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Hey everyone!I hope you’re all doing well! I’m currently exploring cloud services for our school, and I’d love to tap into the collective wisdom of this community. As we all know, the right cloud solutions can make a significant difference in how we manage our resources and engage with students.I am particularly interested in services that can help with:Storage Solutions: We need reliable and secure storage options for student records, educational resources, and administrative documents. What platforms have you found to be user-friendly and secure?Collaboration Tools: With remote learning becoming more prevalent, effective collaboration tools are a must. Are there any cloud-based platforms you recommend for facilitating group projects, communication, and sharing resources among students and teachers?Educational Applications: I’d love to hear about any cloud services that provide specific educational tools—like virtual classrooms, learning management systems, or assessment platforms- that have worked well for you.Data Security and Compliance: Ensuring the privacy and security of our students’ data is a top priority. Any insights on how to choose services that comply with regulations, such as FERPA? When I was Googling for the same I came across these resources /forums/cloud-services/226594-complete-cloud-based-services.html google cloud platform services however they are good but I want to learn more from community members.If you’ve had positive experiences with any specific providers or platforms, please share! Additionally, any tips on what to look for when selecting a cloud service would be greatly appreciated.Thanks so much for your help. Looking forward to hearing your thoughts.Best Regards

Hi all, I made a post a few weeks back about migrating schools to 100% Google and had some very good feedback... Since then, I have acquired a new job as ICT Network Manager at a very small MAT (2 schools). One school has around 500 students, and the other only has about 120. Both schools are VERY into Google with students and some staff using Chromebooks and using Google Drive etc. The larger primary school has one physical host running Hyper-V with two virtual machines. While the smaller schools server died a while ago, (and the current network manager didn't think it was worth replacing due to the amount they use Google Services). I will be looking to introduce GCPW over the summer for the remaining windows devices, to authenticate users without AD, and I will be managing these devices in something like Action1 rmm. Staff will be able to upload their remaining documents to Google via the drive client, and I will move any on-prem file shares into Google shared drives and reshare them out. The Chromebooks will obviously be managed through the admin console, so no issues there. They both use Arbor so SIMS doesn't need to be hosted anywhere. Our ISP can also host DNS/DHCP on the firewall. I am trying to work out any hidden costs this migration will cost for each school... Not sure if anyone can advise? So far the only immediate costs will be running Papercut mobility print on a desktop £150-£200? and backing up staff folders/shared drives in Google workspace, Cubebackup for example £2 per user a year. I am sure I will be missing some kind of cost out somewhere! TIA

In these very challenging times we at Intelligence Hosting have had a little think about what we can do to help Schools\Colleges and you as IT staff. We know that backup can be something that is incredibly hard to manage at the best of times but working remotely makes it even more difficult. We know that Cloud Backup is something that is on a lot of Schools Strategic Plans but has always been out of reach due to budget or you just haven't had the time to look at what solution you require. With this in mind we have decided that we will offer 10TB of Veeam Cloud Connect Backup and Recovery Disk Space for 6 months completely free of charge, no obligation or contract lock ins... If you don't want to continue after the 6 months you can just cancel at that point or at any point over the 6 month period. This gives you the chance to cover all your backup needs, securely and efficiently then when everything comes back to normal you can make a confident decision if the system is value for money and something you want to continue before allocating finance. The Veeam Cloud Connect Backup and Recovery product is an industry standard solution and incredibly easy to configure and get up and running. If you are already a Veeam customer you simply connect your infrastructure by either installing Veeam Backup & Replication at your site(s), or using a Veeam Agent to connect stand-alone Servers or Workstations to our Off-Site Cloud Based Disk Repositories. You can then (or we can help you remotely) backup your data via a secure AES256bit SSL Encrypted Tunnel over the Internet. All your data is held in our secure Tier 3 Data Centre here in the UK. We can even connect and backup your full Microsoft Office 365 Organisation like Mailboxes, OneDrive and SharePoint, giving you a safe off-site archive of all your organisational data, safeguarding you from potential disaster in case your onsite backup infrastructure failed in the event of an outage, data loss or a ransomware attack. Don't worry if you are not a Veeam user, we can also look into licensing this temporarily for you so you can take advantage of this amazing offer which would ordinarily cost in th region of £1400 If you are in the education sector and would like to take advantage of this offer please get in touch on 0800612 5031, email [email protected] or visit IntelligenceHS.co.uk and we will get this up and running for you as soon as possible. Thanks

