A High Tech First for Brick School District

To the cloud!

A move made by the Brick school district's technology department last week makes the district the first in the entire tri-state area to move its e-mail and file storage system to web servers instead of on internal systems.

Now, e-mail and files will be stored on secure servers run remotely – a practice colloquially called "cloud" storage – instead of on in-house computers that require costly maintenance and replacement.

The best part, according to Len Niebo, the district's technology director, is that cloud computing is provided to education institutions for free by Microsoft.

That will save the district thousands of dollars per year in licensing fees and maintenance costs, as well as $5,400 in energy costs required to run and cool in-house web servers, Niebo said.

Niebo said the servers that powered the district's e-mail service alone were about seven years old and would soon have to be replaced to the tune of about $15,000.

Right now, the service is available for teachers and staff, but the benefits of online storage are expected to trickle down to students next year, Niebo said.

"It bridges that gap between home and workplace for staff members, and it sets the stage for students in September to have user accounts," Niebo said, explaining that students will be issued their own "SkyDrive" that will allow them to store, access and even edit documents such as class assignments from anywhere.

The migration away from in-house servers also serves another purpose, Niebo said.

"If the power goes out here in Brick, if we have another Hurricane Irene, e-mail still works."