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ITS receives 2019 E&I Cloud Leadership Award

Information Technology (IT) is the recipient of the 2019 E&I Cloud Leadership Award for Hybrid IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service)/PaaS (Platform as a Service). The award recognizes the work of IT staff for their achievements through the innovative use of cloud-first technology. K-State was chosen because of the extensive planning process, the complexity of the project, the hybrid approach to the cloud strategy, and the speed of implementation. There were over 100 applicants for the awards within six categories.

While the fire in Hale accelerated the timeline to move systems to the cloud, K-State was in the process of developing the IT Strategic Plan with a priority to modernize the IT infrastructure and move critical services to the cloud.

According to Gary Pratt, CIO, “Many higher education institutions have been moving data center and other services to the cloud, most taking well over a decade to do this. When faced with a disaster, the Hale Library Fire, our IT team came together under compelling circumstances, identified and established strong relationships with vendor partners, and accomplished an unprecedented move to the cloud in a matter of months. This is really an innovative solution that has many different complex components. The accomplishment is a striking example of how the K-State IT Team can overcome any odds and not just survive, but transform our data center services”.

The E&I Cloud Leadership Awards are announced at the annual EDUCAUSE conference in October. K-State’s cloud strategy was evaluated as the best application and design for an institutional hybrid IaaS/PaaS solution. The runner-up was Penn State University.

E&I Cooperative Services (E&I) is the only member-owned, non-profit purchasing cooperative solely focused on serving the needs of education.

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