Published on the 02/05/2016 | Written by Clare Coulson

Cloud computing might dominate the headlines but a significant number of users still don’t get the benefits…

It’s not just businesses that are moving to an anywhere-anytime operating model. The education sector is too. Or at least it should be, according to Igor Matich, managing director of Dynamo6. That is the integrator behind a number of purely cloud-based implementations in local schools, including Hamilton’s cutting-edge Rototuna Junior High School and Tauranga’s Otumoetai Intermediate School in the Bay of Plenty (winner of the Prime Minister’s 2014 Supreme Award for Educational Excellence).

“The 9-3pm model for education is changing to being flexible, tailored to individual students and self-managed, and the best way to support this cost effectively is through the cloud,” Matich explains.

You just have to look at the way kids these days interact online to know that they are living in a cloud-based world. It’s Snapchat and WhatsApp all the way for them and the idea of downloading emails to a local device, well, that’s akin to listening to cassette tapes and using a VCR. What is more, there is plenty of support for cloud-based learning in New Zealand, ranging from free Google Apps for Education to a number of Ministry of Education funded initiatives such as free high-speed fibre internet connections, the NZ Schools Microsoft Agreement and funded network upgrades. You’d think with all these options, including the expanded cloud tools that come from Microsoft and super-fast free UFB access, that schools would be lapping it up.

Not so, according to Matich, who says the people in leadership positions at schools are, err, ‘old school’ without the ‘k’; products of the server generation. He says that he often sees examples of where technology service providers have not taken full advantage of the services on offer to create a low cost and flexible cloud-based environment – presumably because they have not been able to get it past the board or get buy-in from management.

“They still use the server as the foundation and this often gets in the way of flexible learning, quick adoption of new learning apps and just costs more to upgrade and manage. It’s a wasted opportunity and [adversely] affects learning,” Matich says, with a hint of frustration. There is a widening gap between traditional teaching approaches based on a traditional IT structure and how (and when) young people access and absorb information today.

This reticence to embrace cloud computing in schools is symptomatic of a wider misunderstanding of cloud computing. In the business world cloud might be entering its third phase – the stage where it is the norm for most businesses – but that doesn’t mean it is properly understood. According Don McLean, managing director of the Australian branch of Fronde (a New Zealand-born cloud and IT services provider) companies can lose sight of the underlying reasons for making the move to the cloud in their race to get there. This, he said, leads to mistakes.

To overcome this risk, he recommends that organisations take a strong change management approach to implementing cloud solutions. Just because you are implementing a cloud project, you should not wave good bye to the principles of due diligence, good planning and change management. In the case of cloud implementations change management is the key to unlocking the benefits of cloud, McLean said.

“Companies tend to want to move to the cloud as fast as possible. The question for most businesses is no longer whether they should implement a cloud solution, but which solution they should choose. While this is an important question, it’s the wrong place to start. Instead, companies should look carefully at how they approach their cloud implementation to avoid failure. These failures can sometimes almost go unnoticed, but still carry costs.”

If you are moving to the cloud, then you might like to take the following points from Fronde’s cloud implementation experts in to account:

• Scope upfront
• Treat IT as a revenue generator
• Expect change to cost
• Keep a structure
• Look beyond the waterfall