The rise of artificial intelligence in higher education has led many institutions to consider the benefits of a private cloud. The 2024 CDW Cloud Research Report shows that 44% of higher education institutions run AI applications on private clouds. Private clouds offer enhanced security and privacy controls compared with public clouds, making them particularly well suited for research applications that handle sensitive data. However, constructing a private cloud can be a complex task. Here are four tips to assist in building private clouds in higher education institutions. Click the banner ..read more

Many colleges and universities that operate in the cloud have different technology needs than they did when they made their initial investments. As institutions re-evaluate their cloud environments, they should consider the educational technologies they’re using now as well as the tools they plan to adopt and implement in the future. One such solution proliferating in tech portfolios is artificial intelligence. A McKinsey Global Survey found that the percentage of organizations using an AI tool for at least one business function jumped to 72% this year, up from 55% in 2023. Generative AI use ..read more

More higher education institutions are evaluating their technology assets in terms of sustainability. Sustainable devices are better for the environment, reduce costs and promote efficiency.Here are five vital questions that IT leaders should ask about this emerging priority. 1. Why Is Sustainability Important for Asset Management? Short device and server refresh cycles, rapid product upgrades, and Moore’s Law have made IT a laggard when it comes to sustainability. But as colleges and universities prioritize stabilizing and containing IT costs, they’re discovering that sustainable IT is also ..read more

Just as the right conference room technology can support effective hybrid learning and improve internal meetings, the wrong tools can hinder collaboration — and many shared spaces were equipped prior to the massive shift to hybrid that started in 2020. Here are four practical tips to boost the effectiveness of group meetings in conference rooms. 1. Reimagine Audio and Video Classrooms and conference rooms with a big screen and camera at one end are designed for room-to-room meetings and instruction. When in-person attendees talk and look at each other rather than the camera ..read more

The world of applications has been moving slowly but firmly toward a strong focus on users and their experience. Rather than make users dig through a hodgepodge of different applications with different user interfaces, designers and developers have worked hard to create unified experiences: web applications that look seamless, aimed at making end users more productive, reducing frustration and speeding their paths through even complicated tasks. The secret to all this is application programming interfaces, a method of programmatically connecting multiple applications in an efficient and ..read more

Higher education institutions — entrusted with students’ personal information and sensitive research data, and charged with ensuring regulatory compliance — require comprehensive access management strategies. To achieve this, modern IT solutions such as identity and access management (IAM), multifactor authentication (MFA) and privileged access management (PAM) can be combined to provide robust, layered security. Once a college or university decides to implement an access management strategy, it must address each of the three functions holistically, considering the size of the ..read more

You’ve been good, for the most part, about taking care of your digital house. You’ve successfully convinced your campus that multifactor authentication is worth the hassle. You’ve integrated Internet of Things tools to make life easier for students, faculty and staff. You’ve built a network that can handle a mountain of devices. And you’ve taught sometimes less-than-eager audiences how to make technology an integral part of teaching and learning, now and into the future. But when you pull the metaphorical couch out from the wall, there you find it: a thick coating of dust that’s been ignored ..read more

Identity and access management (IAM) in higher education is a complex undertaking. There are different users with different roles that sometimes overlap, and identities can cross departments, colleges and campuses. Redundancies, outdated information and incorrect privileges run rampant when proper governance methods are not in place. It’s important for higher ed IT leaders to understand who is using their services and the level of access each user needs. As IT professionals, we know multifactor authentication is the best way to secure a system. But getting identity governance and ..read more

Higher education’s approach to technology can be frustrating at times. The arrival of much-hyped technologies to higher ed is often met with a skeptical side-eye, perhaps some cautious optimism without any action or, at most, a single toe dipped into the pool. Colleges and universities are almost never early adopters of new tools, and even with well-established technologies, higher education often lags behind. Some of that is out of necessity, for financial or staff-related reasons, but some is by choice: Institutions that can trace their roots back centuries tend to feel more ..read more

In a CDW Education webinar held Dec. 10, a panel of higher education technology experts met to discuss the evolving needs of college students and how technology plays a role in their experience. The webinar, titled “Transforming the Campus Experience: Solutions That Foster Student Success in Higher Education,” included representatives from CDW technology partners Canva, Genetec and Promethean. Caitlin Witry, senior manager of CDW’s education partner program, led the panelists through a discussion on how technology investments help colleges and universities attract and retain students ..read more