With Limited Staff, Automate and Scale
Security monitoring and administration can be automated to reduce complexity, prevent human error and even lower operating costs. This is especially important for many universities that are dealing with reduced IT staff. With cloud, systems can be easily scaled to meet increasing needs. There are also lower maintenance requirements thanks to built-in security controls.
We are now in a climate of mostly remote work, and that is likely to continue for the foreseeable future. This means colleges and universities need to consider access validation and identity management for remote workers.
A good security strategy involves provisioning proper access for remote workers. Such considerations have now become a priority for institutions as they plan their security investments.
MORE ON EDTECH: Learn how to choose a cloud security posture management solution.
Cloud Saves Gonzaga University $40K
Gonzaga University is one example of a higher education institution that recognized how crucial a strong security strategy was to its operations a year ago. The IT staff committed to a cloud-first approach and focused on maintaining a strong security posture.
Gonzaga also adopted disaster recovery capabilities that it was previously missing. By moving to cloud, the university was able to lower costs and eliminate a $40,000 contract for on-premises services. It then used those savings to improve security, disaster recovery and development testing capabilities.
Part of this initiative involved integrating on-premises firewalls with the cloud to keep processes running smoothly. Gonzaga can now typically fail over to its disaster recovery in five to 10 minutes, which has boosted the university’s confidence in its security approach.
Having a smart information security and disaster recovery strategy goes hand in hand with creating efficiencies for higher education institutions. A cloud-based approach helps universities maintain high security standards and compliance, while also allowing them to divert resources to innovation. As more institutions adopt such strategies, we’ll continue to see how they drive operational efficiencies to produce better outcomes for students.
