Since our inception in 2009, we’ve believed that Cloud Computing (and particularly the “utility computing” paradigm) first and foremost offers cost-effectiveness.  At last, it seems that the main stream public sector is beginning to cotton onto this potential.

In fact the potential for cost saving is so great it has now made it all the way to the top at Westminster.  Cloud computing is apparently a potential election winner.  Well, part of a manifesto anyway: Nick Clegg, leader of the Liberal Democrats, puts it up there with scrapping the replacement for the Trident strategic nuclear defence system as a potential cost saver.  He said so, on the Radio 4 “PM” programme.

Hear Nick Clegg on the Radio 4 “PM” programme (28/04/2010) noting the importance of Cloud Computing to cost saving in Government.
List of measures begins at approximately 32 minutes into the programme, Cloud Computing is second on the list.

The Cloud is part of the Liberal Democrats long-term vision for reducing spending on public finances.  Okay, they’re not giving as much detail as we would all really like, but it is fantastic to see it on the radar.

At last, the potential we’ve always known is there for reduced cost (and of course improved services) through adoption of the cloud is being recognised.  Our job now is to help the education sector ride at the head of this forthcoming public sector revolution rather than dragging it’s heels at the back!

The Magic Circle.  A fantastically, quaint place to hold the conference, full of university lecturers, IT staff and anyone else with an interest in utility computing.  What was really cool about sitting in the old auditorium, with members’ names scribed onto each chair is the amount of technology being used.  The speakers were being videoed with a tiny camera and people were using Skype, checking email and even posting comments on Twitter which were automatically appearing on the large screen as the conference got under way.

From comments such as ‘kicking off #repcloud here in London’ to ‘omg I’m in the Magic Circle’, people were using technology to instantly update and feedback on what was happening.  Wouldn’t it have been great if this theme could have continued through the show so that people could automatically feedback/comment on presentations and make them more interactive?

One thing that struck me was when the first presenter introduced her company and the person in front of me started looking at their web site to gather more of an overview on them – how brilliant to be able to choose how much information you can get.

But the real purpose of the day was to look at repositories and utility computing.  Many issues raised were the same for any institution or business.  One issue that kept appearing was data preservation.  Universities have so much research data to archive and it was clear that many people attending had an interest in this, as they wanted a secure and simple way of storing large data-sets.

Duracloud completed a survey recently that showed the following issues:

• trusting a third party to manage critical assets;
• long-term reliability of solution;
• data security.

As utility computing is seen as a commodity, it can be very difficult to build a relationship with providers.  Similarly, some of these companies e.g. Amazon, Rackspace, Atmos etc. may feel that there is no longevity in utility computing.  Think of Yahoo Briefcase – no longer exists as an on-line storage option.

What would happen to an institution’s data if the cloud provider stopped their service?

How do we challenge the misunderstandings or fear?

All very good questions and worthy of careful consideration.  For sure, there are a number of strategies that we can put in place to protect against this, but let’s not underestimate the level of investment that goes into the adoption of a cloud infrastructure, and coupled with that the time, money and pain that would be involved in backing out of that.  At Educloud, we have started to think this through for education and we have our own view on the relative risks and rewards (not to mention the strategies that should be in place to minimise the former and maximise the latter).

But we are, after all, just one voice.  So, what do you, the wider cloud provider and customer community think?  We’d love to hear from you!

To that end, we throw down the gauntlet and challenge the sector to show us some real progression over the next 12 months.

By the time the next instalment of BETT rolls round in January 2011, we believe we should be able to clearly see:

• more schools demonstrably using technology with increasing effectiveness to realise both better learning experiences and improved operational efficiency;
• more exhibitors showing clear, real world examples of how their products and services can be used to revolutionise the way we teach and learn;
• more Government agencies identifying, and telling the stories to promote pockets of outstanding technology achievement – not just on emerging technologies, but on how schools can identify where they are and what they can do to improve so their schools are not left behind in a technology wilderness;
• more use of utility computing via the Cloud and SaaS and the education of Local Authorities and schools about its possibilities, supported by guidance from Government agencies as part of a National Efficiency Agenda;

And of course, Educloud will be at the forefront of this mini-revolution ensuring that next year everyone will understand and believe in the value and potential of utility computing and SaaS for the education market.

