Recent high-profile data security breaches that resulted in the leaking of personal information online has served as a blunt reminder of the importance of data security.
While it’s true that data security has never been more critical than it is now, the reality is that it’s always been incredibly important. It has certainly always been central to everything we do here at Schoolbox.
That’s why more and more schools are increasingly turning to cloud hosting, both as a way to secure their data and as a more reliable and cost-effective solution.
With many years of experience offering schools cloud hosting for their LMS and community portals, Schoolbox is well placed to help your school realise the benefits of cloud.
With a more reliable experience and consistent access to the latest Schoolbox features, our cloud-hosted schools continue to enjoy the peace of mind when it comes to data security while also saving money on servers and maintenance.
So let’s unpack the benefits of switching your Schoolbox instance from on-premise to cloud hosting, and why more schools are moving to the cloud than ever before.
Schoolbox Cloud is fundamentally more secure
Schoolbox has always taken data security seriously, and we fully appreciate how important this is to schools.
With Schoolbox Cloud, we actively manage the patching and upgrading of servers to ensure you are always protected. Schoolbox also performs regular penetration testing to identify and fix any potential vulnerabilities.
With our dedicated team managing Schoolbox Cloud hosting, we are able to respond to any incident at a speed which simply cannot be achieved with on-premise instances.
In addition to our team actively monitoring and responding to any incidents should they occur, we also utilise industry-leading hosting platforms including Amazon Web Services (AWS). By using reputable and well-known service providers with operations in Australia, we’re able to further ensure your data remains secure and doesn’t leave the country.
Schoolbox Co-Founder and Chief Product Owner James Leckie outlines our commitment to data security in more detail below.
“Beyond being physically more secure, all cloud traffic is strictly restricted using enhanced network topology and firewalls to prevent unauthorised interception and movement of information beyond our infrastructure. We also closely monitor and act proactively against any detected threats to improve uptime and as an additional layer of security.”
Respecting schools’ data sovereignty
One thing that’s always been central to us at Schoolbox and have noticed is particularly important to schools during the move to cloud is that data sovereignty is incredibly important.
Too many cloud-based ed-tech products necessitate your data being locked away where you cannot control it. At Schoolbox, we believe that schools should retain ownership and controllability of data in their schools.
Watch James Leckie outline Schoolbox’s approach to data sovereignty and cloud hosting in the video below.
Budget and forecast more reliably
Enhanced security isn’t the only benefit of Schoolbox Cloud. By migrating to the cloud, schools also benefit by moving associated costs from capital to operational expenditure.
This frees up your IT team from having to forecast how much physical infrastructure (such as CPUs, storage space, etc.) they need, as Schoolbox Cloud provisions this automatically for optimal performance. It also means you no longer need to worry about the lifecycle of hardware.
The per student pricing model of cloud means schools can more easily budget for the future as well.
Watch Lyndon Calway and Trevor Ciminelli from the IT team at Chairo Christian School talk about the impact this has had in their school.
Learn more about Chairo’s move to Schoolbox Cloud in the full success story here.
Focus more on what’s important with Schoolbox running in the cloud
In addition to the benefits of increased reliability and security, cloud also frees up precious IT resources within your school.
By no longer having to actively manage on-premise servers, both budget and IT staff time can be reallocated to other projects within your school – such as better supporting staff, students and even parents to get the most out of learning technology to improve the teaching and learning experience.
“I believe our purpose here at Chairo in the IT team is to help our staff and parents and students and to get alongside them. We’re not here to maintain infrastructure, we’re here to serve and that’s our role here.” —Lyndon Calway, Head of ICT, Chairo Christian School.
Moving to the cloud is made simple with Schoolbox
Schoolbox has actively helped many schools transition from on-premise installations to cloud hosted. This has allowed us to streamline the process to minimise any disruption to your Schoolbox instance.
We work closely with your IT team and are able to assist them with transitioning to managing a new cloud-based instance. The good news is that your IT team requires no additional skills or training to manage Schoolbox in the cloud. If they’re currently managing an on-premise instance, they can manage it in the cloud.
To explore more about moving to Schoolbox Cloud, speak with your School Engagement Manager or contact us here.
As we regularly review our process and documentation to continue effectively supporting customer needs, we’ve created a Security Measures statement. This details our security framework, physical security, systems, data access and transmission and incident management.
