UPDATED 12:51 EDT / AUGUST 11 2017

CLOUD

Faculty and students at Boston University dive into the cloud

Information technology managers at colleges and universities across the country often have to walk a fine line between long-tenured faculty who are reluctant to adopt new technologies and students who started using computers before they could even walk. Meeting the expectations of both groups is not easy, but at Boston University, the migration to cloud services has helped users find a happy medium.

“We’re fighting the tide between what faculty want to do and their inertia versus what students are expecting when they walk in the door,” explained Brian Anderson (pictured, right), director of information technology at the Boston University College of Arts and Sciences.

Anderson stopped by theCUBE, SiliconANGLE’s mobile livestreaming studio, during the recent WTG Dell EMC Users’ Group event in Boston, Massachusetts. He spoke with host Stu Miniman (pictured, left) (@stu), and they discussed how the school uses cloud services for instruction and the need for easier manageability as the platform expands. (* Disclosure below.)

Transforming the chemistry lab experience

The school is already using cloud-based services for email and file storage, with a Dropbox implementation for faculty scheduled to take effect this year. The university is using the Dell XE series to provide virtual desktop infrastructure solutions for students, and approximately half of the students are on Blackboard Learn, a virtual learning and course management system, according to Anderson. One professor is seeking to transform the chemistry lab experience, providing students with hands-on learning without having to visit the lab room itself, he added.

“We have a lot of faculty that wants to use cloud solutions to teach. It’s a combination of what services can we take from on-campus, move much of it to the cloud and make it feasible financially,” Anderson stated.

The school currently hosts 10 Massively Open Online Courses per year. “They’re widely attended at the beginning and … every MOOC (participation) dwindles as the semester goes on,” Anderson said.

As the school moves steadily into a cloud services model, Anderson is looking for a service to provide “ease of manageability” for the various technologies under his umbrella. At the same time, he also expressed enthusiasm for the move toward hyperconvergence.

“That’s the future,” said Anderson “I think it’s going to be here a lot longer than people think.”

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of WTG Dell EMC Users’ Group. (* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for WTG Dell EMC Users Group. Neither Winslow Technology Group, the event sponsor, nor other sponsors have editorial influence on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE

A message from John Furrier, co-founder of SiliconANGLE:

Your vote of support is important to us and it helps us keep the content FREE.

One click below supports our mission to provide free, deep, and relevant content.  

Join our community on YouTube

Join the community that includes more than 15,000 #CubeAlumni experts, including Amazon.com CEO Andy Jassy, Dell Technologies founder and CEO Michael Dell, Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger, and many more luminaries and experts.

“TheCUBE is an important partner to the industry. You guys really are a part of our events and we really appreciate you coming and I know people appreciate the content you create as well” – Andy Jassy

THANK YOU