Dive Brief:
- Ohio University moved its student housing system to the cloud, creating a more attractive and user-friendly interface for students while increasing the housing department’s level of control.
- Campus Technology reports the university’s Office of Information Technology hosted the older version of the system and required extensive testing before making even minor updates, additionally slowing down reporting processes.
- After intense preparation, the transition to the cloud took little more than a week and has resulted in more freedom for Residential Housing Department needs and schedules.
Dive Insight:
Moving processes to the cloud has been an ongoing trend among higher education institutions. The shift often allows departments to improve the interface of certain services on the front-end, better serving students. Notably, cloud storage makes everything more accessible to users. When it comes to recruitment, that means people can access systems from the road, boosting productivity.
One major challenge with the conversion of certain applications to the cloud comes with rollout. But, as with Ohio University, once the scheduling could be nailed down, the actual migration is often a smooth process.