Oh no! Cloud computing in education?! | Student Affairs in a Digital ...

Today I?ll make again an argument I made earlier ? bad ideas seldom have to defend themselves. Good ideas are always on the defensive! But this time the subject of this perverse logic is cloud computing. Just to be clear, I don?t believe in panaceas. Cloud isn?t right for every situation. But it?s not something to be wary of either. It?s here to stay and you?d better get used to it.Too often we let our fear do the talking, based on imagined scenarios not real experience. Sure, you have to be sensible. Sure, you have to take precautions. Sure, you have to be smart about what you do. Sure, someone has to be accountable. But we exist right now on trust relationships. It just happens that most of our trust relationships are on campus. But do location and proximity automatically confer increased trust? If so, why? Trust has to be established and earned. Neither making assumptions nor being fearful is being very smart.

So I call it fear. How is fear expressed when the cloud comes up in conversation?

Fear factor 1: ?The cloud is OK but we shouldn?t use it for anything with sensitive or confidential information.? LOL there! That rules out most campus applications without further discussion. In effect, you?re saying you shouldn?t use it. But in a more sober light, any vendor should adhere to your institution security policies and guidelines or rule itself out as a candidate for your business. If they compromise your data, the downside for most vendors is even worse than your campus staff. Heck, your vendor will stand a strong chance of losing his business! Can you say the same thing about your internal server arrangements?

Fear factor 2: ?With cloud, you don?t know where your data is.? A colleague and I were belly-laughing about this one the other day. We confessed we don?t even know the names of most of the individuals maintaining our servers! Further, we don?t know personally the quality of their work, how many of them there are, how well they perform, the technical protections they put in place, or the technologies they use. We also don?t know where the servers are physically located ? we have an idea, but we?re not really sure. This is our so-called ?local servers?. We do know that there is a standard that is applied and that there?s hell to be paid if things go wrong. But that?s someone else?s job. There?s that trust issue again. Should we trust the other guy just because he?s on the same payroll we?re on? And for all you public institutions out there, tell me just how easy it is for you to fire an incompetent staffer? Let me tell you from experience: Firing a vendor is relatively easy. You can do it without that much pain and rather quickly. Just make sure you have an exit strategy in your contract with the vendor that includes getting your data back out of their system ? all of it.

Fear factor 3: ?We don?t want them to own our data!? Two things in answer here: 1) Let the vendor know who?s in charge ? it?s your data not theirs, and 2) make sure the vendor will not use your data for any purpose other than serving you and your constituencies better. Make sure that?s in the contract.

Fear factor 4: ?Vendors don?t respond quickly. You?re just one of their many clients. We?ll lose control.? Not if they want to keep your business, you won?t! Again, you have to manage the relationship. But listen to this: My experience indicates that quite often vendors are faster addressing issues than campuses are locally. Higher ed is a small community. When a vendor starts screwing up, word gets around quickly, and there goes market share to another vendor! Again, we have to examine our own statements to see if they?re true or not.

Fear factor 5: ?Well, all right! If we?re going to use cloud, it has to be centrally managed. Otherwise, it will just get out of hand!? Bunk! Effective management doesn?t come through centralizing it. Effective managing comes through, well, effectively managing things. Make sure you read the vendor?s service level agreement and make sure you have them answer clearly all your questions about how they manage your data. And then make sure they follow through. Also if you?re on the business side, make sure you understand the words. Here?s your chance to increase your technological literacy. Trust but verify. Eyes wide open.

So really, most of our so-called arguments are expressions of fear. When someone who?s perfectly capable of being rational isn?t rational, then I ask myself, ?What?s the real hidden fear?? The way I break it down, there are two underlying fears:

One is that if we use the cloud we will lose our jobs. If campus technical staff let the cloud get out of control on our campus, what are they going to do for a living? The second is a fear that we don?t know how to manage that well to begin with. Now ? with cloud services not only do I have to manage someone in another [building, part of town, city, state, country], I potentially have many more relationships to manage than just one or two on my own campus.

Now ? those feel like real fears!

What?s the reality? It?s that the sheer number of apps and applications we need to, or should, deploy on our campuses far exceeds our capacity to deliver on our own. We?ve got to stop building and providing apps and start learning that our real job is to facilitate the uptake of technology into our institutional bloodstream. The business of doing and providing is winding down; the business of facilitating is ratcheting up, and it?s the right business to be in, not only for your campus, but for yourself. What this means is, you?ve got to retool your skill set (if you?re not there already) to have lots more people and management skills. If you?re worried you?re not a great manager now, just wait until you?ve got dozens of vendors to manage! (In one current project I?m on, I manage local resources plus nine participating vendors!) The best antidote to this fear is to take an honest personal assessment, build skills if you lack them, and move onto something else if you don?t feel right for the change.

Which comes to the other fear about losing jobs. The real thing to fear is losing your relevance not your job. The way I see it, jobs aren?t the thing to defend anymore. Skill set acquisition and fearlessly taking on new technologies are the two best job securities there are. And guess what? The technology stack is going to change on you a few times in your career.? Get ready for the roller coaster ride, baby! And hey! A roller coaster is supposed to be fun!

Cloud should be our first option. The exception should be not using the cloud.

? Tim Flood, 2012

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President, Route 92 Consulting, Inc., and technology consultant to higher education institutions with clients including Stanford University, UC San Francisco, MeLLmo, Sntial Technologies. Previously, Senior Technology Consultant, Stanford University; Director, Stanford Mobile Program; Director Student Affairs Information Systems, Stanford University.

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