Switching to cloud-based applications hosted off-premise is now the standard in a number of industries, including K-12 education. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, more than one-third of districts (37%) have added cloud-based applications to their digital ecosystem districtwide, according to the CoSN EdTech Trends 2021 report.
“Leaders must take creative approaches to securing necessary resources, including… reducing the security burden by migrating to secure cloud environments and trusted managed services,” states the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency in a 2023 report. The report finds that “many school districts struggle with insufficient IT resources and cybersecurity capacity,” advising to “minimize the burden of security by migrating IT services to more secure cloud versions.”
The main types of education software products that schools and districts switch to cloud hosting include their student information system, learning management system, and ERP payroll and HR system. Having these types of systems and data hosted in the cloud is more secure, costs less to own and maintain in the long run, and is easier to implement and integrate than hosting solutions on-premise. Plus, you can free up your IT staff from technology maintenance so they can spend more time to helping your school and district staff with higher priorities that can impact student outcomes.
Districts integrating cloud computing are able to tackle broadband and network capacity issues… as well as enable educational benefits, including expanding and reinvigorating STEM learning programs.
EdTech Magazine 5 Steps K-12 Schools Need to Consider When Moving to the Cloud
Georgia’s Buford City School District is experiencing benefits first-hand. The district hosted an on-premise student information system for nine years before switching to a cloud-hosted SIS. They’re so pleased with the move that they “would not consider going back to being self-hosted.”
“The cost of hosting beats the cost of purchasing and maintaining hardware, as well as the time to manage and maintain software updates,” says Flora Contreras, Buford’s Student Information Coordinator. “Downtime has been almost none since hosting, and we are updated promptly when state reports are released. In addition, the peace of mind knowing our data is secured off-site and is being backed up by the hosting team is worth the cost in itself.”
Here are five of the top benefits you could experience by moving to edtech cloud hosting for your K-12 school or district.
1. Keeping Your Data Safely Away from Cyber Criminals
Cybersecurity threats and attacks continue to grow, heightened by shifts to more digital operations and understaffed technology teams. More users are working outside of the physical school where there’s far less control over security, which exposes districts to numerous new points of attack that they weren’t previously set up to support.
Between 2016 and 2022, there have been 1,619 cybersecurity incidents against U.S. public schools and districts, according to the K-12 Cybersecurity Resource Center.
Cloud hosting can help protect your data from both physical security failures and virtual cybersecurity attacks with 24/7/365 monitoring and up to 99.9% uptime and reliability. Quality edtech vendors and hosting providers can give you peace of mind from a global network of data centers, industry standards and best practices for physical security measures, and built-in redundancy, failover, and backup for stability and security.
The right cloud provider can help strengthen your school and district data security by completing regular ISO 27001/SOC 2 audits and reports to support the most critical processes of managing student, class, and school data. They also provide cybersecurity, DDoS, and malware protection, secured access controls, a security operations center, and SOC 2 compliance for service organizations.
Cloud computing plays a multifaceted role when it intersects with the security sector. In fact, one of the most common ways for many organizations to boost their security defenses is to move their workloads from on-premises servers and data centers to third-party cloud platforms.
Microsoft The Innovator's Guide to Cloud-Based Security
Note: Make sure your vendor is doing everything it can to keep data safe by checking its compliance with HIPAA, FERPA, SOC 1, SOC 2, SOC 3, SSAE 16, and PCI DSS Level 1, as well as the all-important ISO 27001 Certification, a security management standard that specifies security best practices and controls.
To see other ways vendors should be protecting your data, take this 20-point cybersecurity inspection for edtech self-assessment.
2. Stretching Your Budget Dollars: Financial Benefits with a Lower Total Cost of Ownership
The initial cost of switching to cloud hosting may be a big reason why many districts resist the move. But continuing to host data on-premise can be more expensive in the long run. Even when setting aside the staff time districts devote to manual updates or data backups—and potential costs from data breaches or recovery issues—the actual expenses of running and maintaining on-premise servers add up.
