HPE GreenLake – helping Sedbergh School to be best in class for IT

[LouiseNicholson]

Many public sector organisations are adopting cloud technology to make sense of the new operational, security, regulatory and sustainability realities they increasingly face. But it’s complex. How for example do they manage the transition from legacy IT processes and technology to new? What are they doing to stay ahead of ever-evolving cybersecurity threats? How do they derive value from the wealth of data being generated by front-line teams and service users? And how do they forecast cloud costs in today’s economic climate?

For many, the most logical path is a hybrid cloud strategy to provide a cloud like experience from the edge and on-premises, right through to the public cloud. Education organisations are actively seeking solutions that alleviate the challenges of legacy technology and limited resource whilst driving transformation and data modernisation.

Sedbergh School is a fantastic example of this. Located between the Lake District National Park and Yorkshire Dales, it is an award-winning independent day and boarding school for 4 to 18 year-olds, based across a number of sites, faculties and houses. I sat down with Matt McVoy, Head of IT (a former House Master) to find out more about how the HPE GreenLake edge-to-cloud platform is helping Sedbergh School towards its ambition to be best in class for technology amongst independent schools.

Tell us more about the background to your thinking as to why digital transformation for Sedbergh School is so important.

‘As a fee-paying institution we need to deliver demonstrable value for our students and parents. I believe progressive and judicious investment and adoption of IT such as hybrid cloud will not only help us from an operational perspective, but also from a competitive point-of-view.  We’re also determined that our choices as a school will have a positive impact as we prepare our students for a life beyond formal education.  

Schools have a huge responsibility to bear when it comes to preparing children for life beyond school. We must be sure that our children are ready for whatever life throws at them and that requires agility, flexibility, freshness of mind and openness to listen. This has to be underpinned by the core values of humility, ambition, resilience and kindness. Digital readiness, confidence and skills absolutely play a part in this and can only be enabled by our own digital transformation.’

Are there particular factors that made an edge-to-cloud, hybrid solution important?

‘It was vitally important that we recognised our particular circumstances as a school and our responsibility to our pupils and teachers. We needed to make certain we had control over our cloud environment, particularly when it comes to safety, security and access policies for so many young people. Sensitive pupil data had to be kept closer to home. That meant a public cloud only approach was not appropriate.

We have over 800 students and teachers across our senior and prep schools, the houses, and our Mulberry Bush Nursery. 95% of students are boarders, and around 20% of our students are international. By my calculations, each school member has access to between 3 and 4 connected devices – whether they be used for learning, teaching, or private use and entertainment. All school sites have IT suites, and pupils as young as three and upward are regularly accessing iPads. They can be accessing data and apps in the classroom or their communal or living spaces one moment, and at home or out on field trips the next. With so many ‘edges’ to manage, so many cyber-attack possibilities, and so much data to either access, catalogue, backup, recover, store or analyse, it’s easy to see why the HPE GreenLake edge-to-cloud platform was our choice.

On the subject of infrastructure and the potential for even more data, we’re opening a new Technology Centre in 2024, a space for discussion, debate, collaboration, innovation and learning, as well as the hub for the teaching and learning of the critical technologies for the future. HPE GreenLake is a key component providing the infrastructure foundation for the centre, providing us with a scalable solution for future growth.’

Why did you choose HPE GreenLake as your edge-to-cloud platform solution?

‘There are many reasons. The school was keen to transform in terms of infrastructure so that we could deliver the best possible learning, teaching, living, welfare and pastoral experiences for our pupils.  We were also looking to stop the drain on resources from managing the day-to-day demands of IT.  The school wanted to consolidate our technology to avoid the rinse-and-repeat of the past when it comes to capital expenditure on systems that are either unproven or have a limited shelf-life. HPE GreenLake does all of these things.

We’re always conscious of costs, and cost predictability, so the flexible 5-year term and ‘no surprises’ fixed pricing bands of HPE GreenLake are excellent when spreading risk. This is particularly important during periods of uncertainty - as is the case with inflation and was the case with Covid-19. I also wanted a solution that can flex on demand, one that scales and evolves with the school. HPE GreenLake provides us with the transparency, predictability and reliability we need. The flexibility and scalability of HPE’s solutions don’t scream with arrogance. They don’t state, this is the solution for you that will look after your organisation for 3, 4, 5 years, what they say is, this is the solution for you today and we’re going to be alongside for you for whatever is thrown at you as you continue to expand.

Is there anything else you particularly like about HPE GreenLake?

‘The fact that we can manage our existing Aruba Central solution with HPE GreenLake is an added bonus, as is the benefit of being able to move to a more sustainable position by reducing our technical debt. HPE’s commitment to the circular economy was extremely attractive. We’re now able to consolidate our technology assets with one, future-proofed platform. That saves management time, so our IT professionals can now concentrate on doing more of what they do best. There’s also the reassurance we’re able to give our parents, that their children’s online activities are subject to the most robust of guardrails. Last but not least, how HPE GreenLake is able to play an informative role in how our pupils learn to collaborate – before they face the realities of the wider working world.

It is also important to note that the day-to-day management of IT is shifting from the very technical management of heritage infrastructure to that of user confidence, certainly in a school setting. It is vital we allocate time to increasing digital confidence within the team. I have an incredibly talented group of IT professionals at Sedbergh School that are willing to move away from that heritage network infrastructure management and seeing the benefits of having upskilled, digitally confident colleagues in the classroom because it makes a difference to our learners. If our students are inspired by digitally confident teachers, who are inspired by a digitally confident IT department who aren’t constantly sticking plasters on legacy infrastructure to keep it going, then great.

HPE GreenLake enables this, empowering our colleagues to provide our students with a brighter, more agile future.

HPE is committed to supporting education organisations to transform the learning experience and ultimately, children’s futures. Working with you to accelerate your digital strategy, we provide you with a transformation solution suite that fulfils your objectives today and collaborate with you as your organisation evolves.

About HPE GreenLake

The HPE GreenLake edge-to-cloud platform enables customers to accelerate data-first modernization and provides cloud services that can run on-premises, at the edge, in a colocation facility, and in the public cloud. In its final fiscal quarter of 2022, HPE reported Annualized Revenue Run-Rate (ARR) of $936 million with total as-a-service orders growth of 33% compared to the prior-year period. HPE GreenLake has 65,000 customers, powers more than two million connected devices and manages more than one exabyte of data under management with customers worldwide. These organizations benefit from one control plane from which to automate, orchestrate, and run their hybrid cloud strategy. The scalable, pay-as-you go HPE GreenLake platform also delivers robust security, compliance, and control, and supports a broad partner ecosystem – including channel partners, distributors, independent software vendors, public cloud providers, service providers, and system integrators. For more information on HPE GreenLake, please visit: https://www.hpe.com/us/en/greenlake.html

Louise Nicholson
Hewlett Packard Enterprise

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