| | November 20168IN MY OPINIONDigital Disruption bringing Change in EducationBenefits of cloud computing for the education industryAt the George Washington University, the Division of Information Technology (IT) has moved several applications to the cloud and is working on business plans to do more. The Division of IT is also in the process of looking at condensing its data centers to move them to the cloud as well. Higher education is currently facing challenges with budget constraints and talent retention. An investment in cloud computing improves efficiency in the challenging higher education landscape by working with companies focused on a specific area of expertise. It’s important to partner with a reputable company and have a comprehensive contract that protects the university. This contract also needs an exit strategy that is easy to invoke.Examining the effective and proactive use of dataThe GW Division of IT established data governance processes, people and technologies to make data transparent and trusted. It then focused on integrating data that the business needs into a single trusted source calledthe data warehouse. Data integration began with the most important business functions, with the option for value add problems as it developed. An established Business Intelligence (BI) Governance Committee helps to guide priorities and a standard set of BI technologies was introduced to help build a shared community across all business functions with the ability for self-service. Finally, the Division of IT adopted an agile scrum methodology to improve delivery speed and relevancy of solutions to the business. At GW today, data is actively powering IT’sability to make decisions necessary to move the university forward. Prepare, protect and mobilize data is one of the three strategic themes of the GW Division of Information Technology 2021 Strategic Plan. Data governance, integration and analytics (Business Intelligence) are cornerstone elements of delivering on this theme. By David Steinour, CIO, The George Washington UniversityDavid Steinour
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