OneNote – The Swiss Army Knife of Collaborative Work

Being a good Boy Scout, I appreciate having a single piece of equipment that serves so many purposes. And growing up in the troop, I always admired the Swiss Army Knife with so many functions in one little package.
 
Enter OneNote, a versatile and clever piece of software that does many things on many platforms.

As you go about organizing your digital assets, there seems to always be something that doesn’t quite fit. Over the years I have attempted various ways to track snippets of information I knew would come in handy, but did not have a rational way of organizing it. And for about the same number of years, I have noticed this little program in the Microsoft Office suite – OneNote- that I really did not know what to do with.

Recently my need to organize and my curiosity, compelled by a couple of glowing reviews, caused me to take a more serious look at OneNote. Now I use it every day and it has become an indispensable tool.

One Note is a free form (this is not insignificant) program to collect, store, and share information of every imaginable type. It can do text, images, links, tables, video, and all the variants of digital content of which I am aware.  It can be designated public or private, and can be shared with as many or as few individuals as you like in a number of cloud based storage/sharing platforms.

Free form simply means that you can place your pointer on any location on a page an add content in the exact location you desire. Unlike Word, where you start at top left and work your way down the page adding words and images as you go.And once your information is upon the page, you can easily rearrange it without difficulty
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OneNote is similar in function to an old fashioned Notebook, which has tabs or dividers, and pages. And it is useful to think about it in this manner. You can use it as a scrapbook to collect newspaper articles, photographs, handwritten notes, and drawings. You can use it as a small database to track all of your user names and passwords (and make it password protected). You can create tables which will actually calculate totals, much like a spreadsheet.  Then you can organize the various pages where this information resides in a hierarchical fashion with sub pages.

All this is good, but the most impressive feature of OneNote, for me, is the ability to synchronize my collection of information across all of my endpoints. It does little good to take notes on my iPhone, that are not synced to my laptop, my desktop, or iPad. And when I make changes to a notebook in OneNote while working at my desk, I want that information available on my mobile devices as well.

And now we arrive at the point where, with a little background, you can begin to see the potential of this program in the classroom. Imagine creating an instructional document that you wish to share with your students. You have a great teaching platform with OneNote, especially if you want to collaborate with your students on the document. And I don’t mean just share the document, I refer to real time collaboration, where notes and ideas from each individual in a group are simultaneously experienced by the rest of the group.

OneNote has deep integration into the Windows desktop, with special tools that allow you to take snippets of information from your screen and place them right into one of your OneNote pages. Just press the Windows logo key on your keyboard, followed by the letter “S”. Once you define the area you wish to save, the utility prompts you to select a OneNote location.

Another handy ‘built-in’ feature is the “Print To” function within windows, which allows you to redirect any print output into a OneNote page. This is very handy when you need to make a printed copy of something, but are without a printer.

And finally, the wide variety of “Save As” functions provides a way for you to save OneNote pages in a wide variety of formats, including .pdf.

Microsoft Word is great at composing and editing documents, Excel does a great job of organizing rows and columns of numbers, and PowerPoint does a superb job of creating slide shows. But sometimes you just need a place to organize a few paragraphs, a small group of numbers, a few pictures for clarity, and then add hand written notes. Then you need the ability to share your content with others and gain valuable feedback.

OneNote is the one program you can use to do a little bit of everything.  I ignored it for years, but now use it every day. And unlike the trusty Swiss Army Knife, you can actually get OneNote through security at the airport!

Give it a try, you'll be impressed!

Microsoft vs. Apple – Either, And, or Both?

I spent an interesting afternoon this week with an experienced teacher and department head of a small private school. I was amazed at how effectively he wielded his Apple iPad. And as we began to discuss the way in which he used the iPad in the classroom, I was even more impressed.

I have often opined that the iPad is a great way of consuming content, but you need a PC with a real keyboard to create content. As is often the case, I was only partly correct in my thinking. True, if you are writing a lengthy article and mostly typing words into a computer, any desktop or laptop computer is far more effective that an iPad or tablet (without an attached keyboard).

But how much classroom content consists of pure text?

