Keep It in the Cloud

Over the last few years, I have been promoting cloud computing to improve accessibility by giving users anytime/anywhere access to their stuff. This “stuff” has expanded to include not only simple files, but also applications. As an IT services director in K-12 schools for many years, it became increasingly obvious that the best solution for delivering services was by using web accessible applications (web apps) and that became the preferred choice at my districts.
But as mobile computing becomes the norm, it is important to raise that standard to ensure that these web apps include mobile applications and not just simply web apps. More and more students and staff will have mobile devices in the coming years, and they will expect to be able to access district services. I was thrilled when a principal at one of my schools informed me that her son was accessing one of the district’s standard reading applications from his iPhone while they were driving home. This is the type of ubiquitous access our students and teachers are coming to expect.   
Recently, I was trying to pay my bills online but my bank’s website for bill pay was down. A message on the site said, “You may access the site and pay bills by using a smartphone and the mobile app.” Strangely, it worked! The lesson here is that whether we’re dealing with an instructional application or a business application, it needs to be accessible anytime/anywhere from any (mobile) device.
In the past, it was difficult to store and share large files using cloud-based apps, but that is no longer the case.Today, users can collaborate online using many different file types and platforms. For example, a colleague recently created a training video that she uploaded to our Google Docs site. I accessed it, converted it, and uploaded it to our YouTube channel and then posted the shortened URL to our internal intranet. The file was originally 335 mb. Prior to having services such as Google Drive, Drop Box, or Sky Drive, sharing and transferring  that file would have posed a significant challenge. It simply would have been too large to email.
Protection from lost data on local machines and freeing users from being tied to specific computers are two more reasons for embracing cloud computing. Users need to save files to a location separate from their computer hard drive to safeguard data. And the ability to access files from any web device is liberating. It also gives the IT department an opportunity to offload some data storage needs by using resources in the cloud.