There has always been a demand for data-driven insights in education. From improving student outcomes to optimizing resource allocation and predicting future needs, school systems are under constant pressure to “do more with less” while increasing performance with maximum efficiency. And now with the growth of AI over the past 18 months the need to accelerate the pace of change, improve scalability, and support innovation has never been greater. Fortunately, non-profit standards bodies like the Ed-Fi Alliance are taking measures to modernize and update their tooling to leverage cloud-native options.
Shifting Ed-Fi infrastructure to cloud-native tooling will play a crucial role for state education agencies, school districts, and EdTech vendors seeking to catalyze higher-quality insights that are faster, less expensive, and more secure. Let’s discuss the three key benefits of embracing a cloud-based approach.
Simplification
On-premises infrastructure requires significant resources to manage and maintain. Software and applications must be updated regularly. Because various tools are often added piecemeal over time, many on-premises IT environments have serious integration issues that drain productivity and performance. “The human API” was a term once coined that represented the need for a person to continually be physically handing the data integration between two EdTech applications.
Cloud-native tooling simplifies these processes and streamlines operations for state and local education agencies, freeing up time and resources for more strategic tasks focused on improving outcomes. Cloud service providers are responsible for day-to-day technology management and maintenance, while updates are largely automated. This allows for seamless scalability and data interoperability without integration issues.
For example, when Resultant partnered with the Indiana Department of Education (IDOE) to build a Graduates Prepared to Succeed (GPS) dashboard to communicate school performance, complexity was dramatically reduced by moving to the cloud.
In fact, scaling of IDOE’s infrastructure and applications would not have been possible without the autoscaling capabilities of cloud-native solutions. Resultant received the Ed-Fi Alliance’s 2023 Innovation of the Year Award for this project.
Performance
Traditional, on-premises Ed-Fi systems are prone to performance bottlenecks that create latency, reduce data processing speed, and hamper scalability. Aging servers and networking equipment, outdated software, insufficient maintenance, and limited CPU, memory, and storage contribute to performance degradation. These issues can disrupt learning, administrative operations, and communication between parents, educators, and administrators. In some cases, the hardware powering these applications might be still sitting on a server under someone’s desk. Hardly ideal.
The elastic nature of a cloud-native environment makes it possible to dynamically scale resources up or down based on demand, ensuring that performance requirements are met, even during peak usage times. Performance metrics are constantly monitored to prevent bottlenecks and automatically optimize resource allocation. This allows for faster data processing and the use of advanced, resource-intensive applications like real-time analytics. Without cloud-native tooling, harnessing the compute power needed to bring AI solutions to the education sector will be near impossible. If we believe AI will provide benefits in the education industry, then we need to be seriously considering how we modernize our own thinking to lay a foundation of cloud-native solutions versus the “we’ve always done it this way” mentality.
Cost Effectiveness
The resources and staffing required to manage and maintain on-premises infrastructure are expensive. Capital expenditures for the purchase, installation, and configuration of hardware and software, as well as ongoing costs to power and cool an in-house data center, can quickly drive up costs. Scaling an on-premises environment can be difficult due to space limitations and the cost to add or upgrade hardware and software.
Cloud-native tooling shifts most of these costs to the cloud service provider, which typically offers a pay-as-you-go pricing model for access to cloud-based applications. The organization simply pays a monthly fee, and applications and services can be added or removed as needed. This enables predictable pricing, minus the high cost and overhead of physical infrastructure, that can fit into a local or state education agency’s annual budget cycle.
Although most EdTech vendors were “born in the cloud,” many state education agencies have yet to benefit from the capital and operational cost savings of moving to the cloud.
Final Thoughts
I was able to get a front row seat of building out the initial code base for the Ed-Fi Alliance’s technology offerings. And I’m happy to see the Ed-Fi Alliance’s cloud-native tooling options are coming soon. State education agencies, school districts, and EdTech vendors should consider strategically transitioning to cloud solutions, which can simplify IT management while improving performance and cost-effectiveness.
More than a technological upgrade, the shift to the cloud is a catalyst for speed, cost-efficiency, AI-readiness, and most importantly, better educational insights and outcomes.
Please reach out to Resultant for a complimentary Gap Analysis and discuss the benefits of moving to the cloud in more detail.
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