The Benefits of Using Cloud Computing Solutions

With many higher education institutions offering online classes, and the growing number of people working remotely, the ability to access important data quickly and safely is a priority. By using a cloud computing solution, data can be accessed from a secure, hosted environment on-demand. This can save your institution time and money, giving your students and staff a peace of mind when accessing the data they need.

Before cloud computing, many institutions hosted all of their information with their own equipment and IT resources on campus. At the time, on-premise solutions were seen as most secure, although they came at considerable cost. Now, many organizations are relying on cloud computing solutions to do the hosting. Amazon Web Services (AWS) says, a cloud computing solution is where instead of buying, owning, and maintaining physical data centers and servers, users can access on-demand (and as needed) delivery of technology services over the internet, such as computing power, storage, and databases from a cloud service provider (CSP).

The use of these cloud-based solutions are becoming more popular year after year. The events of the last year even helped many get over their reluctance of moving from an on-premise solution to cloud computing. Gartner, INC has forecasted world-wide, end-user spending of public cloud services to grow 23.1 percent in 2021 to total $332.3 billion, up from $270 billion in 2020. The increase in their usage could be due to the advantages cloud computing offers, including security and cost savings, along with having a strategic value.

When it comes to advantages to having your data hosted via a CSP, security is at the top of the list. These providers will handle all necessary security and certifications. RapidScale claims that 94 percent of businesses saw an improvement in security after switching to cloud computing. This improvement may be due in part to data encryption. By using encryption, information being transmitted over networks and stored in databases is less accessible to anyone not authorized to view your data.

Along with security, disaster recovery is easier with a CSP as everything is backed up at an off-site location. RapidScale says while 20 percent of cloud storage users are able to recover from a site disaster in four hours or less, whereas only 9 percent of non-cloud storage users could claim the same. And having a quick recovery can be crucial for any organization, including higher ed institutions.

Another advantage of using cloud computing solutions is cost savings. Salesforce says 20 percent of organizations are concerned about the initial cost of implementing a cloud-based server. Even though this concern is valid, many organizations find that they can reduce IT costs because they no longer have to maintain a physical data center or servers in-house. Half of all CIOs and IT leaders surveyed by Bitglass reported cost savings in 2015 as a result of using cloud computing solutions.

As for adding strategic value, IBM shared that for organizations that use cloud computing solutions, the CPS manages the underlying infrastructure, enabling your institution to focus on other priorities. Along with this, the CSP provides regular updates, saving you time; and offers worldwide collaboration among your teams, keeping everyone connected. With cloud computing solutions you will have faster and more secure data access than competitors who must devote IT resources to managing infrastructure, giving your higher ed institution a competitive edge.

At Nelnet Campus Commerce, we offer our Nelnet Cloud Connector. Our cloud computing solution manages data that flows between our technology and your institution’s ERP. We partner with most major higher education ERP providers to make sure that our experience is consistent. And, if your institution is using an in-house or legacy ERP that we don’t support, our API-based integration process allows us to build you your own integration. Currently, our Nelnet Cloud Connector supports Workday and Ethos integrations. The Nelnet Cloud Connector not only runs on Amazon Web Service and Kubernetes, it lives on the Nelnet side and is updated frequently. So, not only is there is no need for you have to install something on you system, you automatically receive updates too.

Read our blog The Value of Integration to learn more.