This month I felt it was important to write a follow-up to further support my previous article in the May 2022 publication on the benefits of moving from on-premises servers to cloud-based storage such as Google Workspace and Office 365
Many schools have only used the internet for accessing email and a number of online education resources. The standard broadband packages in use throughout the past 10 years or so have just about been sufficient to cope with downloading this content. As the number of devices in schools has increased dramatically the slow download speeds, and very poor upload performance, have created a significant barrier to moving everything online.
When the world was hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, in March 2022, everyone, especially schools, quickly realised that they would need to make all learning resources accessible online. Allowing students and staff a way of accessing the internal school systems via a VPN meant that the poor performance of the internet connection into school was exposed, and this task wasn’t a feasible option. The best way forward was to move everything onto an online platform.
One school I work with had already made this decision as part of their strategic plan to upgrade their internet connection to a 100-meg leased-line a number of years ago. The school was already working with Google Workspace and was in the process of creating pupil accounts so that students could use Google Classroom for extended learning options. The news that remote learning was to be offered didn’t faze the school or its staff as we simply issued the pupil logins to Google Classroom and quickly held some virtual training sessions.
After a long period of lockdown, there are still many schools that have not resolved this issue at all. There are many reasons why it hasn’t been addressed; finances, lack of support and understanding are the main issues.
Fast forward to March 2022. The DfE has now recognised this issue and introduced a new set of standards that schools are required to follow. The publication, Broadband internet standards for schools and colleges, highlights the importance of having a robust internet connection and infrastructure in place in schools. Here is a short summary of the main points:
There isn’t a set date that schools will have to meet the standards by, other than recommending it’s done as soon as possible.
There is an emphasis on the minimum download and upload speeds provided by a dedicated leased line.
The dependencies to the standard can be the internal infrastructure and network equipment, such as WiFi and switches.
There are other factors for the future that seriously need to be considered, such as the telecom industry ISDN switch off in 2025. This will have an impact on the following systems in schools:
A new ‘phone system will be required which will rely on a dedicated leased-line.
Security/fire alarm systems won’t have a ‘phone line to alert monitoring services.
Energy/facilities management systems won’t have dedicated ‘phone lines any longer.
Schools may have noticed an increase recently in the number of sales calls promoting leased lines and new ‘phone systems. Please be proactive in your approach to selecting the right package. The providers have access to excellent wholesale prices which, in many cases, are having a generous markup added and so don’t offer the best value to schools.
If anyone would like a no-obligation comparison price to highlight these high prices, please contact me as soon as you can.
Article contributed by: Nigel Milligan, IT manager to schools and businesses
Be the first to comment