Private cloud services and analytics bringing advantages to businesses and schools

Big data projects that are made possible by the cloud are becoming more noteworthy by the day. As more industries adopt cloud technology and the processing power it possesses, there are more opportunities to make it work in different circumstances toward other ends. There are a variety of spectacular major uses of big data going on right now. These include Emory Hospital’s data-driven ICU, Penn State’s Salis Lab and Georgetown University’s Global Insight Initiative. Even the LA ExpressPark is using cloud-driven big data optimization software to reduce congestion and pollution on a citywide scale.

In addition, A new report released by MeriTalk has shown that the current higher education cloud market is $4.4 billion. That is a lot of money going towards giving campuses the mobile data-driven solutions they need to bring their classrooms into the 21st century. Also, half of the higher education IT executives that were interviewed said that the advantages of cloud computing were essential to keep their institutions competitive. Students need to be able to work on academic assignments wherever they are, and allowing research to happen with the distributed processing power of a private cloud system can be very important for making sure that the information used by universities is processed in the most efficient fashion.

There are industries beyond education that are making good use of cloud computing and big data as well. Emory University Hospital, for example, is working with IBM to create advanced, predictive medical care through the use of analytics. The advantages of a private cloud are extremely important here as they better safeguard patient data and anonymity while still doing the heavy lifting that cloud computing is famous for. The major change here is that patients vital signs, which are normally displayed for doctors and nurses to examine in case they betray a warning sign that could hint at a drop in condition, are now going to have data-driven analytics performed on them in real time, alerting staff when something happens as it develops. The quick response time that this kind of treatment affords could be the difference between catching a change in conditions on time or being slightly too late for many that are admitted to this hospital. The hope is that analytics can be a real force for good for anyone who winds up at Emory.

What the benefits of cloud hosting are
The deployment of private clouds for institutions that need to protect their data and run analytics is a great step forward in terms of care for their students, patients and clients. Already, many IT executives have migrated email, used IaaS and PaaS, and have used collaborative software to help students and professors better organize assignments and work with data directly. These types of cloud-based solutions allow for great gains by helping the day-to-day workings of universities work more smoothly, but they pale in comparison to the opportunities afforded by implementing the private cloud through a platform where data is natively hosted on cloud servers to be accessed anywhere. The use of powerful processing analytics in these servers can allow a university to zero in on the needs of students, teachers and staff by keeping track of different metrics throughout each school semester and day, allowing them to more proactively respond to the way that schedules work for everyone involved.

By embracing the future of data processing, hospitals and universities have demonstrated a commitment to utilizing the advantages of cloud computing, and that can be a lifesaver. The deployment of data driven algorithms doesn’t have to have purely abstract results or only effect a bottom line. They can be impactful in meaningful ways to people’s lives in the here and now.