Universities, trade schools, and other higher education facilities have changed over the last few decades as schools, students, and teachers are required to make use of technology for almost every aspect of learning. Infrastructure has been an important part of maintaining large school systems and ensuring that student’s information remains private. With many schools utilizing private cloud solutions, it’s important to learn about how important infrastructure is to a developing education system.
The COVID-19 pandemic also changed many things for people including the use of private clouds to allow students to access all lessons and other learning materials remotely. Cloud technology is definitely changing the way people think and learn.
Although cloud storage is still pretty new, it has been adopted by the education industry and paved the way for helping educators and students store their lessons and papers with maximum security. It also allows students to access their things from anywhere in the world which makes remote learning very easy.
Advantages of Cloud Storage for Universities
There are numerous benefits for students and teachers who want to use cloud storage. The main one is that it allows people to partake in virtual lectures very easily. It also allows people to easily distance learn and to continue learning no matter where they are in the country or the world.
For demographics that are underrepresented, this is a huge leap because they can now do all their lessons online and learn from home. For students who have to work this is especially helpful because they can learn around their work schedule and continue to get an education while earning their income.
It also takes away the pressure on parents, employees, and students who have financial restrictions. Those with transportation issues can also continue to learn with the use of private cloud services.
Do I Need To Use Private Cloud Storage in Higher Education?
Unless you’re doing a complete online program, you probably don’t have to use private cloud storage but it can make a world of a difference when it comes to making learning easier. In most cases, your higher education institution will offer the uses of the private cloud storage and then you can choose to use them.
Your university will have many different storage options to choose from but you want to ensure that it has enough space for all the needed data and that there are proper security measures in place.
Your university’s cloud storage might be different compared to the storage of other universities depending on:
- How much data the students and teachers need to store
- The types of devices that the school uses for teaching and learning
- How often do the files need to be accessed and by how many people
- How many people will be using the storage
- The type of security needed is based on the amount of people and what kind of information is being stored
What Exactly is Private Cloud Storage?
If you are new to the concept of cloud storage, you might not be sure what it is or how it’s used. The term can be confusing and it can be a bit hard to understand even when someone explains it to you.
Put simply, cloud storage is a type of online technology that allows you to store files on a server that is remotely location. You can then access the files you have stored anywhere in the world on any device as long as you have an internet connection.
Many people use it for their businesses as well when they have employees that travel for work and they need to be able to access files from other cities or even other countries.
The main difference between regular cloud storage and private cloud storage is that the private cloud option is much more secure. Private cloud storage is also extremely more secure compared to storing files on a USB or computer.
If you only store your items on your computer, you can also only access them from that computer which makes it hard to have those files handy in case you don’t want to bring your personal computer around.
Flash drives can also be easily lost putting your files and your security at risk.
Other Types of Cloud Storage
Most universities and higher education places will use private clouds because it allows them to completely control the server. They are expensive though so usually the university will need their own IT team to be able to maintain the cloud and ensure it isn’t causing any issues for students and faculty members.
Public clouds are the cheaper option but they offer less security and are not ideal for higher education places as anyone can access the information that is on them. However, files can still be accessed remotely making them convenient and more cost effective.
Hybrid clouds are a mix of both and some schools use them if they are not concerned about maximum privacy and security.
How Universities Use Private Clouds
Cloud storage is used for a few different reasons. The main reason is because it makes file hosting more secure and more accessible. It also makes it much easier for students to collaborate which means teachers can incorporate more group projects and other things to make the students work together.
Students can easily store files and then share them with others by either a link or allowing them to download the file directly.
Users can also change who they want to access their files if they decide after uploading that they no longer want others to be able to see them or download them.
Final Thoughts
Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, schools had to learn new ways of supporting their academic infrastructure as students and teachers were doing lessons solely online. This is how private cloud storage became so common and so popular because it allows people a fast and secure way to manage their files.
As students were back home, they were able to access their files from anywhere in the world and continue getting their education without the outside world affecting them.
Private cloud storage has many different advantages including easy access to files and a more secure way of learning.
