The cloud. It’s everywhere. My teenage son has never used a USB drive or burnable CD/DVD because all his schoolwork and music are stored online and accessible from any device. By the time my seven-month-old starts watching movies, he probably never will know what a DVD is because all the movies he’ll watch will be on Netflix, Amazon Instant Video, or some other similar service.
When it comes to businesses, we are moving to the cloud a bit more slowly because of all the legacy applications that are still important to our organizations. However, the pace at which we are transitioning is increasing at an astounding rate. In fact, Gartner estimates that by 2017, cloud office system users are expected to constitute 33 percent of the enterprise universe (New Developments in the Cloud Office System Market, Gartner Inc., May 22, 2013). On a related note, Cisco expects cloud data center traffic to triple by the same year (third annual Cisco Global Cloud Index, 2012–2017, Cisco, October 15, 2013).
What this means, in a nutshell, is that organizations rapidly are moving a diverse array of their business applications off their own infrastructure and onto infrastructure provided by their application vendors. However, when considering adopting a cloud-based application, organizations have to do their homework. First, there are various “flavors” of cloud to consider and determine which best meets the needs of your stakeholders. On top of that, organizations must consider the entire ecosystem of interconnected applications that it takes to run their business and whether their cloud strategy will continue to allow for that interconnectivity.
Learning is no different. When thinking about moving to the cloud, you can’t just think about features and pricing. You need to think expansively to consider all the applications it takes to deliver your learning programs and whether the solutions you are considering will provide you with sufficient flexibility to meet your business objectives.
PRIVATE VS. PUBLIC
There are plenty of articles that talk about the differences between “public” vs. “private” clouds. I won’t dwell on this topic, but it is important to talk briefly about these two different approaches. First, regardless of which flavor you choose, cloud applications bring one main benefit: They allow organizations to offload activities that aren’t their primary areas of expertise and allow them to focus on those activities that are their primary areas of expertise. In the case of Training and Development organizations, this means no longer worrying about servers, upgrades, and system availability so you can spend all your time focused on delivering world-class training and development programs.
From there, the difference between public and private clouds starts to get nuanced. Public cloud applications are often less expensive because resource utilization on the part of the application vendor can be maximized and some of those savings are passed on to clients. In exchange, however, clients give up a level of control when it comes to deciding when they want to upgrade, the ability to customize, and the level of integration that can happen with other applications. Private cloud solutions, on the other hand, tend to be a little more expensive, but put a higher degree of control into the hands of the client.
Neither option is objectively better or worse. Organizations just need to decide which is right for them. The best scenario is if you can partner with a vendor that can support either model so you have the flexibility to change if your needs change over time.
MEET IN THE CLOUD
Where it can get complicated for some organizations is when they start to think about how they are going to make all the various applications that they have integrated with their learning management system (LMS) meet in the cloud. Human Resource Information System (HRIS), Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Association Management System (AMS), virtual conferencing solutions, authentication solutions…the list goes on. Typically with a public cloud solution, you are limited by the supported integrations and application programming interfaces (APIs) for data transfer. For many organizations, this is sufficient to meet their needs. For other organizations, their needs require more flexibility to integrate with other applications they deem critical to their business. Often, with private cloud solutions, you’ll find greater ability to integrate and customize since the solution is dedicated to an individual client. Again, neither solution is objectively better or worse. Some solutions will just be better suited than others in certain situations.
Regardless of which cloud flavor you are evaluating, here are some standard integration capabilities you should expect from your LMS provider:
- Supported integrations with virtual conferencing solutions such as WebEx or Adobe Connect
- Publicly available APIs that allow for data exchange with an HRIS, CRM, AMS, or other proprietary applications in your organization
- Support for Single Sign On (SSO) via technologies such as SAML or Active Directory
- Ability to “skin” the application to make it look and feel like your other applications
- Batch upload of data via file formats such as Excel or CSV for when you need a quick and dirty way of getting data into the system
- RESTful APIs that allow for real-time data retrieval so you can show LMS data within other Web applications (REST stands for representational state transfer and refers to an architectural style for Web applications.)
IN THE REAL WORLD
I’ve worked with a wide variety of clients with a wide variety of needs. For those clients looking for a robust LMS that would provide the best value with the least amount of work, a public cloud solution has been a great fit. For other organizations whose needs were a bit more diverse, a private cloud solution was a better choice.
For example, a pharmaceutical/health-care client already had an established, branded portal that served as the main interface for all of its nurses, doctors, and other users. When it was evaluating a new LMS, one of its primary needs was to find a system that could blend into its existing solution. It selected a private cloud solution with RESTful APIs and support for custom skins. This allowed the LMS to “disappear” into the background. By tightly integrating with the LMS, the client was able to show all course data directly on its Web portal, allowing users to enroll and launch content directly without ever knowing they were accessing content in an LMS. As a result, users never had to learn a new system or access new software to arrive at their content. This resulted in sustained client satisfaction and a flat line in its support requests.
Another client, in the world of accounting, is a marketing juggernaut and had invested heavily in building out a market-leading E-commerce Website. This client created an experience in which learners search, find, and purchase content from their E-commerce Website. By leveraging APIs, a new account is created for users in the LMS, permissions are assigned to the content, and users have instant access to begin their learning. This client is able to focus its efforts on marketing and creating great content with the confidence that the cloudbased LMS will be there when its users need it.
THE CLEAR CONCLUSION
For many organizations, the cloud is the obvious choice as they consider their next LMS. Regardless of which flavor of the cloud you are considering, take the time to think thoroughly about the other applications you require to run your training and development programs. If your situation is fairly simple, a public cloud offering may offer cost savings and ensure you are always using the latest and greatest technology your vendor has to offer. If your situation is slightly more complex, a private cloud offering may be a bit more expensive but will provide additional flexibility while allowing you to offload administrative tasks so you can focus on the things you do best.
Ramsey Chambers is vice president of Product Management and Strategy for Meridian Knowledge Solutions (www.meridianks.com), the company behind learning management system Meridian Global. Meridian’s technology platform empowers enterprises, governments, and member-based organizations to develop their people by delivering learning, assessing performance, and fostering collaboration.