Quite an undertaking, but we’re up for the challenge.  What about the rest of our sector?

So, the big questions for Educloud to ask:

• Has the potential of “utility computing” been embraced in education?
• Is everyone “on the Cloud”?
• Is the world of education now truly interconnected?

We went along to find out…

Looking for the Cloud at BETT 2010!

Unfortunately, the answer to our questions seemed to be, er, no.  Sadly not.

You see, the pace of change in the educational market is, as always, rather slow.  The majority of vendors (be it software, service or infrastructure) continue to offer evolutionary (rather than revolutionary) solutions on established platforms and pricing models.

However, all is not lost, there are pockets of change and they will gain momentum.

The contenders

Two areas in particular are already well under way with a quiet revolution in progress: virtualised school desktop infrastructure and leaning platforms, portfolios and resources.

Virtualised school desktop infrastructure

A number of vendors are quietly offering very effective solutions to the problem of expensive desktop infrastructure in schools and academies.  They’re doing this in the form of Citrix thin-client desktop solutions, technology that has been round long enough in the commercial sector to be well tested and well understood.  This makes it potentially highly effective when done right.

Rather than having several hundred full Windows PCs sitting on desks in classrooms the school instead buys much cheaper “thin clients”.  These simple, low cost and easy to maintain machines then connect to a number of big terminal servers in the communications room.  This is where the applications are installed and maintenance can be kept centralised and simplified thus improving performance while reducing cost.  Potentially, a match made in heaven.

Vendors and customers (like XMA and the Guernsey States Education Department) are already talking about successful implementation of this technology.  Others are also well on the way to adoption and it is likely there will be many more success stories over the coming year.

Most interesting however from a “Cloud” point of view is the potential to roll the server element of the infrastructure off-site.  Putting this onto a utility computing platform in a large specialised data centres from the likes of Amazon and Rackspace or BSF providers like Logica offer potentially enormous gains for any-time / anywhere learning and further improved efficiency in both time and money.

Learning platforms, portfolios and resources

Many learning platforms, (e)portfolios and educational resources have actually been offered on a partial “software as a service” (SaaS) model for some time.  The change we’re seeing now is primarily around billing and hosting.

For example, the preferred delivery method of Fronter for their popular virtual learning environment (VLE) is from their dedicated hosting environment over in Oslo, Norway.  Customers simply sign up for access to the service without having to worry about running hardware and software themselves.  The VLE simply becomes another service accessed over the Internet, just like Google, Facebook or the BBC.

Likewise, the Encyclopaedia Britannica hosts all their content on-line and schools simply sign-up to use it on an annual contract with access available to staff and students from the school, home or even an Internet cafe if they want it.  No more CD-ROMs that you can only access from the school library.

The outcome

So, utility computing is not yet emerging as a reality for the majority of the education market.  However, trends are certainly shifting and the growing adoption of virtualised desktop infrastructure and resource delivery as SaaS is promising.

Of course, there is much still to be done.  The potential of virtualised applications and infrastructure that is fully cloud based and priced on a true “pay as you use” model is a long way from being realised.  We’ve a long way to go and there a many challenges and hurdles to overcome.  But, things are moving in the right direction and we at Educloud are here to ensure the move quickly with everyone on board.

Lookred

Turning data into information

These guys stood out for us this year with a neat and very visual data mining and analysis interface.  It offered a unique view down from a Local Authority, through a school, to year groups and individual students.

Of course, analysing trends across large data-sets like this is not new, but the way in which schools were displayed (visually, rather than purely text-based) gave a whole new look-and-feel making the user experience both intuitive and engaging.  The simplicity of aggregating filters means that the information can be presented around the needs of the individual leading to a more personalised experience.

