance learning has become critically important, most educational organisations face ageing infrastructure built on legacy storage and poorly designed networks. Performance issues, identifying problem areas, and challenges in effectively dealing with cloud-based environments are all characteristics of what these entities need to overcome.
Inevitably, much of this stems from the old three-tier structure of servers, storage, and networking which are kept in silos. But delivering secure access to learning and research applications, virtual desktops, and protected data to students, educators, and staff from any device regardless of geographic location must happen.
This is where cloud-enabled solutions that are cognisant of legacy challenges are vital to creating a more enabling environment for educational institutions. Multi-cloud desktop-as-a-service (DaaS) offerings are ideal for addressing these challenges. In fact, DaaS provides anytime, anywhere access, enables people to use their own devices, provides good performance, and offers education the scalability needed to adapt to changing market conditions. And all of this happens without needing to rip-and-replace all existing infrastructure.
Cloud-based flexibility
DaaS forms one of the building blocks in this cloud-driven environment, where it is all about consumption and having the flexibility to adapt systems to the real-time needs of the educational institution. IT teams can more easily scale up and down in a more cost-effective manner than having to worry about physical infrastructure management.
And with this comes a level of agility that the education sector did not previously have. Thanks to these cloud-based solutions, education can architect their environments more intelligently, build an integrated platform, and providing a foundation on which relevant services can be added as needed. While important, technology is only the enabler. It is the education itself that becomes the champion. It is less about the nuts and bolts of the system and more about equipping learners and educators with the means to carry on virtually without being concerned about how it happens.
By virtualising their IT environments, educational institutions become less dependent on the vagaries of high electricity usage from their on-premise servers. With the information and resources available on high-performance infrastructure in the cloud, there is no need to worry about the number of students trying to connect remotely to university or school servers. All this is delivered virtually while ensuring robust uptime and highly secure access to data.
Enhanced learning
This also facilitates education’s ability to diversify their programmes to better reflect on the modern skills needed for today’s workforce. Equipping learners with the knowledge to use digital in their daily lives becomes vital once they become part of the workforce. Work from anywhere has now become part of the status quo. And those learners who are already comfortable with the technologies and processes involved will be in a better position to find jobs.
More practically, educational institutions can offer access to a broader range of students than before. No longer limited by geographic location, the virtual classroom can deliver quality access to every student regardless of device or whether they are in a city, town, or rural community. If there is connectivity, there is an opportunity for learning
The future of education is smarter than ever. Driven by the cloud, innovative virtualised solutions, and a will to change, the education sector is in a strong position to create a more equipped workforce, give more students access to learning, and help develop the skills needed