A key driver for change in the education sector currently is the increased expectations of students. With fee levels on the rise, it’s natural that students expect more from their universities and colleges and this goes beyond just the quality of teaching.
They expect reliable IT services and access to the latest technologies. A university e-mail account and access to an Intranet are good starting points, but now students expect multimedia services like video conferencing and instant access to online stores of academic work from around the world. They also want to be able to use their own personal devices – whether smart phones, i-Pads, tablets or laptops, to access information. Delivering against these needs demands that IT can provide a reliable IT infrastructure, a comprehensive range of IT services and well thought through policies and procedures.
By using a solution such as NaviSite’s cloud-based virtual desktops, NaviCloud® ONE, universities can rapidly provision a standard desktop for any user on any device, providing secure access to university resources including conferencing, online information stores, and university e-mail – from wherever and at whatever time they want to work. This is particularly useful for distance learning students, where the Desktop-as-a-Service (DaaS) solution can provide students with a very similar learning experience as their on-site counterparts.
DaaS also removes the need for students to use expensive laptops and /or desktops, as the user experience and applications available for use are identical irrespective of the device used to access the information. With NaviCloud® ONE, this functionality is combined with advanced security controls. IT still determines who and how access to applications is provided, ensuring that the organisations security and compliance needs can be met.
Academic institutions are ideally placed to benefit from advanced cloud services – and their capacity to do so will help to differentiate them to new and prospective students and to the commercial world – increasing their longer term competitiveness. In the fast evolving competitive world of higher education, cloud services such as DaaS are giving these organizations a competitive edge and delivering students with the best experience possible.
