Recently during a meeting about technology, our technology director proposed the idea that our school system move to using Google Gmail as our email service. The bottom line is that the school system will save lots of money immediately from hardware and software maintenance costs. In the long run, it is a win-win situation because our tech department, already stretched to the limit, will not longer have to worry about our system’s email service. Welcome to the future of education!
The 2010 Horizon Report has “cloud computing” at the top of the list when it comes to the technologies schools are likely to adopt within the next 12 months. Gmail is a part of this cloud computing movement. Cloud computing is described as internet-based computing where resources such as applications, information, data storage, and data processing is shared through web applications. Cloud computing distributes applications, storage and even computing power through the use of a web browser. One of the major areas of development in cloud computing is the development of cloud-based applications. Some immediate examples of this effort are Google Docs and Zoho. Both of these web services provide word processing, spreadsheets, and other computer applications through web browser. Zoho provides users with an even greater number of applications. Users of these products save their work in the computing cloud as it is called, so the need for additional data storage is lessened as well.
Why should administrators get excited about cloud computing? First of all, cloud computing can provide a great deal of savings in Tech support, software, and hardware expenses. Secondly, cloud computing provides users with ability to provide access to applications without relying on software installed on a local computer. Cloud applications can be accessed anywhere there is web access. The bottom line, by turning over our email services to Google, we could save several thousand dollars a year short term, and who knows how much we will save not having to maintain email services. Schools would do well to begin exploring the cloud for opportunities to stretch the shrinking tech budget even further.