In talking with higher education CIOs from around the world over the past four years, an increasing number are highlighting very similar and untenable technology contexts in their institutions.

They talk about struggling to keep up with cost-constrained budgets and maintaining and connecting aging siloed systems whilst trying to create coherent, modern user experiences on top of these discrete systems built up over many years.

For most IT leaders, this feels like an impossible task.

Clearly, the challenges aren't failures of digital strategy or the result of poor technology decisions but are the culmination of years of siloed systems approaches that have created a data and user experience nightmare across the sector.

Add to this the changing expectations of a diverse set of stakeholders, and a perfect storm has been created—one in which it feels like the only option is to lower institutional expectations on user experience and accept not delivering the experience IT leaders would like.

Luckily, there is another way to build a truly connected digital campus.

To quote David Kellerman, a faculty member at the University of New South Wales, in his October 13 blog post: "The future we want is not an LMS and an SIS; rather it is built on top of the most modern enterprise productivity platforms, and it is powered by the most modern cloud and enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. It is a place for people to create and collaborate. The dozens of siloed data systems at universities need to be, one-by-one, unified on a Common Data Model (CDM), with a common authentication system, on a common cloud, with a common API. This is the foundation of the digital campus."^Footnote1

There is a compelling case that an institution can now deliver most of its digital campus within a single technology ecosystem. This approach has many benefits, including rapid delivery that automatically takes advantage of shared data, integration and reporting models. It also relies on skill sets that are readily available.

The University of Surrey is achieving these outcomes using Microsoft's technology ecosystem. This shift in approach, which underpins the university's 2022–2027 Revised Strategy, has contributed to improvements across the institution, including increases in national and international league tables and a 103-place student satisfaction move from the last quartile to the top ten in the UK.

Why do IT leaders need to change approach?

Changing technology approaches is exhausting, risks service issues, and can leave digital leadership exposed! The more I talk with peers, though, the more apparent it is that the status quo is not working for most of us. Most leaders I speak to say that things are getting harder, and budgets and resilience levels are being stretched close to breaking. Yet, sector-wide, education leadership is increasingly looking for more from digital leaders, particularly around user-centricity.

From my conversations with digital leaders in higher education, five common factors seem to be coming together to create this growing crisis.

Five Factors: The Perfect Storm

1. Changing economics: Colleges and universities are increasingly squeezed and either need to do more with less or the same amount of money and resources.
2. Changing user and leadership expectations: Increased technology ecosystem maturity outside the sector has shaped expectations on delivering more user-centric, data-driven experiences to an increasingly diverse population of learners.
3. Complexity and inefficiency of current system approaches: It is increasingly difficult to connect data and processes between siloed systems, which slows down or halts attempts to create truly user-centric experiences. This is particularly visible in the Student Information Systems/Student Records Systems (SIS/SRS) that, for many institutions, have gone from enabling processes to holding student data hostage and disabling progress.
4. Increased capability of alternative options (single ecosystem solutions): The value of a virtuous cycle of doing more and more inside singular, connected technology ecosystems from providers like Microsoft is increasing, as is the number of business problems that can be solved in ecosystem without needing to buy specialised, best-of-breed tools.
5. Talent attraction and retention challenges: Institutions are struggling to recruit and retain employees in an increasingly competitive talent market. Many sector-specific technologies rely on people with niche skill sets. This is leading to an in-sector "cold war" in the UK with institutions competing for resources in a very limited talent pool of people with those skills (e.g., SIS/SRS talent). Education digital leaders are also finding themselves in cross-sector talent wars brought about by cost-of-living challenges and hybrid/remote working changes in thinking.

Unfortunately, very few IT leaders in education have the ready-to-go technology landscape to solve these problems or a common data layer or a technology platform that we can rapidly build on without creating even more mess. Or do we?

The key to delivering a truly modern digital campus is a common data model underpinning a fully featured technology ecosystem.

David Minahan, CIO at Goldsmiths, University of London talks in some detail about these challenges in a blog series^Footnote2 on the topic. In correspondence with a number of UK CIOs in September 2022, Minahan reflected: "The main challenge most institutions have with the second wave of digital transformation (personalisation, automation, analytics) is the lack of a consistent data model and data layer, as it currently exists in different formats in siloed applications."^Footnote3

A shared data model and data layer is the key!

Most colleges and universities have the tools already in play to solve this, and it is disarmingly simple to do so—wherever you can, build as much as possible in a single fully featured technology ecosystem.

