Wendell Ying, Director of Cloud Adoption Programs at Onica, a Rackspace Technology Company, was recently featured in a TechTarget SearchITChannel article discussing the importance and need for remote learning technology within the education vertical as we navigate the pandemic-afflicted global landscape.Â
Remote learning technology emerges as top ed market focus sheds light on how the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic is leading educational institutions to get a jump start on remote learning technologies and capabilities much quicker than originally anticipated. As remote learning is becoming a top requirement, institutions are looking to gain assistance from cloud consultancies, managed service providers and cloud partners to help them adapt.
The article reflects on Onica’s recent engagement with Humber College, an educational institution based in Toronto, Canada with over 55,000 students. The institution was looking to migrate academic applications to the cloud upon plans of shutting down their facility in response to the COVID-19 outbreak. Humber College was already working on an ERP migration project with Onica when they were debating closing their Toronto campus. They faced a major issue revolving around the physical Windows workstations & applications that were only available to students on campus. Onica was able to put together and deliver a proposal with a target architecture to Humber College the same day they reached out, and began the infrastructure roll out only 10 days later.Â
The project’s quick turnaround was possible only due to deploying the AWS based architecture using an automated Infrastructure-as-code approach that accelerates “time-to-value” for customers, said Wendell Ying.
The project specifically used Amazon AppStream 2.0 to deploy the Windows applications to AWS, transferring over 400 academic applications from the on-campus workstations into the cloud. The quick turnaround was in part due to the migration project already in progress from Humber College and the relationship that Onica holds with AWS.
This type of project sets a precedent and standard for other schools looking to adapt by leveraging remote learning capabilities. The article quotes a “8% compound annual growth rate” for the e-learning market through 2026, growing in total value to $375 billion from $200 billion in 2019. Due to the relevance of cloud computing, and the circumstances surrounding COVID-19, educational and technological systems are continuing to grow rapidly.
Humber College made a conscious decision to quickly adapt, as many other institutions have done to remain diligent throughout this pandemic. However, there still remains a gap. Many schools have not yet made the decision to adopt remote learning, as they continue to weigh the options of in-person versus online instruction. The novel nature of remote learning efforts at institutional scale means that many schools are adopting the cloud through differing means, and some strategies may show greater success than others. As the technology adoption matures, more permanent solutions will emerge, built on best practices for the long term.
To read the full article, visit TechTarget here.
If you are interested in learning more about Onica’s work with Humber College, read our case study on this project here. If you’re interested in employing AWS remote work or education solutions for your institution, get in touch with our business continuity experts today!
