STRICTLY BIZ MAGAZINE JAN/MAC 2020

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BENEFITS OF ONE NATION CLOUD FOR MALAYSIAN HIGHER EDUCATION

Education has been the focus of the government, wherein the 2019 national budget, RM60.2 billion has been allocated to the Education Ministry. In today's world, education and technology go hand in hand. In today's world, the global demand for cloud computing from all levels of the industry has increased, including higher education institutions has increased. 

Many Information technology companies provide free cloud computing services to educational institutions worldwide. Consequently, millions of students and faculty members around the world are using cloud-based applications /software such as Padlet, Edmodo, Socrative, TED-ED, eduClipper, Storybird, Kahoot, Animoto, Slide share, YouTube, Google cloud base software's for education,  Microsoft Online, and other tools. In this era of digitalization, cloud-based eLearning allow learner and educators to stay updated, facilitates collaborative learning environment, reduces expenses, streamlining data collection and encouraging global education. Based on these arguments, this article will highlight the importance of implementing the 'one nation higher education cloud' in Malaysian higher education institutions. 

"ICT INFRASTRUCTURE FOR MALAYSIAN HIGHER EDUCATION"

The Malaysian government has taken the first step by introducing the use of cloud computing among federal ministers. The project was managed by MAMPU (Malaysian Administrative Modernization and Management Planning Unit). Moreover, the government has spent a substantial amount of money to set up and maintain separate ICT infrastructure/data center for all the public universities across Malaysia. Most higher education institutions are using popular software like E-portal (Student system, administration, academic system, and examination system),  Finance system, Alumni system,  Research system, Email system, Websites, online  Survey and evaluation system,  Human Resource System, Recruitment system, Online library system, and E-learning Portal.  However, maintaining individual data center is very expensive for each university. Hence, the Malaysian government should build one nation higher education cloud. This will allow the Ministry of Higher Education to easily monitor and access all the resources related to higher education institutions.  It will also help higher education institutions in terms of cost reduction, information sharing, increasing accessibility, accessing unlimited storage space, improving collaboration group management system and managing infrastructure. It will also provide greater opportunity for students and faculty members to design e-portals to share knowledge and learning tools with students in other institutions. The figure below illustrates the benefits of the one nation higher education cloud system.

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The benefits that will be received by Malaysian higher education institutions after implementing cloud computing are listed below:

  • Reduced spending on technology infrastructure. Higher education institutions could maintain easy access to information with minimal upfront spending as their expenditure will be based on usage. Only one national cloud platform will be used by all 25 higher education institutions across the country.
  • Cost Saving. There is no need for each institution to spend a huge amount of money on separate hardware, software, or licensing fees. 
  • Cloud computing is an effective way to globalize the workforce as it allows the establishment of a nationwide educational network where tasks can be performed efficiently with less workforce.
  • Cloud computing improves networking among higher education institutions and enables faculty members to access information anytime, anywhere, 24/7. 
  • Less personnel training is needed as the cloud allows fewer people to do more work with a minimal learning curve on hardware and software issues. 
  • Cloud computing reduces the need for licensing new software, which could be costly. Operating costs can be decreased as all universities use integrated library services, Learning Portals, Research activities, and other services. 
  • Implementing cloud computing in higher education institutions allow higher education institutions to share resources across different universities.
  • Disasters Recovery center. The use of cloud computing makes mitigating disasters easier. Only one Disaster recovery center can be built for all Malaysian higher education institutions to reduce costs. This could save millions of RM yearly u