At the University of Surrey, we are doing this with Microsoft. We noticed in 2020 that more and more of our new digital needs could be met within the Microsoft ecosystem, and as we implemented this approach, our architectural complexity reduced. We have also begun realising data, integration, reporting, workflow, and security benefits, as well as simplification of our talent challenges.

Our users were already familiar with the interfaces and technology, and as we deliver more in this way things are becoming increasingly coherent. Using a physical campus analogy, most colleges and universities today have a relatively disconnected campus of standalone buildings (our applications) which leave our faculty, staff, and students with the job of having to join the dots, walk between them, and reintroduce themselves at the door of each building as they land into a new experience. By contrast this new approach moves toward most of our work happening in one big shared facility that is context and personalisation aware.

At Surrey we call this "One Connected Digital Campus."

Rather than buying a new application to meet a specific need, our teams are beginning to assemble technology components inside our existing Microsoft ecosystem through low-code/no-code techniques, automation, workflow, and presentational technology such as apps and forms. For example, with the release of a new strategy, we needed to bring our core strategic objectives to life and track our progress against the goals in real time. Rather than go to market for a new business intelligence (BI)/reporting tool, our Planning and Performance team built on top of our existing Microsoft investment and added power BI capability, creating a fully featured dashboard that was available to all staff within weeks, not months.

To deliver this new approach, we are adopting the following principles:

1. Move from a "cloud-first" to a "shared ecosystem-first" approach.
2. Favour rapid delivery and iteration approaches where possible. (We sometimes say, "build it good enough, and then Excellerate it fast.")
3. Reuse existing components wherever possible and build capabilities with reuse in mind. We are consistently surprised by how few different forms, reports, or workflow templates our institution needs!
4. Rely on our ecosystem data model and inbuilt automation and workflow rather than trying to link disconnected systems with integration.

By applying these principles as new digital needs arise, bit by bit, our technology landscape is becoming simpler and more agile. As more of our data is in one ecosystem, we can build faster, create more coherent user experiences, and move away from asking a student their name each time they initiate a process. As our architecture becomes simpler, we are freed up to make more deliberate and future-focused choices around our SIS/SRS and enterprise resource planning (ERP) rather than being limited by legacy and integration/data concerns.

For more information on University of Surrey's rollout of the Microsoft ecosystem, Dynamics and Power BI, see "University of Surrey Adopts a Data-Driven Approach to Improving Student Satisfaction, Powered by Microsoft 365 and Dynamics 365," Microsoft, August 9, 2022.

How Do I Make the Change?

Just Get Started!

Most institutions already have a footprint in the Microsoft ecosystem. Pick a project or problem with a strong supportive senior partner who "gets it" (if you can) and get started. Carve out some time for your technical team to explore Microsoft's Power Platform and set them loose on the problem. This might be a new dashboard in Microsoft Power BI, process automation of a finance process in Power Automate, a chatbot with Power Virtual Agents for student inquiries, or extending an existing CRM implementation with a workflow that adds new functionality. Aim to explore what's possible and start to see the virtuous cycle you get by layering capabilities on top of the ecosystem and data.

Mature the Capability and Evolve Your Operating Model

Systematically adopting this model typically involves moving to a new multi-delivery-mode operating model. (The University of Surrey uses the Business Technology Standard, but there are other good models out there to choose from).

You will also need to invest in the following skill sets:

1. Low-code/no-code development (Microsoft offers courses on Microsoft Learn, such as these courses on Power Platform.)
2. Rapid build and iterate/agile development approaches
3. Data/enterprise architecture

Learning these skills is a win-win for you and your teams, as they are all modern and in-demand skill sets that Excellerate their career choices!

Take Your Organisation on the Journey

Changing the way that your institution thinks about how it handles digital change is a vital part of this transformation. Every organisation is different, but most leaders are open to a conversation around trying something new that is faster and cheaper and will help create a better student experience.

A nuanced conversation is needed to talk through the benefits and trade-offs of the new approach. Moving from best of breed into an iterative ecosystem build model relies on digital leaders convincing senior leaders that not every system in the institution needs to be a stand-alone, best-of-breed system, and that the benefits of free-flowing data, faster delivery, and improved user experience outweigh best of breed. This is not a trivial task, so start as soon as possible!