Today’s students are best engaged with words, images, and video – and all in an interactive fashion that allows an instructor to  emphasize, dissect, highlight, and notate. And once content is created, to quickly post it to a website where students can gain access.

For many teachers, this is an improbable task. And for many organizations this can be a difficult due to institutional policies and infrastructure limitation, but it should not be so.

While there are a number of solutions to this dilemma, it is important to realize a couple of important principles. And this is the answer to either, and, or both. You can easily create and share content with Windows based devices and Apple or iOS devices or Android devices. But any argument about which DEVICE is better is pointless and mostly a waste of time. The best device to create content on is the device YOU are comfortable creating content on.

Here are three things you should consider as you discover the best way to manage content creation and publication in your public or private web space:

1.       Does the platform, solution, or program you are proposing support all types of devices?

2.       Do you have editorial and access control and ownership of the process and the content?

3.       Does the storage facility or website provide access to all browser types?

One of the technologies we recommend is SharePoint. SharePoint is many things: a shared document repository, a public website, and a development platform. And while the core features of SharePoint are impressive, the real potential of SharePoint is its ability accommodate a very wide variety of devices.

“Accommodating a wide variety of devices” is a little vague.  By this I mean that apps built for the various devices have a specific SharePoint publishing feature built into them.

To check this out, open up one of the many apps you have on your device and see if there is not a SharePoint or WebDAV Server option for file storage. Many of the popular applications I use on my iPad and iPhone come with that functionality.

Remember that getting a document into the cloud or online is only half (or less) of the solution. You also  need to provide a link to the content you just published, provide access control, automate the placement of that content into your student’s workspace, and then provide a venue for feedback or grading in the case of a worksheet or assignment.   Oh and then there is the question of document retention, archiving, and lifespan.

Forgive me if I am overcomplicating a simple solution, but from an institutional point of vew there is a little more going on here than a simple Dropbox sharing. At least it seems to me that there should be a little more going on.

It is apparent that Microsoft has embraced quite thoroughly the consumerization of IT. This is the process by which computing becomes less and less device specific. Our infrastructure must embrace and accommodate solutions that are available to anyone at any time on pretty much any device that is internet capable, to be truly effective.

So when someone asks me whether I like Microsoft or Apple, my response is generally YES – Either, And, or Both! And that is a good place to start in having a conversation about content creation, sharing, and management.                          

 

Office 365 & Google Docs Smackdown - And the winner is...

I was recently asked why we recommended Office 365 instead of Google and the collaboration tools called Google Docs, when most Google services are free.  My first thought was to wonder if having the constant interruption of unsolicited advertising is actually a significant hidden cost, but that’s a subject for another day. Thankfully, when you sign up as an organization using Google Docs the advertising stops.

Google Docs and Microsoft Office 365 are a set of web based productivity tools used by many individuals and organizations. From a product origination standpoint, Google Docs evolved out of features developed for individual Gmail users and Microsoft Office 365 was developed as an extension of the popular Microsoft Office suite of programs. The origin of these two systems is an important distinction and should not be overlooked.

Here is a summary of features in both:

Domain based email (you@yourdomain.org):  Google Mail vs.  Exchange Email
Word Processing:     Document vs. Word
Spreadsheets and Calculations:    Spreadsheet  vs. Excel
Presentation:       Presentation  vs. PowerPoint
Note taking/ Other     Form & Drawing vs. One Note
Document Storage, Sharing, and Collaboration:  Google Docs  vs. SharePoint
Instant Messaging & Voice over Internet Protocol: Google Voice  vs. Lync 2010

Microsoft Office has always been about providing advanced document creation and management, while Google and subsequently Google Docs have evolved from the monetization of your eyeballs looking at advertisements. How we got here might be an interesting academic exercise, but you are probably more interested in knowing which is best for your organization. For our purposes today, we will compare Google Docs with the Office 365 E-2 plan, which are roughly equivalent in features and both are free for education.

My purpose is not to do a feature by feature comparison and evaluate relative merits and/or weaknesses. That has been done many times by a number of objective authors. Rather, my purpose is to consider the two systems in their entirety and evaluate the way in which you might work in a more seamless and integrated fashion.

