It wasn’t long ago that your C-suite of higher education CIOs didn’t have to worry about trends like Bring-Your-Own-Device (BYOD). But the advent of BYOD is one of the many challenges education IT leaders face as the mounting demands of mobile computing make transitioning to new IT operating models critical.

We recently asked Brent Flaugher, Senior Account Manager with CBTS, to describe these challenges and how CBTS products and services are helping make that transition easier.

Higher education CIOs are increasingly focused on delivering value-added initiatives and strategies.  What is driving this transition?

The constant 24/7 need for connectivity is a critical underlying factor driving this transition. This need increasingly makes the legacy methods of information delivery – platforms, network structure, and means of content delivery – unable to provide the quality that users expect and demand for a first-class 21^st century education.

What are the main challenges that higher education CIOs face as they transition from their legacy role of “keeping the lights on?”

Higher education CIOs are expected to do more with less. This can represent a monumental challenge as they contend with the increasing bandwidth demands of ever-more sophisticated multimedia-based educational content, which in turn requires better network optimization.  Coupled with these demands is the proliferation of mobile student-owned BYOD that replace the past model of school-provided devices.

BYOD introduces another level of security challenges. And as the number of these devices expands, so do bandwidth requirements – adding more pressure to the capacity of their existing networks.

The traditional model of educational IT ownership is changing. Tell us how forward-thinking CIOs are leading this change?

These CIOs are opting to transition to cloud-based services where they can rely on the deep expertise of IT professionals who can manage and grow their networks to support agile mobile offerings that are in such demand in the educational sector.

How do CBTS products and solutions meet the BYOD demand?

We constantly hear from our clients in the education sector that they are hungry for products that can increase their bandwidth and offer them a more robust and dependable wireless technology. But it is an inconvenient truth that implementing their value-added and data-loaded initiatives comes with a hefty trade-off.  With more data access comes more data center requirements. Additionally, CIOs are faced with the prospect of providing vast amounts of storage to accommodate all of this access and hiring expert staff to support these initiatives.

The CBTS focus is to meet these wishes by offering shared cloud-based offerings that can make wish-lists a reality. We do this by optimizing their storage, backup, voice, and security requirements. It’s not just a smart strategy for delivering a top-of-the-line education to their students. Our services also help the bottom line by avoiding large capital expenditures and the need to recruit, retain, and continually retrain a large IT staff that can handle the critical demands of their connected educational organization.

For more information on how CBTS is helping higher education IT leaders read this case study and this interview with Paul Czarapata, VP and CIO of the multi-campus Kentucky Community & Technical College System (KCTCS).

Explore how the Communications solutions at CBTS can help support your BYOD demand here. 

Regardless of who else is on the green, golfers are always competing with one player in particular: Themselves. And in recent years, wearable technology and devices have helped golfers improve on their last best game.

Devices for golfers interested in “the quantifiable self” have come a long way since they first debuted more than five years ago. Zepp Golf, for example, is a pioneer in helping golfers analyze their swings. Its products have evolved to include on-course performance and provide resources for coaches.

Golden State Warriors swingman Andre Iguodala has been using wearables including Zepp Golf to improve his swing, but as he told SportsTechie last summer, we’re merely scratching the surface of what’s to come in terms of devices that track athlete performance. The 2015 NBA Finals MVP is also a tech investor and avidly watching the wearables market. He sees a lot of opportunity for devices geared toward amateurs.

Several companies offer wearable technology

Companies including Samsung and Garmin are putting their own golf tees in the ground. Garmin, which is known for its GPS devices and fitness trackers, recently unveiled its Approach X10, a wearable for rookie golfers. The company’s new golfing buddy is compatible with its existing golf app, and tells golfers how far they are from the pin on more than 41,000 pre-loaded courses worldwide. Its built-in GPS knows when a golfer has moved to the next hole, and it provides distances to the front, back, and middle of the green, as well as any hazards.

Samsung’s most recent foray into golf metrics is via a partnership with myRoundPro, which tracks performance through the strokes-gained statistical analysis metric that the PGA Tour made popular. The collaboration includes an exclusive myRoundPro app developed with Samsung that provides front, middle, and back yardages to each green. The app records scores and provides a statistical breakdown after each round. Golfers can also assign a club to each shot for more detailed analysis.

Wearables and apps are the primary ways golfers – amateur or professional – currently better understand and improve performance either at the range or over 18 holes, but competition is coming in the form of virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR). This future may include a wearable that covers your whole body.