Partner with Peers to Share Experiences and Code

Finally, one great aspect of this approach is that with so many institutions heading down a similar path, many of your peers will have encountered similar issues, and most are willing to share exactly how they solved them, including sharing code, processes, organisational structures, business cases, and even work with you on open-source solutions via the Graph API in Microsoft's Dataverse.

Because the higher education sector is so willing to collaborate, it is not fanciful to think that we can come together to build low-cost solutions to issues impacting all of us, leaving more room for us to focus on where we differ.

I will be co-presenting a session on October 26, 2022, at EDUCAUSE 2022 with David Kellerman from the University of New South Wales and Professor Osama Khan from the University of Surrey to discuss our vision for a student-centric digital campus in more detail. All are welcome.

If these syllabus interest you, whether you agree, disagree, or would like to discuss them in more detail, I welcome the opportunity to connect and talk with you at the EDUCAUSE Annual Conference, UCISA events in the UK, or on LinkedIn.

Notes

1. David Kellerman, "How Can Higher Education Create a Next Generation Digital Campus? A Call to Build a Modern Digital Core in an Open-Source Alliance," Microsoft Education Blog, October 13, 2022. Jump back to footnote 1 in the text.↩
2. David Minahan, "Digital" LinkedIn, May 6, 2022. Jump back to footnote 2 in the text.↩
3. David Minahan, email correspondence, September 2022. Jump back to footnote 3 in the text.↩

Nick Gilbert is Chief Information and Digital Officer at the University of Surrey.

Microsoft seems to have a cozy yet bullish relationship in the Industrial Metaverse.  Microsoft Executive VP and Chief Commercial Officer Judson Althoff told investors last month that three brand categories have emerged in the Metaverse; consumer, commercial, and industrial.  The metaverse is still young but is showing promise in allowing businesses to better engage and become more productive with clients.  Althoff is known for using ioT technologies instead of prototyping products to help reduce energy and waste.

While these were all things businesses should be pursuing, one thing Althoff seemed to leave out, according to Bob Evans at Acceleration Economy, is how businesses can better connect with their customers and deliver a more refined product. What's the value of sustainability with less energy consumption and product waste if consumers aren't impressed with the product or service being delivered? Althoff could have been more persuasive with his argument if he addressed "the ability for businesses to deliver to their customers better and more finely tuned products, services, and experiences," said Evans.

Althoff had this to say in a conversation with Goldman Sachs analyst Kash Rangan when discussing the industrial metaverse.

“To simplify, I look at it in kind of three buckets: there’s the consumer metaverse, and there’ll be a monetization thing there in the consumer metaverse.

“There’s the commercial metaverse, where people will have more engaging and experiential collaboration in the metaverse. And I do think that there’s an opportunity there to bring people from around the world with different perspectives to collaborate.

“But where I actually have the most amount of passion is in this thing I call the industrial metaverse, and we have real tangible outcomes for driving with customers today. And so think of it as combining sets of technologies and IoT capabilities where you come in and create a sensor fabric for any industrial process, any manufacturing environment, any supply chain or logistics scenario."

While being industrially efficient does carry a level of importance, interlacing that with great experiences with products and services for consumers is also important. Evans says "I’m all for being as efficient as possible with energy usage, and with reducing waste wherever and whenever possible. But those highly desirable outcomes need to be fused with great experiences for customers, and great products and services and outcomes for customers." He's looking for a bit more "dazzle" from Althoff. Do you agree?

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Security operations teams are overwhelmed trying to protect their organizations against an onslaught of cyberattacks, including a 92 percent rise in ransomware attacks.¹ Too often, existing security tools are siloed or not designed to meet the needs of today’s hybrid cloud environment. The result is overworked security analysts, unaddressed alerts, and undetected threats. As the threat landscape evolves, protecting today’s hybrid cloud environment requires a comprehensive approach that gives security operations (SecOps) teams the context they need to protect their organization better and faster.

Microsoft Sentinel is a modern, cloud-native security information and event management (SIEM) solution that collects security data from your entire organization. Using hundreds of connectors and AI to help SecOps teams prioritize the most important incidents, Microsoft Sentinel includes user and entity behavior analytics (UEBA) and rich security orchestration, automation, and response (SOAR) capabilities. 

We’re delighted to announce that Microsoft is named a Leader in the 2022 Gartner^® Magic Quadrant^TM for Security Information and Event Management and is positioned highest on the measure of Ability to Execute axis. We believe Microsoft’s placement in the Leaders quadrant validates our commitment to empowering our customers with a cloud-native SIEM powered by AI and automation.

