Much like the Wizard Oz, IT teams for K-12 schools often work “behind the curtain,” toiling away unseen, building the foundation for connected and secure learning experiences. Some may see this mission as fraught with disjointed, legacy technologies that are hidden behind silos—complicated to manage and difficult to integrate. But it doesn’t have to be this way. Cloud-managed architecture can be the yellow brick broad that enables school networks to achieve full visibility, be easily managed and even integrate digital security with physical security. 

Connecting students, teachers and staff

Cloud-managed architecture enables a secure and flexible network that allows students, teachers and staff to seamlessly connect and collaborate over reliable Wi-Fi connections. Management, control and visibility of the entire network can be radically simplified with a cloud-based, user-friendly dashboard that can be accessed from anywhere. With this, IT teams can easily set up permissions and network access control, limit excessive bandwidth usage and manage a veritable twister of school-owned and BYOD devices.

Cloud-managed architecture enables an adaptable network that can easily scale as needs change, such as onboarding additional devices. IT teams can easily surface valuable insights through the dashboard, such as tracking the health and activity of connected devices. For example, International School Carinthia (ISC) Velden, a grade 1–12 school in Velden am Wörthersee, Austria, leveraged cloud-managed architecture to create a single platform that gave the school’s IT team network-wide visibility. This led to a drastic reduction in reactive troubleshooting and an increase in predictive network management, which not only helped reduce IT service costs, but also gave the IT team vital time back to focus on more strategic initiatives.

Creating safe environments

Cloud-managed architecture also allows schools to integrate endpoint, network and physical security into a single point of control, creating a safer school environment and eliminating security silos. IT teams can easily manage and provision device profiles, assign custom group policies, block harmful content, find lost and stolen devices and more—across school buildings and facilities, including gyms, athletic fields and parking lots. 

Like a crystal ball, remote, centralized management in the cloud enables full visibility, as well as control of both network and physical security. Cloud-managed smart cameras and IoT devices like door sensors can monitor hallways, classrooms, offices and more. Camera footage and IoT device status can be remotely monitored through a single dashboard. Automation capabilities can be used to send real-time alerts about open doors (via physical sensors) and unauthorized visitors (via machine-learning-based person and object detection). 

Cloud- and camera-based storage can also eliminate the need for network video recorders and dedicated servers, helping to significantly minimize physical infrastructure and support. For instance, the East Stroudsburg Area School District replaced a slew of older, unreliable cameras that required days of maintenance with more than 1,000 smart cameras across 18 locations that required only about a total of five hours of maintenance per month.

Enabling modern learning

As strategic partners in school planning and management, K-12 IT teams should be actively seeking opportunities to accelerate their schools’ digital transformation journeys. While IT teams don’t have magic slippers that can wish away complexity, cloud-based architecture can ease the burden. With over $130 billion in federal funding presently available to U.S.-based K-12 schools, there’s no better time than the present to invest in technologies like cloud-managed architecture, which can help lay the foundation for enabling modern learning and creating safe environments.