“GDPR will not delay cloud adoption,” says Rachael Hartley, “It simply provides clear regulations with which to frame the division of responsibilities for data within the cloud.” Excerpts:

Schools, colleges and universities have to alter how they operate when they adopt the cloud, and also with the advent of the GDPR. Clouds, too, are subject to disruption by future technologies, and changes in law.

Education’s different needs, and continuing perceptions of the cloud as risky, has resulted in a mix-and-match approach. Rachael Hartley explained it well: ‘While each service has its own adoption curve, a hybrid environment is emerging whereby some services (and supporting data) are provided locally by the institution, with others hosted in the cloud. In addition, the wide availability of cloud services direct to the individual, coupled with the slower update of services owned by organisations, is leading to a new type of ‘shadow IT’ within institutions where data can be further distributed. The journey to adoption can be difficult to navigate and measurable benefits can be difficult to achieve in the short term. However, in the long term, the benefits to educational organisations can be huge.’

How far GDPR will affect education’s adoption of the cloud, and whether blockchain will become compatible with GDPR will become clearer with time. GDPR may have been the biggest change in data storage recently, but there are plenty more changes to come.”

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