The COVID pandemic has impacted society in many ways, this discussion looks at aspects of change in higher education in learning environments, IT transformation, and protecting the infrastructure. Companies like Nutanix offer tools and systems to reduce cost and improve cybersecurity in this transition.

Before the COVID crisis, considerations were given to online learning, but the focus was on traditional, classroom teaching. Higher education led the way in adapting to the new environment. Paul Padley from Rice University shows how his university had to drastically increase video capabilities for teaching.

Logically, the university had to buy more storage for these videos.

College systems had to learn how to manage this increase in storage. The result was the hybrid cloud world we live in today. Systems had to be improved to focus on speed and had to enhance governance to prevent cyber-attacks.

While the systems administrators had to worry about the structure of the data storage systems, the academics had to concern themselves about the structure of the classes offered. Students started to trend older with an interest in seeking new short-term credentials.

An increase in online offerings challenged leaders to improve identity access and management.  Traditional systems expected full-time students to be on campus with network access; now, we see remote students with few classes expecting the same access to college learning systems.

The federal government has responded to these needs by offering grants that can assist universities in this transition.  Many of these grants include requirements to increase cybersecurity before the aid is transferred. 

Some universities are applying virtualization to accomplish this task. Systems can be configured to allow for a “virtual” desktop.  This means that a student will be allowed access to a limited environment where strict controls are placed in a designated area. This allows Role