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Dell Technologies – SA universities must fast track digital transformation to remain competitive

This year we have heard contradicting cases for digital transformation, with one side arguing that the pandemic has forced organisations to embrace technology and the other side noting that the pandemic has pushed its plans backwards.

These arguments seem to shift depending on what industry you find yourself, but in the case of education, it lands somewhere in the middle.

That said Dell Technologies is of the opinion that SA universities are still lacking in terms of digital transformation, but adopting more technology could yield significant benefits down the line.

Citing a recent IDC study titled “Post-Pandemic IT Infrastructure in South African Universities”, Dell Technologies says SA universities have had to ramp up their compute power to accommodate the increase in online learning since the onset of the pandemic and the resulting move toward hybrid learning models.

“South Africa has 25 private universities and over 20 public universities across its nine provinces. Currently universities accommodate more than 1 million students, with government planning to increase university enrolment to 1.5 million by 2030,” notes the ICT specialists.

A business-like approach

As we have seen in the business and enterprise spheres in recent years, it is the CIO that will play an integral role with how effectively a digital transformation is developed and brought to the fore.

“The findings highlight that CIO’s need to reprioritise their technology spending plans in 2021 and beyond by investing in technologies that enable cost savings while maximising business productivity and learning outcomes,” notes Dell Technologies of the IDC study.

“This includes adopting a ‘cloud first approach to reduce costs and improve efficiency. In addition, vulnerability to cyber-attacks has increased as the attack surface has expanded. CIO’s need to ensure that security remains a key priority for higher learning institutions. Another key priority is the urgent need to modernise and automate existing systems and platforms by implementing technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) and data analytics,” it adds.

In order to bring these technologies to fruition, CIOs will need to increase their spending, with infrastructure in particular being earmarked for consideration. Added to this is the fact that the need for greater online and distance learning solutions will necessitate more robust infrastructure to be put in place.

“Until recently universities deployed up to 250 server and storage systems in their IT infrastructure environments. Server and storage systems are typically deployed centrally in a single datacentre and then split into different clusters that run specific applications. Traditionally, administration departments used about 60% of existing IT infrastructure capacity, however this is changing as academic departments have shifted to online teaching and so has the level of usage,” adds Dell Technologies.

New considerations

According to Doug Woolley, MD of Dell Technologies South Africa, it is the rapidly responsive tertiary institutions that will thrive moving forward, investing properly in digital transformation solutions in order to be more competitive with universities both locally and abroad, as well as react to the changing landscape of how people need to learn in the coming years.

“Universities, like most organisations, are undergoing a process of rapid digitisation and whilst there are barriers that need to be considered, CIO’s in the education sector need to be empowered to assist universities to transition into the digital area, by being in a position to secure grants to gain access to the hardware and storage they require to transition to an advanced hybrid-learning model,” he explains.

“The insights obtained in the study, show the current digital transformation taking place within tertiary education institutions in South Africa. There is no doubt that the South African government is encouraging the adoption of technology within institutions both private and public. CIO’s need to motivate for the technology required to move universities forward and to keep students learning and equipped to enter into the working world and contribute to the growth of the South African economy,” adds Mark Walker, Associate VP for Sub-Saharan Africa at IDC.

It therefore looks that in the near future, students will be choosing their SA universities based not only how the quality of the education, but also how effectively they can deliver an online learning environment through innovative and robust technology.

[Image – CC0 Pixabay]

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