Interestingly, the ability of the Lookred technology to automatically construct its own trend analysis means it has the potential to provide insight into the complex web of data that will become available as school information systems move onto the cloud and become more open.

Phihong nLighten Technologies

Screens that are big, and beautiful

At first glance just a stand with some rather big screens on it but then one that really caught everyone’s attention.  nLighten proved that that bigger, sometimes, really is better.

Using multi-touch technology and Microsoft Virtual Earth, the sheer size and vibrancy of the screen, coupled with the fact that you could zoom around Niagara Falls quickly and intuitively using just your fingers on the screen means they got 10 out of 10 for “wow” factor alone!

Gaia Technologies

The best stand at the show

Talk about bringing your ideas to life!  These guys took it literal and build a model of anywhere learning right inside the show.  Seriously, any stand that manages to feature both a bed and a waterfall has to get to marks for creativity.  Well done, a very refreshing change from the standard corporate “pod”!

So, how did we get on?  What was cool, what was not?  What will be the next “big thing” to hit education?  And just how how visionary was the picture of education for the future that was painted at the show?  Read on to find out…

Is BETT really big enough to show the future?

Put simply, BETT is big.  You cannot do the show in one day and the event spans both the National and the Grand Halls at Olympia.  We dedicated three days to really get a feel for what is happening right now in the ICT education marketplace and what is about to come.

As always, the atmosphere was friendly, relaxed and energised.  There was a sense of purpose to the show and a sea of faces and organisations from the whole educational spectrum both in the UK and abroad.  The exhibitors ranged from one-man-bands to established multi-nationals.

There was the usual big names taking prominence in the Grand Hall (think Microsoft, RM, Serco Learning, Capita and Pearson) as well as companies which have grown over the past few years due to their successes (2Simple, Education City, Espresso) and the key Government agencies were also on hand to offer advice and guidance in the National Hall (Becta, National College, DCSF, QCDA, etc.).  Many stands were in the same places as last year and it was good to see so many of them back again, apparently largely unaffected by the current poor economic climate.

What about mobile?

Given the amount of promotion last year, we did expect to see more for handheld learning but it didn’t seem to make much of an impact this year.  Perhaps this is because people now expect to be able to access information on any devices, regardless whether they are laptops, PDAs, tablets or mobiles.  We did see a few stands displaying large cut outs of Apple’s iPhone.  But once you ventured onto the stand it usually turned out to simply be a conversation starter.

The BETT organisers were at least embracing technology by operating an SMS service where you could text a short code and receive information on stands that you were unable to visit.  The extended free Wi-Fi service meant that people could check email and vendor web sites over coffee which is always welcome.

Any other technologies and innovation of note?

I have to admit to being a little disappointed by the pre-BETT Planner.  I expected it to provide me with a map of who to visit with a suggested route to take, but it seemed to be just a list of stands to visit.  This is fine when you want something specific e.g. Early Years software but it wasn’t the one-stop-shop I was expecting.

Educloud were stopped on the second day and asked to take part in a visitor survey for  TechSmith (they make Camtasia and Morae which we like).  Of the questions asked, the most interesting was:

“What do you see as the next big thing in ICT and education?”

Clearly the answer from us was:

“Cloud Computing and Software as a Service (SaaS)”

But we were curious to find out what others were saying…

Firstly, Professor Stephen Heppell was back at BETT again with ‘Playful Learning’ exploring how games can assist in making learning more fun and reinvigorating young people and.

Secondly, Future Learning Spaces had a whole area dedicated to the future of learning with presentations and demonstrations of what a future school could be like and how it would embrace technology enabling any-time, anywhere learning.  On a similar note, RM had taken over a whole floor with interactive displays of how technology could be used for learning, including real children!

And, thirdly, while walking on floors with displays that moved, exciting and engaging technologies that could push the potential of learning, apparently most people saying they see the “next big thing” in ICT and education being… interactive whiteboards (IWB)?!!

