Cloud computing has been taking the world by storm for the past year or two.
In the beginning people were slow to utilize cloud computing to its full potential. As Google began introducing more cloud based software for Google users, it became standard for people to use Google Docs, Drive, and more. Dropbox offers free storage space that people can share.
When users began talking about how easy and fast it was to access their documents, then software, cloud computing took off.
Website owners got a taste of how reliable their sites could be with cloud servers. Soon, colleges started to take notice.
Staff Email
Students have been using off-site email for a long time.
There are not a lot of people that do not have internet access and some sort of free email address.
Yahoo, Hotmail, and Gmail all offer a lot of storage for free. Many other emails are harder to become familiar with and there aren’t that many people that use Outlook these days. Staff had long had their email addresses stuck on private servers, subject to loss if the entire system went down.
Important communication left in email can be lost forever if only one party has a copy. Standard servers have much smaller data caps in email which leads to problems when professors need to send large files.
With cloud based computing the documents can ‘live’ in the cloud. This allows all parties to access the emails at any time, from anywhere. Loss of data is far less likely to occur.
File Transfer
Cloud computing allows more than just email to be accessed easier. As noted above, files can ‘live’ in the cloud.
While all important documents should be backed up on hard copy or thumb drive, files living in the cloud are less likely to be lost due to server failure. Since several servers host the cloud, if one ‘dies’ then the others take over and support the cloud.
Large files are hard to send via email, whether based on a free server (like Gmail) or on a local server.
By uploading a file or series of files to the cloud anyone that needs the file can ‘drop’ it onto their computer if that computer is cloud enabled. Many cloud programs have a small program that allows the host computers to sync with the data in the cloud program.
A new file from one computer can be uploaded and when all computers sync, that file will be available to everyone. This is very useful for staff that needs to view admissions applications and other important data.
Events
Planning events is one of the most stressful parts of administration. Orientation day, exams, and more all need to be co-coordinated.
The parties involved can easily access documents pertaining to events in the cloud. Changes can be made quickly and all staff can view the changes right away.
More colleges are incorporating the cloud programs available today.
This has made and will continue to make computing easier by lessening resources allotted to an IT department, power consumption, and staff time.
About the Author: Tina Samuels writes on how to make a budget, social media, marketing, and other business topics.
License: Creative Commons image source
