When I began writing this 3-part blog series on the cloud back in April, I don’t think any of us really understood the depth of the disruption and corresponding change that would sweep the Education space in 2020. Yes, at that time, many institutions were already implementing, or escalating their utilization of, technologies that supported a widespread shift to virtual learning and the mobilization of the workforce, but here we are-months later-still without a clear understanding of what this new normal facing Education really looks like.
Charting a path forward now requires institutions to prepare multiple contingencies to ensure services can continue to be extended, uninterrupted, to students and staff. And, at many institutions, those plans for the future are built around technologies deployed in the cloud. In the previous parts of this series, Enhanced Security, Ensured Compliance, Increased Agility and Decreased Admin Burden as four reasons why the cloud is today’s choice for educational institutions. Which brings me to:
Reason 5: Ongoing Disruption
Let’s face it, many of the challenges facing Education have become drastically more complex. Institutions are having to account for new cybersecurity, accessibility and other concerns that have only grown with the ongoing disruption, and uncertainty around what the future will hold. The need for institutions to deploy technologies that ensure business continuity, create operational agility and deliver needed improvements to processes has never been greater. In other words, the need for enhanced security, ensured compliance, increased agility and decreased admin burden is pressing. And the cloud checks all those boxes.
The time is right for Education to take a close look at processes and determine where people are really needed to solve problems and where technology could be utilized effectively instead.
The cloud empowers an institution with added resources and the expertise of their software vendors and cloud providers. Similar to assembly line production, this puts specific tasks in the hands of those well-equipped and versed in best practices, freeing resources to be allocated wherever they best serve the institution and the needs of their students and staff.
Softdocs and the Cloud
Softdocs began its journey to the cloud over four years ago, with significant year over year growth of new customers making the decision to leverage Softdocs solutions in the cloud. In 2018, 76% of new Softdocs customers chose the cloud. In 2019, that number was 90%. Now, in 2020, the cloud is the choice 100% of the time, and given how it empowers our company to deliver technology faster, it is the choice of customers moving forward. As an EdTech provider, this gives us agility to serve our customers, however rapidly or drastically their needs change.
Today, Etrieve by Softdocs is deployed leveraging Microsoft Azure. Our company has adopted a cloud-first deployment and development methodology, which is comprised of feature-based, real-time rolling updates that allow Softdocs Development to quickly push out individual, incremental features to the campuses of cloud customers much faster than historically possible with the large releases of on-premises deployments. As the cloud supports a model of continuous improvement, for us and our customers, it is our choice and the overwhelming choice of educational institutions today.
Interested in learning more about Softdocs, Etrieve by Softdocs, or our cloud-first methodology? View or sign up for one of our webinars below:
Why Cloud is Today’s Choice for Educational Institutions
Prioritizing the Voice of the Customer and Other Key Objectives of an EdTech Cloud Vendor