Technology & Innovation - Issue 12

Building technical RESILIENCE When making a major edtech-related purchase, how can you be sure that the products or services in question will go the distance? Well, it can help to ask the right questions... W hen educational technology falters, schools feel it immediately. “ Technology is meant to be an enabler, ” says Ian Tufts, chief technology officer for ParentPay Group. “ Slow performance or downtime distracts teachers from their core responsibility – teaching – and forces them into troubleshootingmode. School leaders may be taken away from leadership to support with manual processes and admin, and they don’t have essential student data they can rely on. ” These challenges can then be amplified by our modern consumer expectations for near-instant response. “ Our tolerance for delay is almost zero, ” Ian adds. “ Administrative tasks – like taking the register, or recording behaviour data – need to be seamless. If systems stall, staff lose time and focus, and safeguarding records can be put at risk. ” So, what should IT leaders look for when selecting a supplier? Availability is key, but that should be seen as just the starting point. “ Review performance over time, ” Ian advises. “ Look at a supplier’s openness about incidents, their disaster recovery testing, and whether they hold independent accreditations, such as ISO 9001 for quality, ISO 27001 for security or PCI DSS for data processing. ” Scaling to demand Recovery planning matters just as much as day-to-day speed. “ Two questions cut through the jargon, ” Ian explains. “ ‘Recovery Point Objective’ – howmuch data could be lost if a system fails? And ‘Recovery Time Objective’ – how long it would take to bring the service back? A daily backup might mean you lose 24 hours of data. We build in synchronous, real-time replication, so that if one data centre fails, another will instantly take over with minimal disruption. ” Ian points to the invisible work carried out behind the scenes that’s responsible for EDTECH CHECKLIST Specific edtech solutions and providers that can be relied on in the long term will tend to feature the following: Proven uptime and transparent incident reporting Independent accreditations (e.g. ISO 9001, ISO 27001, PCI DSS) Clearly stated Recovery Point and Recovery Time Objectives Evidence of regular load testing and auto-scaling Robust supply chain risk management 54 teachwire.net