Looking to modernize its IT infrastructure, Texas Southern University (TSU) has migrated to the cloud. The move to the cloud is part of TSU’s Renew 2022 initiative, which looks to “maximize the investments in critical technologies that support and accelerate student success, empower faculty and staff with knowledge, and implement the best practices in higher education.”
“Moving to the cloud … is part of our strategy to use cloud, mobility, and virtualization to leap forward and accelerate our transformation toward enhanced student services at TSU,” said Texas Southern University Interim President Kenneth Huewitt. “RENEW 2022 has intentionally focused our administrative resources on streamlining business processes to increase operational efficiency and enhancement of student success.”
While the decision to move to the cloud was made prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, that decision was rather fortuitous, as it will aid in helping students during remote learning. TSU Vice President for Information Technology Dr. Mario Berry said the migration to the cloud “ was an important step in our digital transformation and will offer tremendous benefits to the university and its students, particularly during this industry-wide adjustment in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Since moving to a cloud-based environment – which TSU was able to do in only nine months – the college now has greater disaster recovery and business continuity capabilities. Deploying a cloud-based environment will also allow for stronger data integration across university departments, and the managed cloud model used by TSU enhances scalability and security.
Implementing the migration as part of its larger RENEW 2022 strategy, which serves as an anchor of sorts for the university’s broad IT modernization plan through 2022, has allowed TSU to maximize its investments and IT infrastructure. Further, the RENEW 2022 strategy has allowed university IT staff to drive digital transformation and institutional cultural change.
