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…to cloud or not to cloud…Learning Management in the Enterprise:
EdTech Berlin Summit 2015
Dimitris Tsingos Co-founder & President, Epignosis LLC
[email protected] http://www.linkedin.com/in/tsingos
Background & Milestones
Nov 2003: Epignosis founded in Athens, Greece 2004: Developed first version of
eFront LMS2006: SCORM certification
2007: Open-Source2009: International VAR Partners
network2010: Break-even
May 2012: Corporate restructuring as US company
Oct 2012: TalentLMS launch
2013: $1M revs
Oct 2014: eFrontPro launch
May 2015: Snappico launch
$3M < Projected revs 2015 < $4M
The Epignosis Vision
To make enterprise learning more fun and easy
To make tacit knowledge reusable
To democratize LMS for businesses
We breathe cloud
For over a decade we build educational tools that live in the cloud
eFront - A powerful, Enterprise LMS for private cloud
TalentLMS - A simple, cloud-powered LMS
Snappico - A mobile app for casual learning with a cloud backend
We see the cloud as one of the pillars for educational technology for the foreseeable future
Still, the cloud remains a mystery and many myths have built up around deploying and running applications in it.
The learning landscape from an LMS perspective
The World’s economy gets more & more knowledge intensive
An increasingly high number of the workforce, including blue collars has access to the internet.• Many exclusively on mobile.
The competition increases steadily - Competitive advantages can only be based on knowledge.
Scale up requires excellence in execution - Need fore more and better training.
Multimedia content gets commoditized.
IT infrastructure gets commoditised.• SaaS, IaaS
What is the cloud?
The cloud refers to software and services that run on the Internet instead of your computer.
Cloud focuses on maximizing the effectiveness of the shared resources.
Apple iCloud, Dropbox, Netflix, Flickr, Google Drive, Microsoft Office 365, Yahoo Mail - those are all cloud services.
Almost all categories of software has seen a shift from a local installable to a cloud-version. Including educational technology.
10Myths
about the Cloud
Myth #1 : Everything works better in the cloud
The cloud is not right for every task that your IT infrastructure needs to perform
The public cloud might be right for some activities, private cloud for others and dedicated hosting for legacy applications.
Getting the right overall solution could be best achieved with a combination of two or three options.
Myth #2 : The cloud is insecure
Security concerns are the main barrier to cloud adoption
However, the key is to assess relative risk.
Are local computers, networks, and servers better protected than cloud-based assets? In most cases the answer is no.
The major cloud providers can (and mostly already have) invest more heavily in safety than the average business.
Security through obscurity is discouraged and not recommended from standard bodies.
Myth #3 : Cloud is expensive. Or cheap.
It is not always cheaper to run on the cloud, but it can often be more cost efficient.
The up-front costs of a cloud migration are often sizeable, but the savings over time typically offset the initial expenditure.
Switching to an operational expenditure model rather than a capital expenditure one, may be a desirable outcome for many businesses.
Myth #4 : There’s only one cloud
“The cloud” is singular. This does not help.
There is an innumerable number of clouds, both public and private - even hybrid.
Consumer cloud hosting providers do not store all their data within the same box.
Google, Facebook, Amazon, IBM, Apple, Microsoft - they all run their own cloud.
Myth #5 : The cloud is a fad
The idea that computing should be organized like a public utility goes back as 1961
What’s changed recently is the level of investment in the cloud - and that ensures it is not going away anytime soon.
Gartner predicts that companies will spend $788 billions on public cloud services the next four years.
McKinsey forecasts that cloud technology could have an economic impact of $1.7 to $6.2 trillion a year by 2025.
Myth #6 : The cloud is for small businesses
The cloud is a god-sent companion for small businesses that cannot afford dedicated IT personnel.
It helps them being more productive, competitive and cost efficient.
This simple truth does not mean thought that cloud is not for big organizations.
For cultural, financial and other reasons the adoption of public cloud for larger organization is slow.
However, the adoption of private and hybrid clouds is improving fast.
Myth #7 : Clouds are one-size-fits all
Today, organizations have a huge range of cloud options:
Different deployment models: public, private and hybrid.
Service models: Software as a Service, Platform as a Service and Infrastructure as a Service.
Operating models for a cloud solution: the customer owns and operates it the cloud provider owns and operates it, orthe customer owns the solution but the provider operates it.
Myth #8 : Everything should be automated in the cloud
The beauty of the Cloud is that everything from the infrastructure layer upwards can be automated.
However, this does take a significant level of expertise and understanding of the tools involved.
The fact that everything can be automated does not mean that it should
In practice, the extra effort to build and maintain a fully automated cloud service may not be worth the time and effort.
Myth #9 : The cloud is not reliable
There is a number of major cloud providers outages that have made the news.
It is true that outages can be minimised but not eliminated.
But what about all the outages that don’t make the news? The ones in smaller corporate centers?
Those can be more devastating as there isn't the same level of backup or redundancy.
In practice, several studies have shown that the cloud offers improved service availability compared with the majority local IT solution.
Myth #10: Cloud eliminates traditional Software
In reality, cloud drives market expansion for most enterprise software without eating “too much” of the traditional licensing business.
The LMS+ trends
Cloud
Mobile
Analytics / Reporting
Personalization / Adaptive
Augmented / Virtual Reality
Blended
Social
Gamification / Playful
Microlearning
Visualization / Infographics
LMS and the Enterprise: to Cloud or not to Cloud?
“Should I go with eFrontPro or TalentLMS?”
The deployed / enterprise VS
SaaS question
Decision Making Compass
Functionality
Integration
Customization
Privacy
Cost
Deployment timeline
OR
The Hybrid Approach
Hosted Enterprise LMS
Trying to get the best of the two worlds
Behind corporate firewall, largely customizable, full functionality
Hosted, accessible from anywhere, always-on, better supported and updated
Conclusions
To Cloud or not to Cloud - There’s no real dilemma
Should you need an LMS in a matter of minutes or hours, as-is, with standard functionality and affordable cost, you go SaaS
Should you need heavy functionality, extensive customisation & integration, while you own the infrastructure necessary and have allocated the appropriate time & budget, you go enterprise
Hosted, accessible from anywhere, always-on, better supported and updated
Thank you!
Dimitris Tsingos Co-founder & President, Epignosis LLC
[email protected] http://www.linkedin.com/in/tsingos