A comparison of features suggests a great deal of similarity in the two products, but there are important differences. The most important differentiator is the integration with your Microsoft technologies.

But wait you say, we are an Apple based organization. Well if that is the case, then you are really not asking the right question at all with respect to this article. But it does make a point.

Before you can decide upon which of the productivity suites, Google Docs or Office 365, is right for you; there needs to be a candid evaluation of your school computing environment. If you are primarily an Apple organization or an Open Source organization, then my opinion is that there is little difference between the two (unless you are using the Mac version of Office).  However, if you are operating primarily in a Microsoft environment, Office 365 is a clear winner. And the reason is the deep and feature rich integration between the Microsoft Desktop and the cloud (Office 365).

What do I mean about integration, well let’s consider the definition:

Integration (from the Latin integer, meaning whole or entire) generally means combining parts so that they work together or form a whole.

Integration in Office 365 takes many forms, perhaps the most important is the ability to move on and off your desktop, laptop, or other device and have your documents with you – even when you are offline (no internet). This takes the form of automatic synchronization of documents and emails once you reconnect. With Google Docs and email if you have no internet connection you are out of business.

Another deep integration feature is the management of complex documents on your desktop.
For most teachers, and certainly all but your most advanced students, the web based tools of either Google Docs or Office 365 web based services will be adequate. But your key administrators, school secretaries, and finance staff will be severely handicapped using only the web based version of Word (Document) or Excel (Spreadsheet). Accordingly, having the capacity to move seamlessly between the simple and the complex within the same interface is crucial. In other words, you can’t create documents with advanced formatting in either web based version, but you can create them on your desktop version of Office and save it to Office 365 without difficulty. Not the case with Google Docs.

I’ll mention one more deep integration feature, with respect to document management specifically. In Office 365, you can save your documents to a folder that appears to be on your computer, but actually resides in the cloud (Office 365). And you can use familiar drag and drop functions to move documents to the various folders in either environment. Furthermore, you can set up the automatic synchronization of those documents.

If you do a simple search on Office 365 vs. Google Docs and you find a wide variety of experts extolling the virtues of Office 365 or Google Docs, depending upon which they favor. And for the record, the reviews I saw tended to favor Office 365 overall, but only slightly.  Now that Google Docs no longer enjoys any kind of cost advantage, perhaps even more so.

However, almost all reviews pointed to the superior functionality of Office 365 when combined with the desktop version of Office Professional (desktop software).

In the world of commercial organizations this is a huge barrier to overcome, but in the world of academic licensing you get Office Professional plus as part of your Microsoft licensing agreement for schools. See my previous article about Open Value Subscription for Education Services (OVS-ES). This weighs the comparison heavily in favor of Office 365.

Let’s add one other significant factor to this system level comparison. The Live@EDU services, which provide cloud based email, document sharing, and social functions for students is now part of Office 365 and designed specifically for education, not business in general. Integrating Live@EDU into your school provides email, cloud based storage, collaboration tools for lesson material between students and teachers, and a controlled social platform for student creativity. These are enormously helpful tools, particularly for upper grade levels. In fact some have used the Live@EDU services as the foundation for a robust Learning Management System.

Finally, management and support is far, far superior in Office 365. For starters, you get unlimited technical support with a live human being – not a search engine. And the increased level of detail for administering the services is substantial. In fact, you’ll probably need to have some level of expertise on staff to help you manage this because you are actually controlling to a large extent the actual server environment hosting your services.

Oh, and one last thing.  A core element of your data management plan, which should have oversight policies with respect to your schools intellectual property, should address how you control data.  Google docs accounts normally evolve out of individual Gmail accounts and therefore (by definition) violate the most basic tenants of your data management plan.

If you have ever experienced a legal discovery, you will understand how difficult it can be to gain access to communication by staff members who are using primarily their personal email accounts or personally owned Google Docs accounts.  True, an enterprise wide version Google Doc’s can be setup, but trying to do that after a user has years of mostly personal stuff in the system may not be an easy task.

