Enterprise Cloud Migration for Edtech: Expectations vs. Reality

In the rapidly growing era of eLearning, EdTech companies are embracing out-of-the-box cloud solutions for several reasons. Deeply integrated cloud services enable EdTech companies to innovate, enrich services, and significantly accelerate time-to-market without major infrastructure investments.

The trouble is that many companies gloss over the potential obstacles in the journey to the Promised Land of the Cloud. They get a little too wrapped up in the excitement, with all the efficiency-driving and cost-saving advantages that come with cloud migration.

But to ensure smooth and effective migration, you need a strategy anchored in reality. This article will help you bridge the gap between expectations and reality when adopting the cloud.

Table of Contents:

• What Is the Role of the Cloud in EdTech?
• From Hype to Reality: What Cloud Migration Looks Like
  1. Cost Savings
     
  2. Skills Gaps
     
  3. Vendor Lock-In
     
  4. Cloud Security
     
• Wrapping Up!

What is the Role of Cloud in EdTech?

With the increasing popularity of virtual classrooms, digital technology is undoubtedly the future of education. The global EdTech market size was valued at $142.37 billion in 2023. It is estimated to reach $348.41 billion by 2030, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 13.6% during the forecast period.

Cloud computing is an advanced serverless architecture that migrates the entire on-premise education infrastructure to the Internet. With easy-to-use features, the best security services, and flexibility in data storage capacity, cloud computing has all the advantages EdTech requires.

Cloud-based platforms enable EdTech companies to run remote, fully managed institutional tasks at twice the speed of a physical infrastructure.

From Hype to Reality: What Cloud Migration Looks Like

Using cloud services such as AWS migration, EdTech companies can quickly create, deploy, and handle simple and complex systems. But to deliver successful cloud migration, they must combine the right tools, processes, and people.

Although companies are increasingly faster at implementing innovative cloud solutions, they seldom know what to expect from cloud providers. Here’s a realistic view of how EdTech companies can benefit from data cloud migration.

Also Read: Transform Your Education with Cutting-Edge EdTech Solutions

1. Cost Savings

For many companies, the cloud’s ability to reduce overhead costs by reducing manual inputs and increasing efficiency is the most appealing. Optimization of IT cost is the major factor driving their cloud migration.   

Expectation:

Companies think of the cloud as a silver bullet to instantly save money. They believe the cloud is a cost-effective solution and put off formulating a cost strategy until after they’ve migrated.

Reality:

Cloud migration can be costly without an honest assessment of your internal resources and expertise. You cannot optimize cloud costs without pre-agreed financial goals, realistic measures, and proactive cloud providers.

Analyzing the hidden costs and financial impact is critical to setting realistic expectations. Below are some tips that can help you identify gaps in your cost strategy and prepare tailored solutions:

• Evaluating the utility-based pricing model
• Leveraging third-party tools and cost calculators to effectively understand cost
• Evaluating indirect or hidden costs
• Auditing available resources

2. Skills Gaps

To reap the many benefits of the cloud, your IT staff must possess the required skills to deploy and manage cloud services. Outsourcing expertise is important to meet the growing demand for cloud businesses and application migration.

However, to succeed long-term, you need to develop cloud savvy in-house by training employees.

Expectation:

EdTech companies assume their staff will quickly adapt to cloud transformations without expert support. While some enterprises successfully migrate to the cloud without realizing the skill gap, most of them identify this gap after the commencement of the project.

Reality:

Cloud infrastructure is evolving rapidly with an ever-growing list of capabilities, features, and changes. If staff don’t stay up-to-date, it can lead to massive security concerns. Cloud misconfiguration is one of the major causes of cloud data breaches worldwide.

In a recent survey, 80% of the 627 surveyed technical professionals cite a lack of resources/expertise as one of the biggest challenges of using cloud computing. Staff training is the key to ensuring a successful cloud journey.

3. Vendor Lock-In

Due to a lack of standardization, vendor lock-in is a major barrier to cloud migration. Most companies are unaware of this problem, which inhibits the portability and interoperability of applications when taking services from cloud providers. During the initial migration phases, they ignore or don’t consider this an issue.   

Expectation:

Companies tend to lock in a vendor based on their present cloud goals. They expect the vendor to deliver the services per their changing business requirements. They are hesitant to change vendors due to the cost of switching and the high level of interruption to business operations.  

Reality:

There hasn’t been much advancement in switching between two service providers. So, companies find it difficult to relocate their services from one vendor to another.

For this reason, it is very important to draft service-level agreements (SLAs) with utmost caution, clearly listing all the terms and conditions. This way, you can terminate the services with the provider when they are no longer helpful.   

4. Cloud Security

Cloud migration is not merely the lifting and shifting of data to the cloud. Even with an uptight security system, the cloud may fail to secure the stored data, with inherent risks attached. However, many EdTech companies rely on the cloud service provider to secure their data.  

Expectation:

Unlike an enterprise’s on-premise infrastructure, cloud-based deployments are directly accessible via the Internet because they are outside the physical network parameter. This makes them vulnerable to privacy and external security threats.

To safeguard the company’s confidential information stored in the cloud, vendors are expected to adhere to the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and other data management regulations.

Vendors are liable to pay heavy penalties in the event of misuse, abuse, or theft of customer information.  

Reality:

Being completely dependent on the vendor to ensure robust data security is not the right approach to cloud security. Without the correct configuration and expertise, cybercriminals can easily gain unauthorized access to cloud-based enterprise solutions.

Every user must be trained on the cloud features to minimize the threat of cyber-attacks. Malicious or untrained insiders can potentially grant access to an unauthorized person. So, appropriate measures must be taken to restrict the easy sharing of data.

Implementing swift breach detection and remediation becomes paramount to minimize the potential damage by cybercriminals.  

Also Read: How is the Higher Ed Industry Using Cloud Transformation?

Wrapping Up!

We hope this article gave you valuable insights to ensure the reality of your cloud migration matches up to your expectations. Without a proper action plan, it is very easy to lose control and end up in the costly, messy state of cloud sprawl.

To ensure you’re on the right track, partner with Hurix Digital today! We offer low-cost, scalable, and efficient cloud solutions, relieving businesses from the hassle of developing and maintaining cloud applications.

Our key services include AWS platform management, DevOps, Cloud architecture, Cloud migration, and more. Our team of seasoned professionals strives to help our clients navigate their journeys to the cloud, laying new foundations for future growth.

To learn more about our cloud computing services, schedule a demo today!