Strathmore University has partnered with cloud computing services provider Amazon Web Services (AWS) with a bid boost its remote learning programme.
The partnership will enable the the university to focus on teaching and research without worrying about expensive investments in IT infrastructure.
Stephen Momanyi, Director of ICT Services at Strathmore University said, “Like everyone else, our digital transformation journey has been accelerated by the Covid-19 pandemic.”
Mr Momanyi said that the university needed an IT infrastructure that was flexible, scalable and one that would meet rising demand .
The on-premise hardware supporting the teaching programme was ageing and not able to sustain demand from the institution’s 8,000 students and 1,500 staff.
Strathmore University was among the first education institutions in Kenya to adopt and deploy workloads on the AWS cloud, which has since increased the number of students studying abroad.
The Covid-19 pandemic forced learning institutions to rethink on the mode of delivery away from the traditional face-to-face meetings .Cloud technology has transformed the capabilities of many sectors including education.
According to Robin Njiru, Regional Lead, West, East & Central Africa, Amazon Web Services ,“the pandemic dramatically set back in Sub-Saharan Africa, where technology uptake in learning institutions has been slow. We are very happy to see that our services have not only enabled Strathmore to transition to online learning but also scale their services beyond the Kenyan borders.”