Costs go beyond just server hardware, software, antivirus protection, the SSL fee, cooling, and power. Consider how much you’re spending on the following if your district is hosting systems on-premise:
- Updating and maintaining your system and backing up data
- Patching and upgrading an outdated system
- Keeping your data secure
- Client Access Licenses (CAL)
- Firewall/IDS/DDoS security
- Internet bandwidth/public IP
- Disaster recovery
These all contribute to the decision that moving to the cloud is the fiscally smart choice for many districts. Just ask Oswego Unified School District No. 504 in Kansas.
“By implementing our PowerSchool SIS’s hosting option, we’re saving thousands of dollars every year in equipment costs and, more importantly, in staff hours,“ says Landon Allen, the district’s Director of Information Technology. “The biggest thing is peace of mind. Hosting takes care of everything, making server maintenance absolutely painless.”
Thanks to time savings, IT staff can better focus their attention on activities that directly benefit schools, districts, and students, instead of infrastructure maintenance. “There isn’t anything I have to do with the server, and that allows me to spend more time with professional development,” adds Allen.
Another way hosting saves money is through improved cybersecurity (see section 1 above). Cyber incidents have cost districts between $50,000 and $1 million, with the average ransomware payment by schools coming in at $268,000. With improved cybersecurity and protections of your data hosted in the cloud, you can eliminate these unnecessary costs.
3. Breathing Easy in the Cloud: Simple Migration and Maintenance
Removing the burden of time-consuming on-site maintenance is a significant benefit of cloud hosting. Having a reliable hosting provider keeps your staff from having to physically manage servers and other on-site systems.
Though moving your data from an on-premise server to the cloud may seem like a tall task, it can actually be done quickly and securely. PowerSchool Hosting implementation is outlined for customers in nine key steps, starting with gathering a complete snapshot of the database and customizations and ending with all data migrated and all maintenance updates reliably managed. The PowerSchool support team communicates with district staff along the way and takes care of every detail.
Carolyn Stewart from Lake Highland Prep in Florida recalls that a support team began migration at 8 a.m. on a Thursday—and completed the job in under two hours, at 9:41 a.m. that same day.
“It was so smooth and so easy,“ Stewart says.
Proven vendors with experienced implementation teams can make migration easy and maintenance a breeze, freeing tech staff to spend more time supporting the rest of a district’s education technology ecosystem.
4. Strength in Numbers: Cloud Providers Can Bolster Performance
Moving to the cloud doesn’t mean you’ll lose control over your data. Top-tier cloud providers offer a choice of automated or on-demand updates, and they’re equipped with large support teams. One call or message connects you with an expert who can make the adjustments you need (such as added server resources during a busy time), when you need them.
Additionally, cloud-hosted environments are more scalable and agile than on-premise servers.
Need more storage because your school district is growing? You can add what you need, and only what you need, rather than spend thousands on an entirely new server.
5. Peace of Mind: Secure Data Backup and Disaster Recovery
In much the same way that moving data to the cloud improves your access, cloud hosting offers superior disaster recovery and data backup capabilities.
Best-in-class cloud providers have secondary data centers dedicated to recovery. Primary and secondary data centers have fully redundant systems for power protection, HVAC, fire detection and suppression, systems hardware, and internet connectivity. Database backup files are replicated to the secondary data centers for redundancy of recovery options.
Additionally, quality cloud providers give you extra peace of mind with a formal incident response plan to mitigate damage both during and after an incident. An example is modeled after the PICERL process of Preparation, Identification, Containment, Eradication, Recovery, and Lessons.
PowerSchool Hosting, delivered through Microsoft Azure cloud-based technology, provides multiple data backup and recovery options with extensive retention policies to meet compliance regulations. If you do need data restored, a dedicated support engineer will work with your staff to get the job done. DR/Rapid Deployment ensures a robust process for safe and efficient backups located in independent infrastructure and automated processes for rapidly deploying new systems in the event of catastrophic events.
Moving to the Cloud with LAUSD
Watch the webinar to learn how moving hosting of its core edtech products, including its SIS and ERP systems, is setting up Los Angeles Unified School District up for a secure future.
Watch Now
