Solving Higher Ed tech staffing challenges with managed SD-WAN network services

Colleges and universities face enduring challenges in staffing their IT departments. There’s nothing new here, as there are two main causes: tight budgets that can lead to IT staff shortages, and they're always competing with the private sector for top talent, making recruitment and retention more difficult. 

Smaller schools are more likely to have legacy equipment requiring specific knowledge to support. In some cases, these schools employed IT staff for decades who developed unique, homegrown solutions for quick fixes that weren’t covered in any manual. When those people left, or retired, new staffers had to figure out how to solve those issues, and they often lacked the specialized knowledge necessary to maintain older solutions. 

At larger schools, traditionally, campus IT departments have purchased and installed network technologies through large capital expenditures. The downside to this approach is that strategic IT planning can become contingent on the availability of new funding. When a university decides to invest in a major infrastructure project the whole project may be required to pass through a series of committees and approval processes, all of which take time. And even after the infrastructure is built, the school is still on the hook for operating expenses. As a result, institutions might be stuck with outdated equipment until they can raise the new capital they need for a network refresh cycle.

Considering these challenges, campus IT departments often have trouble adequately meeting all their needs.

Staffing challenges in Higher Ed

According to the IT Leadership Workforce in Higher Education survey from Educause, “Among leaders experiencing staffing issues at their institution, a majority report that those issues are negatively affecting their department or unit's work (61%). These leaders are also more likely to experience burnout and to apply to other positions in the coming year.” While just over half of respondents to that Educause survey reported being able to keep staff and hire successfully for existing positions, only 37% reported that they were able to create new positions. 

A survey and report from the Chronicle of Higher Education has more dire numbers: survey respondents said IT workers were their most elusive hires, with 79% saying hiring them is a moderate or serious problem.

Responding to the call for smarter campuses

Campus IT departments have been asked to implement and support a growing number of technologies to develop the “smart campus.” There are systems for teaching and assessing, analyzing and reporting on student success, monitoring and securing campus facilities and more. 

Campus IT staff must make sure these various systems work together seamlessly to drive continuous improvement. With each new system that is added, there is rarely a proportional increase in IT resources. As the IT departments at many colleges and universities are chronically understaffed, this affects their ability to integrate and support innovative technologies.

Higher education networks are often based on legacy MPLS solutions and remain fragmented. IT personnel often waste hours moving around various areas of campuses, maintaining disparate networks. 

Managed services can help solve this challenge, freeing IT teams from solving burdensome campus network outages and putting the responsibility onto their technology partner. With managed services, campus IT departments can keep up with rapidly evolving connectivity needs without investing in costly equipment that’s quickly obsolete. They can extend the capabilities of their IT staff, allowing team members to focus on the institution’s strategic plan, new edtech tools for students, and updated Hyflex learning models for different academic departments. And the administration and finance departments can achieve predictable costs, making it easier to budget for IT needs. 

Another key benefit of using managed services involves categorizing the service as an operating expense (OpEx). If schools build and maintain their own infrastructure the cost is considered a capital expense (CapEx). Managed SD-WAN networks can be accounted for as an OpEx and allow IT staff to control the network from one central location, and easily scale that network as needed.

A managed services approach can support more stable and consistent IT budgeting, when classified as OpEx. This helps campus IT leaders successfully predict and manage their network expenses, including the cost of routine maintenance. There are no more unpleasant surprises when a piece of equipment fails; no more scrambling to find the money to replace an aging router or wireless access point. 

The other compelling argument behind outsourcing managed services involves obsolescence. Technology is changing so quickly that capital projects are in danger of being outdated before they're brought online. And if technological innovation outpaces the rate of depreciation or amortization, a university can be left paying off infrastructure that is obsolete.

The number of organizations opting for managed network services is exploding. In fact, the global market for managed network services is expected to exceed $207 billion by 2035, a compound annual growth rate of 10.5%. This growth in managed network services is being driven by the need to reduce costs, improve network performance and keep up with rising bandwidth demands. An increasing number of higher Ed CIOs struggling to support an expanding range of IT services are discovering that managed network services provide an ideal solution.

How Spectrum Enterprise can help

Spectrum Enterprise offers a wide range of managed or co-managed solutions to help colleges and universities build and support a secure, reliable network infrastructure from a single, trusted provider. 

With our managed network services offerings, we’ll partner with your institution as an extension of your IT department. Together, we’ll design, implement and fully manage network services that fit your needs. We offer end to end support — from design to implementation, user licenses and ongoing maintenance. We offer two co-managed or fully managed network solutions, both of which are based on scalable, flexible and secure SD-WAN. Institutions can decide for themselves whether they take an active role in network management, manage only specific elements, or depend on us for network management. In any case, our expertly trained team will provide hardware infrastructure and handle upgrades and service scaling while providing your team 24/7/365 support.

For more than 20 years, Spectrum Enterprise has partnered with colleges and universities nationwide to provide education technology and tailored managed services. Find out more about how our managed network services deliver the infrastructure, service and support to help you remove operating risks and set your campus infrastructure business up for success.