Figure 1. Gartner Magic Quadrant™ for Security Information and Event Management.
(Source: Gartner, 2022)

It is fulfilling to see the ongoing value our customers realize from Microsoft Sentinel today. iHeartMedia, a multinational entertainment company, chose Microsoft Sentinel for its simplicity, ease of management, and cost efficiency. “One screen shows our analysts the intelligence to alert based on the data it combines from multiple systems, including firewalls, domain controllers, and everything else,” says Janet Heins, Chief Information Security Officer, iHeartMedia.

Another global operation, Pearson VUE, also chose to empower its cybersecurity team with consolidated visibility by migrating to Microsoft Sentinel, while benefitting from reduced infrastructure costs. “I appreciate the collaborative approach Microsoft takes by having its team meet with ours to share advice on implementation details and fast-track issue resolution,” explains Vladan Pulec, Enterprise Architect, Pearson VUE.

Industry-leading innovation

Our customers are our team’s biggest inspiration for delivering ongoing innovation. We’ve continued to make investments in Microsoft Sentinel over the last 12 months, including:

1. New data ingestion and transformation capabilities: With in-built normalization schemas, codeless API connectors, and low-cost options for collecting and archiving logs, we’ve made it easier to onboard new data sources.
2. Rich SOAR and UEBA capabilities: By leveraging additional UEBA entity pages, reducing response times, and correlating similar alerts to an incident, we’ve helped Excellerate SOC performance.
3. Broad ecosystem integration: Connecting existing systems to Microsoft Sentinel is vitally important, and this year we added more than 180 solutions that not only connect data but also provide analytic rules, workbooks, automation playbooks, and more.

Microsoft’s overall vision for protecting customers from threats is unique compared to vendors that only offer a SIEM. Microsoft takes the best of SIEM and combines that with the best of extended detection and response (XDR) to deliver a unified security operations platform—the breadth of coverage only a SIEM can provide and the depth of insight that XDR provides. That means teams using Microsoft security solutions have more context to work from to resolve attacks faster. Customers using our XDR capabilities, such as Microsoft 365 Defender, also receive a discount on their data ingestion into Microsoft Sentinel.

Looking forward

We know that in today’s threat environment there’s no time to rest on our laurels. We’ll continue to listen to customer needs and innovate to enhance Microsoft Sentinel’s already sophisticated threat-protection capabilities so that SecOps certified can efficiently investigate, track, and automate their response to stay ahead of attackers. While we already have comprehensive and integrated SIEM and XDR capabilities, we’ll continue to do more to bring these two capabilities together as an integrated and open security platform. Thank you to all our customers for your feedback and your inspiration.

Learn more

To get the specifics on why Microsoft is recognized in the Leader quadrant, read the full Gartner® 2022 Magic Quadrant™ for Security Information and Event Management report. Microsoft Security is committed to empowering SecOps teams with security tools and platforms that enable the critical protection your users rely on. To experience Microsoft Sentinel at your organization, get started with a free trial today.

To learn more about Microsoft Security solutions, visit our website. Bookmark the Security blog to keep up with our expert coverage on security matters. Also, follow us at @MSFTSecurity for the latest news and updates on cybersecurity.

¹ Ransomware attacks nearly doubled in 2021, Security Magazine. February 28, 2022. 

Gartner Magic Quadrant for Security Information and Event Management, written by Pete Shoard, Andrew Davies, and Mitchell Scheider. October 10, 2022. 

 Gartner and Magic Quadrant are registered trademarks and service marks of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the US and internationally and are used herein with permission. All rights reserved. 

The graphic above was published by Gartner, Inc. as part of a larger research document and should be evaluated in the context of the entire document. The Gartner document is available upon request from Microsoft. 

Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product, or service depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner’s research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. 

A clean installation of Windows 10 is the process of erasing everything to start and starting with a fresh copy of the operating system when a computer has problems. For example, this method can resolve performance, memory, startup, shutdown, and app issues. Also, it's perhaps the best approach to remove viruses and other types of malware, and it can help to improve battery life.

In addition, it's an excellent solution to remove preloaded bloatware (unnecessary preloaded software) from Windows 10. You can use this method to decommission a computer without giving away your personal information. Or you can set up a new installation after replacing the hard drive.