Contract: Permanent - fulltime at 37 hours per week Mon - Fri, 52 week per year Salary: Between £30,000 - £35,000 per annum plus excellent benefits Location: Flexibility to work both remotely from home, and across educational settings in Hertfordshire. Join our enthusiastic and dedicated Technology in Schools team as a Solutions Architect. In this role you will be: working alongside passionate technologists supporting hundreds of schools with integrating both cloud and server-based solutions. empowered to work directly with schools shaping requirements, solution design, configuration and project implementations trouble shooting and fixing complex technical issues willing to learn new technical skills on an ongoing basis Schools are likely to want to work in a hybrid manner, so you’ll need experience in the design and implementation of both server-based and cloud-based technology solutions. If you’re proactive, great at shaping requirements with customers and want to be one of our solution architects, we’d love to hear from you. The team work remotely where possible to support their schools and when required, providing onsite support to their schools. Therefore, the ability to reach different locations by car will be essential. If you drive, then a full driving licence and appropriate car insurance will be required. Also, as there is a permanent home working element to this role, you will need to ensure you are equipped for home working. Here are a few of the perks: 28 days paid annual leave (rising to 31 days after 5 years’ service) Industry-recognised qualifications to boost your employability and promotability Travel mileage allowance 10% employer contributory pension scheme HfL Reward Scheme, providing discount on hundreds of retailers for fashion, travel, electronics and much more For more information, check out the attached Job Outline and visit the Herts for Learning website. Solutions Architect - Job Outline Solutions Architect - Job Outline 2022.pdf To apply, download and complete the attached application pack HfL Application Forms.zip Closing Date: Monday 28th February 2022 at midday Telephone Interview Date: Wednesday 9th March 2022 Interview Date: Monday 14th and Tuesday 15th March 2022 via MS Teams HfL is committed to being an equal opportunities employer. We insist on the equal treatment of all current and prospective colleagues and will never condone discrimination on the basis of age, disability, sex, sexual orientation, pregnancy and maternity, race or ethnicity, religion or belief, gender identity, or marriage and civil partnership. HfL is also equally committed to becoming an anti-racist organisation and we encourage you to view our Black Lives Matter statement which gives clarity on our anti-racist stance. In our relentless efforts to be an anti-racist organisation, we recognise the negative impacts of under representation and lack of diversity in our organisation, our education system and in all aspects of our society. Therefore, for recruitment into any HfL post, where we have 2 or more candidates of equal merit, candidates with protected characteristics will be given advantage over candidates without such characteristics. This is sometimes referred to as a ‘tie-breaker’ and is referred to as ‘positive action’ in the Equality Act 2010. To help us meet our high standards and aspirations of a fully diverse and inclusive workplace, we strongly encourage suitably qualified applicants from all backgrounds to apply and to join us. **APPROVED**

Network & Cloud Services Manager - St Edward's - Oxford Full time Permanent £32,000 to £38,000 per annum This is an exciting opportunity to play a key role in the management, maintenance and development of St Edward’s network infrastructure. The Network & Cloud Services Manager is responsible for the edge switching and core wired environment, wireless network provision, firewall and filtering services, all network cabling and external connectivity. They are also responsible for looking after the cloud services of the school in conjunction with the IT Operations Manager. They will ensure the security and stability of the school’s network infrastructure, eliminating unplanned downtime or service disruptions and assist in the development of IT systems continuity planning and disaster recovery plans. The ideal candidate will require an undergraduate degree in computer science or a related subject, with certifications in infrastructure and networking and a strong understanding of general IT systems and network infrastructure. They will also need experience of network administration in a complex environment and experience of managing cloud environments and delivering cloud service/application projects. Demonstrable experience of HP Aruba networking (core and edge) and an excellent understanding of the Microsoft O365 suite of applications is equally important. For further details and to apply please click HERE. Closing date for applications: 15th August 2021. We reserve the right to appoint at any stage during the application process. St Edward’s is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and the successful applicant will be required to apply for a DBS disclosure. **APPROVED**

I just wanted to introduce myself and Intelligence Hosting Services as one of the new forum sponsors. I personally was an IT manager and IT Director across various Yorkshire schools over a 12 year period before taking up my position here at IHS. I'd like to think I have a good feel for a lot of the day to day issues most of you are facing and hope that Intelligence Hosting Services can help with some of those. We offer a range of Hosting Services from our Tier 3 Data Centre, our very cost effective Cloud Backup and Tape Archiving solution is exceptionally popular with our education customers at the moment. If you would like to take a look at what we can offer you, our website has some very useful cost calculator that are totally transparent to help you cost up your solutions. There are times that we can offer certain discounts for projects so well worth contacting us to see if there is anything we can do. If you would like to try before you buy we do have the facility to offer a short term trial as well. You can find our website here: www.intelligencehs.co.uk any other questions feel free to DM me

Hi, I am struggling a bit with an issue we are currently having on site. We have recently migrated to sharepoint and for the best part are getting on fine with it, albeit being a bit clunky sometimes. However we are encountering an issue where when synced sometimes within folders files are not appearing, the folders are there but not the files. When you check online the files are there, but in file explorer they are not. Does anyone have any ideas on what it could be. So far I've check the following: File path length (It's below the MS limit) File names (Nothing that cannot be included is there) Syncing again directly from the folder Restarting OneDrive Trying another PC Just not sure what is the issue or whether it is a bug. Thanks