Key points:
- Students need access to the cloud to build valuable skills before they enter the workforce
- There are a few days institutions can foster this access without running into trouble
Most organizations have either adopted the cloud or have plans to adopt the cloud in some capacity in the coming years, creating more employment opportunities in the cloud market. This is a competitive job market, and students who have had their hands in the cloud are going to be more attractive to hiring businesses.
But this is a catch-22 situation. Students need hands-on experience in cloud environments for post-graduate employment, yet these learning opportunities are not offered to them during their education.
Higher education institutions have a long-standing apprehension with scaling cloud usage. When they were first introduced to the cloud, they realized that they had to switch from the predictable cost model of data centers to a utility model. This caused education institutions to hesitate, given the potential for overspending and difficulty in proper cost estimation.
In addition, outside of the security concerns of the cloud, institutions were also concerned that a ‘bad actor’ could do something nefarious–such as mine cryptocurrency, stand up non-academic infrastructure, or expose university data. The financial concerns and foundational trust risks exponentially increase when you introduce cloud computing to the student population.
Institutions put themselves in a position to essentially give students access to a university credit card and institutional resources and ask them to behave, yet there is no confidence that they will and no guardrails in place for administration to enforce.
Randy Shore is a former higher ed administrative professional, having served as Director of IT at The George Washington University. He now serves as VP, Delivery and Success at Kion.
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