Is the wearable full-body suit the future of golf?

An India-based startup is developing what is categorized as a mixed-reality wearable. Kaaya Tech’s full-body HoloSuit tracks the body as it goes through a variety of motions using pants, a jacket, and gloves. The product can create meaningful and accurate simulations by collecting data about how people move.

The HoloSuit tracks and visualizes the movements of the golfer’s swing, and then provides insights into how the golfer can correct inconsistencies and swing problems developed over the years with automated suggestions that are stored in the cloud.

The HoloSuit computer currently learns what to look for and encourages the golfer to meet certain standards. Future simulations will tap the knowledge of a specific trainer that provides more personalized feedback.

Kaaya Tech’s HoloSuit is a sign of what’s to come for sports trackers in general, golf swing analysis in particular, and future PGA competitors.

The cloud is the most transformative – and disruptive – technology innovation influencing the 21st Century business world … which is why CBTS has our clients cloud covered. Cloud-based technology is delivering multiple benefits to enterprise companies – from cost savings to increased productivity. 

Cloud technology also allows IT organizations within these enterprises to focus on strategic initiatives that create positive business outcomes, and leverage the expertise of partners like CBTS to help manage other parts of their IT infrastructure. 

CBTS is working with organizations of all sizes to leverage cloud technology and improve their operations. One prominent example is our work with a Fortune 20 corporation to implement a virtual data center and a cloud-based unified communications solution that is driving increased collaboration, and decreased operational costs. 

The Problem 

This client operates in several diverse sectors across the world, including Oil and Gas, Healthcare, Transportation, Pharmaceutical, and Aviation. The client had several challenges with its previous infrastructure: 

• Antiquated, disparate phone systems across divisions that were costly to maintain. 
• Multiple cloud and compute environments. 
• Ongoing need to update and maintain hardware infrastructure – an activity that is not central to its core business. 

The client required a flexible solution that would reduce costs, increase productivity, and generate additional bandwidth for its internal IT organization to focus on mission-critical applications. 

The Cloud-based Solution 

CBTS has been an IT partner to this client for nearly 20 years. We provided a two-part solution leveraging cloud technology. 

• CBTS built a Virtual Data Center (VDC) as an internal private cloud for the client. The VDC has grown to five production instances in five cities worldwide, with over 4,500 virtual machines in use. CBTS owns all of the hardware with this solution and provides infrastructure support 24x7x365. In addition, CBTS implemented a dedicated hybrid cloud environment for AWS, Azure, Office 365, and other public clouds. Finally, CBTS built a private environment consisting of 140 virtual environments and over 1,000 virtual machines across two data centers as part of this hybrid solution.  
• CBTS also built a fully managed, centrally hosted IP telephony platform. The CBTS Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS) solution has been implemented in all of the client’s divisions in the United States and Canada. CBTS currently manages and supports approximately 47,000 profiles. CBTS owns the UCaaS platform, which is based on the Cisco HCS platform, and provides 24x7x365 support. The client pays a predictable monthly fee that includes all equipment and maintenance. 

The Benefits 

These cloud-based solutions support multiple business outcomes for the client, including the elimination of large capital expenditures on computing equipment and software, enhanced collaboration, and reduced training costs. Additionally, the client’s IT organization now enjoys additional bandwidth to focus its efforts on strategic initiatives, knowing that CBTS is handling core infrastructure applications. 

The benefits of being cloud covered aren’t limited to Fortune 20 organizations. We invite you to learn more about how cloud solutions from CBTS can help you realize your business objectives. 

To find out more about the CBTS work with this client, read this case study. 

CIO Review has named CBTS to its list of the 20 Most Promising Unified Communications Solution Providers for 2017, and is featuring an interview with Chief Technology Officer Tom Simpson in its March edition.

In an interview with CIO Review, Simpson discussed three key CBTS services:

• Enterprise Hosted Communications Solution: EHCS is built on Cisco’s HCS product and is a fully hosted and managed solution that provided enterprise-grade voice, video and business communications services.
• Network as a Service: A fully managed solution that provides customers with a simple, scalable method to offload the complex task of maintaining and securing a commercial network.
• SD-WAN: A solution that allows businesses with multi-site locations to support mobile workforces while reducing the need for expensive MPLS connections.

The story also highlights CBTS’ work with the State of Ohio, where our Next-Generation Telephony Service (NGTS) solution has saved the State $5.3 million in the first 18 months of use while providing a suite of collaboration tools that mark a significant upgrade from the State’s previous system.

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