Yes, that’s right.  According to our friends at TechSmith, most people they asked believed that technology that has been around for over a decade and that (according to Becta’s Harnessing Technology Schools Survey 2007) is already in place in 98% of secondary and 100% of primary schools, will be the next big thing.  Ouch, no wonder they say education lags behind other industries.

I remember when interactive whiteboards first came into schools.  Their use was seen as a new way of replacing the chalkboard, but teachers were still using them to teach with Victorian methods.  (I also remember one school that had an IWB installed at the teacher’s height in a KS1 classroom – how were the children supposed to reach it?!).  Fortunately there is less of this approach now, however it has taken a very long time for this flexible and extremely useful technology to begin to be effectively integrated into everyday learning.

Perhaps this is why a technology that has been around for so long is only now being recognised as “the next big thing”.  Personally, I think that’s quite sad, but then that’s why Educloud exists: to make sure the benefits of cloud and utility computing don’t take so long to been seen.

Looking ahead to BETT 2011

Next year at BETT 2011, I would like to see more examples of emerging technology making an impact on learning.  For this, I am looking to the Building Schools for the Future programme to demonstrate real ground breaking success.

Oh, and on a “visitor experience” note, can we also continue to get the free Wi-Fi and have more places to sit down for coffee and lunch – it is hard work walking around all day looking for the future!

Talk to a teacher and it is likely that many of them will be unfamiliar with the term or realise the benefits of it.  Traditionally, educational software has been delivered ‘in a box’, whether that box contained a disk, CD-ROM or more recently, a school network where software was accessed from a PC or handheld device.

Software as a Service (SaaS) has been around since the late 90s/early 00s.  As it becomes more mainstream, education software suppliers are starting to take notice of this model and recognising the benefits associated with providing SaaS.

We’ll take a look at what all this means for education and answer the question: “does education really need SaaS?”

What is SaaS?

SaaS enables a school to purchase access to software for a few pounds per student as an on-demand service.  Most SaaS providers charge an annual fee, although some suppliers will ask the school to sign-up to a three or five year deal.  The software is typically accessed online via any mainstream browser which means that as long as you have a device that can access the Internet, then in most cases you can access the software.

How can SaaS benefit schools?

Schools can expect to only purchase access for the number of students using the service, therefore the cost of the software is greatly reduced.  SaaS is centrally hosted so the school does not need to use its IT resource to set or manage the software, enabling them to concentrate on other areas.  As it is web-based, students and teachers can access the software from anywhere – fully enabling 24/7 learning.

SaaS solutions also means that the school can be using the software in a matter of days, have a product that is quickly and incrementally scalable and that is kept up-to-date by the supplier (maintenance is no longer the schools problem).

How can SaaS benefit suppliers?

Education suppliers also benefit from SaaS as it provides a revenue model that gives a regular income each year.  This means that the supplier is able to keep the software updated as it is no longer providing a product with a shelf-life, but a growing, organic service to schools.  Suppliers can launch a product with several features which can be added to as feedback is received, to ensure that it is meeting the needs of the education community.

Regular income also means that the supplier has the ability to assign regular resource to the software, again ensuring its shelf-life is far longer than ‘out-of-the-box’ software.  They also avoid the nightmare associated with supporting different schools using different versions of their software, some often years out of date.  By doing this, SaaS providers can continue to provide their customers with a more focused and (if they’re good at what they do) higher quality of service.  If they don’t then the customers won’t purchase for the next year and the supplier will lose their ongoing revenue.

So is it worth it?

Absolutely: SaaS provides a win-win situation for both schools and suppliers.  Schools gain current, up-to-date software without having to spend huge amounts of resource and money on looking after installations, servers and the like.  Suppliers provide software that is service driven, ensuring that they retain their customers and grow their businesses each year with a focus on improvement, enhancements and customer experience, thereby creating a high quality and sustainable business.