Either it’s an IT Industry or some Higher Education Institute, the need for IT Infrastructure is seen everywhere. Most of the other applications of IT are known to others, this post is all about the significance of Managed IT services in Higher education.
IT is evolving at a fast pace in the Higher Education Industry. Even the basic i.e. a classroom has been evolved from a conventional one to online. Now Institute has more focus on learning rather than just attending the classes.
Need of Managed Services in Higher Education
With the integration of technology in classrooms, educational videos help to engage with teachers and students. Students need not just learn about their subjects but also must be familiar with the evolving technology.
All the new technology brought on the campus has to be maintained by the internal team. But few cases are seen where the latest technology handling can’t be done by the Internal team.
Here comes the Managed IT Services provider. The significance of Managed Services provider is known many other Industries, here I wrote this post to specifically tell everything about the same.
The most important advantages of hiring a Managed IT Services provider in the Higher Education Industry are
Data Security & Remote Support
After the advent of technology, e-learning has started. Soon after the e-learning from conventional websites shifting to cloud computing e-learning. With the increasing popularity of remote learning, the resources for e-learning have increased a lot. This requires security in the data transfer.
Data security needs to be seen ten folds if a student is using their own device. Every time a new device is used by a student, the risk of phishing, or malware attacks increases. Any attack can corrupt your data that is useful to an Institution.
Managed IT focuses on security and helps Institutes in building a secure network with regular security patches and updates.
Not just regular security updates, MSP creates various access policies for the students, staff, and Teaching staff. These policies help in restricting students to find confidential data like grades and other sensitive data about the college. Also, regular data backup is done in case of recovery is required after data loss.
Help Safeguard Student and Faculty Privacy
Every Higher Education Institute maintains a lot of data around the students, teachers, and other staff that are associated with the institute. The most common example for the data are grades, addresses, health records, and other information like learning disabilities.
Data is not just a basic one but also some sensitive one that shouldn’t be seen by others. So I mean that storing and transforming the data into digital form isn’t enough but also requires extra regard for data privacy.
So to store & secure data maintained by an institute must be kept by following various Privacy act. The standard that is followed by the Institutes is the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) which protects data privacy and maintains the principles in the digital transformation of college data.
A Managed IT firm implements all the data privacy laws with the vulnerabilities, IT Infrastructure to secure the data in the digital form. There are a lot of challenges that an MSP faces to secure the data of college in case of a ransomware attack. Ransomware can put risk on your data and encrypt it to some unextractable form. This encrypted form can be accessible to hackers and they can leak the data. If the data gets leaked, only the college management is legally responsible.
MSPs are experts in securing the data and implement privacy laws and maintaining data protection. An MSP keeps track of the activity of students on the Network and blocks access over non-trusted websites.
Request Support and Receive Regular Maintenance
Every service in an institute is available due to the technology that keeps it up. The servers that keep the service up needs maintenance and updates to keep it away from crashes and malware attacks. MSP helps in making all the services available for students, teachers, and other staff.
This also includes disaster recovery and data backup for a service to keep it running forever.
Save on Internal Operating Costs
Managed IT Service provider is an external team that can work with the same efficiency as an on-site IT Team. MSP helps in saving costs as compared to the internal team. Due to various technologies that are kept in your campus needs people with expertise to operate them.
Instead of hiring an expert for every tech that you keep on your campus, better hire an MSP for the same and save the operating costs.
An MSP helps in performing all the operations at less cost and provides you skilled resources for your IT operations. You can get professionals whenever you need them instead of hiring a full-time resource.
This helps in scaling your services with fewer investments and helps in bringing more technology to your campus for better management, with fewer technicians to hire.
With a fixed monthly fee based on hours spend, an MSP generates a bill and helps you set up your infrastructure and proper maintenance whenever required.
The availability of the MSP team is based on the type of subscription plan that is been brought by you. Due to the flexible hours, which can be during Institute working or after that everything can be managed smoothly and seamlessly.
Ensure Your Network Remains Educational
Students learning in or out of college creates a lot of distractions while they try to learn something. For example, while they are attending an e-lecture, their distracted mind tends to open a non-educational website.
But blocking all other non-educational websites won’t be a solution because in some classes a website may be educational and in some, it’s not.
An Instructor must have little control over it and should be able to use a website if needed. Students must be blocked from using social media, online games, and watching entertainment videos. This problem is solved using a DNS filter that restricts a student to access any non-educational website. The content blocker needs to be updated often so sites can be blacked and unblocked upon a request.
An MSP helps in picking up a DNS that helps in offering flexibility and functionalities needed. After the right DNS filter is implemented, you can also outsource the management to them and let them update upon your request.
Support Your Physical IT Infrastructure and Networks
There is a countless number of devices connected on college campuses. This could be a student’s laptop, tablet, printers, copiers, smartboards, and Wi-fi routers. There are many devices you may have to connect if you still not using cloud computing.
If you still don’t evolve to cloud computing, it will be very difficult in managing the devices connected on your college campus.
Manage Your Cloud Operations
Higher Education Institutes are moving towards cloud computing. These cloud computing services are customized for Higher Education Institutes. Cloud-based communication, file storage, and collaborative tools offer fantastic solutions. Web applications are helpful in providing services with flexibility and accessibility to students and teachers. This reduces costs rather than buying licensing software.
Final Words
A managed IT provider helps in the digital transformation of various physical files and data or smooth migration if digitized already. With all the digital assets, MSP set up a cloud and manages accounts for faculty and students.
There will be support in the continuation after all is set up. MSP will take care of hosting, cyber threats, and all software required to maintain the Infrastructure.
