Building Better Critical Infrastructure for Higher Education
The Internet of Things (IoT) has brought technology to the Edge of the classroom allowing professors to become more efficient and provide better academic support and enrichment for their students. This rapidly changing landscape presents significant challenges.
Colleges and universities require continuous, clean and reliable power to support the critical IT infrastructure and ensure 24×7 continuity. Loss of power can result in data loss and worse yet, loss of infrastructure availability such as internet and telecommunications which is especially important in today’s online course availability, virtual staff meetings, and online resources.
The keys to ensuring student safety, protecting your reputation, and boosting financial stability start with building your organization’s reliability through optimized critical infrastructure along with flexible services and support for students, teachers, and administrators.
Factors such as aging physical infrastructure, rising energy costs, natural disasters, ever-changing regulatory requirements, rapid changes in educational strategies, and a shortage of skilled workers also contribute to technology risks for educational entities.
How Technology Is Changing the Landscape
Internet of Things
What is IoT? The Internet of Things (IoT) is the idea that the internet will expand to many items in the world besides phones and computers. These items will be accessible via the internet wherein you can pull data and/or affect them.
Here are four ways the IoT can change your work today:
- Remote Monitoring
- Can provide status updates and up-time reports for critical infrastructure through wireless communications allowing the school to quickly resolve potential problems.
- Precision Recording and Reporting
- One of the major benefits of using machines is their objectivity. As long as the machine is functioning properly, it is less prone to data-entry mistakes.
- The Advent of “Smart Schools”
- IoT is allowing schools to become “Smart” through connecting various devices, education applications, interactive learning systems, digital signage, and many more technologies that collect, analyze, and transmit data. This data can then be used to improve the student experience, provide personalized learning plans, and enhanced security.
- Cost and Time Savings
- Like any major upgrade, the initial investment of both money and time into the IoT will be high. You might need to completely revamp your technology base and retrain your staff. The returns, however, are unbelievable. No more faulty data recording, no more inaccurate reports, no more wasted time and money on inaccurate analysis or data records. In the long run, the IoT is the next big step toward efficiency, automation, and accuracy.
Interoperability & Secure Data Transfers
The idea of interoperability is multiple educational organizations working together, exchanging data and trends to provide the best educational experience for their students. To do this, each organization must communicate the others and send very sensitive documents through the internet. Here are a few perks of interoperability:
- Fast Access to Data
- Collaborating with other organizations allows you to get the key data you need at faster speeds than ever before.
- Expanded Knowledge
- Sharing information allows everyone to develop a complete knowledge base, expanding the possibilities for every organization.
- Better Decisions
- With more information, administrators and teachers will be better informed to make better decisions.
- Improved Learning Experience
- The goal of interoperability is to improve the learning experience for each student. Sharing data empowers your staff to make the best decisions and build the best services possible.
Despite these benefits, interoperability and regular data transfer has some drawbacks.
- Risk of Hacks
- As increased documents are sent over the web, secure connections must be ensured to protect from hackers. If your tech isn’t up to security standards, interoperability isn’t going to be safe for your students or staff until you upgrade.
- Regulatory Compliance
- Any breach can result in incredibly large fines, loss of trust, and even a loss of funding. Your tech needs to be able to protect your students and your reputation before interoperability can begin.
- Data Security
- The biggest source of data breaches at any organization or institution isn’t hackers or faulty tech, it’s the staff in the workplace. Your staff will need to be trained on proper usage of the new technology and procedures to ensure data isn’t compromised due to operator error.
Regulatory Environment
Education is an incredibly stressful industry with significant impacts to students and the community in general. Not only do you need to provide quality services, you must maintain your facilities and ensure your staff have the necessary technology in place to do their work.
The last things you should need to worry about are malicious attacks on your systems or the effects of local natural disasters, but these events are all too common and growing ever more frequent. Improving the physical and virtual security of your environment is essential to preserving your operations and student privacy.
The result of a noncompliance suit or inspection can be incredibly detrimental to your operations. Fines often stretch into the millions after a data breach and this is considered a generally good outcome. You need a partner who understands the stringent requirements you face and can build elegant code-minimum solutions.
Pain Points Affecting Higher Education Institutions
The biggest pain points affecting the education industry’s digital infrastructure are equipment availability, cost, ROI, and lead time. We thoroughly understand these challenges and can offer solutions to mitigate these concerns.
