Three prominent names in the world of IT infrastructure—AT&T, Check Point, Ericsson—came together to discuss preparing the higher ed campus for the future of connectivity needs during Fierce Education’s “Higher Education: The Connected Campus” virtual event. The session, “Next Generation Network Strategies for Higher Education” focused on what connectivity investments institutions should be making to ensure access for all students and staff, while maintaining cyber security and room for future growth in IT needs.
All the event sessions are available on-demand here.
The discussion opened with Robert Zapotocky, Senior Principal Architect, Global Public Sector, AT&T, discussing the connectivity needs of a higher education campus. Noting how quickly the conversation around technology changed with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2019, Zapotocky said that all innovations in education must now be seen through a trifold lens of digital equity, personalized learning and fiscal health.
The first challenge, digital equity, moves beyond that needs of just supplying Wifi to students and faculty.
“The campus is no longer defined by a physical space, but is now anchored with the students,” Zapotocky said. “Learning requires a multi-dimensional interactive community.”
Second, today’s personalized learning centers around more than just academic, but also the emotional and psychological effects of how a student learns to best meet the individual’s needs, he said. Finally, with such a dramatic drop in student enrollment following the beginning of COVID, he believes colleges need to harness technology to win back students and sustain a culture that embraces change.
Moving forward Zapotocky encourages universities to look into the best opportunities to offer its learners success now and in the future. This all-encompassing view means making room to design, test and implement new technology. But he warned that this flexible platform must be “woven in and not forced upon” the current IT infrastructure. And it must, of course, maintain security.
In addition, Zapotocky said that AT&T is currently working with universities to implement a 5G, sometimes even a 6G transformation, which puts IT in the center of the campus, allowing for multiaccess points, higher speeds and larger capacity, while still leaving room for innovation.
Following Zapotocky’s presentation, Grant Asplund, Growth Technologies Evangelist, Check Point Software Technologies, discussed the importance of security as universities continue to build these platforms to include more infrastructure.
Asplund magnified the rise in cyber security breech, noting the 3,900% increase in fishing reported in just the first quarter of 2021. In addition, he reported that 58% of all companies have reported an increase in cyber attacks since the onset of COVID.
Therefore, the top three security priorities over the next few years for companies and organizations include security for remote workers, endpoint and mobile security, and secure public or multiple Cloud accounts.
“Here’s the conundrum,” said Asplund. “We’re all excited that the economy is showing some bounce back, but it’s not enough to make up for how much we went down.
Even though we’re coming back, it’s not equal to 2019 and we are actually spending more money today on cyber security than in 2019, as much as 20% more.”
Therefore, Asplund recommends that schools be looking to consolidate, or stack, software offerings. In other words, take the multiple IT products and harmonize the intelligence around them.
“You need efficiencies through central management that covers the entire architecture,” he said. This includes protection from cyber security threats.
“Change is continuing so organizations are really sitting and going ‘how can I be as agile as possible? How can I innovate more? How can I focus on my core disciplines?’” Asplund said. He encourages management to change its perception of IT and find consolidation resources for addressing new and developing technologies.
Finally, Ray Sabourin, Director of Business Development, Enterprise and Emerging Business, Ericsson, addressed the virtual session to discuss new connectivity options available for universities. He said that the FCC recently opened up more of the broadband spectrum, allowing for private and enterprises to occupy some of this space. As a result, 5G has entered the market and is rapidly growing.
From a business standpoint, deploying private LTE or 5G is not a replacement for Wifi, but usually seen as a driver to gain access for a specific use case, Sabourin said.
“Use cases are important,” said Sabourin, “that’s where you start when defining your connectivity needs.” And once your needs are established, he recommended you design holistically, addressing all possible use cases or changes, along with proper security measures.
“From a holistic standpoint, 5G should be in your toolbox to try and deploy and meet your stakeholders’ requirements with the lowest TCO [total cost of ownership] possible,” Sabourin added.
For more Connected Campus coverage, see: Connected Campus Combines the Best of Physical and Remote Learning