Equipment Availability
With shipment delays, project timelines, and other factors, equipment availability – or lack thereof – can lead to serious setbacks. As a factory-direct service provider and Local Vertiv Office, we have the foresight and capacity to get you what you need, when you need it. This means we have access to an abundance of inventory in depots across the country. In addition, techs keep some parts in their truck, which means faster replacements during service calls.
Cost
We know that cost is a constant concern. As your Local Vertiv Office, we know our products inside and out and will provide you with the support you need every step of the way. Our position as a factory-direct service provider ensures we can offer competitive pricing and top-quality products.
ROI
By identifying vulnerabilities, we can make a massive difference in your operations and accelerate your ROI. Through preventive maintenance, monitoring and management, performance optimization, and more, we’ll help you uncover greater productivity and root out causes of lost performance for maximum availability.
Lead Time
In all industries, downtime is costly, and in some, it can be life-threatening, too. We understand the immense repercussions lead time delays can have on a data center, so we make it our mission to mitigate challenges before they evolve into major issues. As a factory-direct service provider, we’re not limited to what we can store on-site. Our product line is constantly updating with new options for data center operators.
Education Critical Infrastructure Challenges
Network Security & Infrastructure Protection
- Technology is an incredibly important part of education. Without a strong IT backbone, you won’t be able to rely on the critical technology you need to help your students.
- Your facilities need reliable power and high-performance computing capabilities all day, every day.
- As interoperability and the Internet of Things expand, so, too, will your needs for greater security and power.
Enable the Education Technology Edge
- As students become more technologically sophisticated, new innovation must take place to ensure efficiency and drive rising costs back down.
- Deploying small branch center locations with connections to your data center expands your reach without compromising security, efficiency, or operational ability.
Distributed Technology Infrastructure Challenges
- Your facility must meet the challenge of not only using legacy applications but applying them over outdated infrastructure. Some of these networks are comprised of hundreds of facilities all trying to use these programs at once. This makes high-performance computing a challenge.
- Without strong IT management resources, it can be impossible to know what’s happening on your own network.
- Through a strong, connected network, you can simplify your IT management and empower your educators.
Educational Operations Efficiency
- Educational infrastructure is one of the most complex systems. You need all the power you can get out of your IT systems to meet requirements and prepare for new technology adoption.
- Pressure is rising to reduce your costs, improve performance, and increase staff productivity and efficiency.
- As the IoT grows, your systems will be increasingly taxed by the volume of incoming data and connected devices. Your infrastructure needs to keep up with growing requirements and your infrastructure efficiency needs to increase with each addition.
Enable “Green” Solutions & Sustainability in Education
- Large school campuses use a tremendous amount of energy. Getting the most efficient tech possible is a huge priority to drive down skyrocketing power costs and conserve funds.
- Energy-efficient equipment upgrades and replacements help decrease costs and the school’s environmental footprint. Optimizing your infrastructure can be a simple but powerful way to lower costs.
Power Quality and Protection Concerns
- Low power quality, poor installation, or problems in your electrical grid can severely impact critical infrastructure equipment and lower the quality of service for your students.
- Unplanned equipment downtime due to power problems can severely impact educational services and put them at unnecessary risk.
- Clean, reliable, and efficient power starts with proper design, equipment selection, and installation. Regular system testing can also help ensure efficient, safe, and continuous operation.
Education Technology Infrastructure Services
As you look to optimize your educational operations, we provide a variety of solutions to keep your infrastructure secure and online. Connect with us to schedule a call with one of our engineers to determine the best solution for your educational facilities.
Considerations of energy storage include:
How We Can Help
- Simplify the management and design of your IT infrastructure.
- Build your infrastructure power system into a reliable, efficient, and eco-friendly system.
- Aid your operations in the transition to IoT.
- Create compliant energy and data storage solutions.
- Empower you and your team to do the best work.
Empower Your Educational Facilities with a Partner You Can Trust
Educational technology is ever-expanding and growing quickly in complexity and cost. You need a partner who understands the stringent requirements and incredible regulatory complexities educational facilities face. You need a partner with industry experience, dedication to safety and efficiency, and expertise in IT fields.
We can help lower your power costs, increase your security, create an efficient network, establish a strong infrastructure, and empower your team to provide the best possible environment for your students, educators, and staff. Contact us today to start moving toward tomorrow!