Summary

When you consider these two cloud based productivity suites as a complex communication tool, you have to consider more than just the list of features and the cost. You must consider your data management plan, the makeup of your users (and their computing preferences), the organizations computing environment, and how well the service will integrate into your infrastructure.

Most comparisons look at a list of features and do a side by side comparison, and while that is helpful, it seems that it ignores the one obvious question.  Here’s the question:  In which format do you create the significant documents used in your organization? Statistics still suggest a large majority of you use Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, and Microsoft Power Point. And to a lesser extent you may use other products in the Office Professional Plus 2010 suite.

Do you honestly think that using Google docs to manage Microsoft originated documents would be a superior solution?
 
Admittedly, the individual Gmail account and related Google doc features for individuals are impressive and useful. But extending that organization wide is a fundamentally different matter.  Personal Gmail accounts are entirely inadequate for use in a public school setting (same goes for Hotmail or yahoo mail). Privacy issues alone should give you pause. But ultimately the administration of the school has no control over individual owned email accounts or Google Docs accounts.

If you ultimately decide to use Google Docs, please be sure to set it up properly with appropriate groups, permissions, and access control. Do it as an organization, not as a collection of individuals, and incorporate your schools domain name into the service.

And let’s end on a positive note – a shout out for Google docs. It is a far superior solution to using nothing, and it is a great solution for those using email accounts included with their website hosting service, drop box, ever note, or the other variety of sharing solutions.

It is however, a distance second class competitor to Microsoft Office 365 in my humble opinion. In all probability, the popularity of Google Docs is due to the features that users loved about Microsoft Office, but were unwilling to pay for. And frankly that used to be a good reason…. but no longer.

Virtualization - Part 1: What is Virtualization and do I need it?

This article reminds me of a little boy who went to his father with a question, to which his father replied "Son, why don't you go ask your mom?" Knowing all too well this outcome, the little boy answered in exasperation, " Because, I didn't really want to know that much!"

The buzzword of "Virtualization" may just be this kind of subject for you. But more and more service providers are doing some kind of virtualization, so you might want to at least have a conceptual view.

In all honesty, I think some service providers virtualize infrastructures to make them so complicated that the school is held virtually captive (pun intended) and fearful of trying to manage the systems for fear they will disappear into thin air. Which, come to think of it, is actually quite possible...

Let's try to reduce the concept of virtualization sufficient to enable a decision about the technology and if it is right for you. Be patient this will take a few articles.

A virtual computer is a digital representation of another fully functional computer (the guest), which resides inside of a physical computer (the host). Wikipedia defines it thus: A virtual machine (VM) is a "completely isolated guest operating system installation within a normal host operating system".

Virtualization evolved from a fundamental economic requirement to reduce the cost of buying, housing, powering, and securing (think backups) of computers; mainly server class computers. It has been an exceptionally profitable undertaking.

I recall visiting one data center, and this was not a small single story building, with floors and floors of nothing but server computers. On a given floor there were rows and rows of racks filled with stacks of server computers, probably numbering in the thousands of actual physical servers, normally in a "blade" form factor so they could put more servers in a given rack.

There was an entire staff of network engineers moving through the rows doing some sort of maintenance, upgrades, or complete replacements. It was actually quite impressive, along with being very noisy and uncomfortably warm.

If I were to revisit that facility today, I would expect to see 75% less space being used to accomplish the same mission. Instead of thousands of servers, there might be hundreds. But, each of those servers would be running 10 Virtual Servers, delivering an equivalent in computing capacity.

Virtualization allows companies to dramatically reduce the cost of real estate, hardware, electricity, heating and cooling, and administration of data centers - (roughly in that order of savings). It is a mature and well established industry, with a few key software companies owning most of the market share. The solutions of which I am familiar are VMWare and Microsoft.

What is really cool, if you are a Geek, is that you can actually store an "image" of a virtual machine on a computer hard drive and launch it into action at a moments notice. When you do so, it's like magic - "poof"; and another fully functional computer appears on your network. This Virtual Disk Image (VMWare) or Virtual Hard Drive (Microsoft) can be moved easily to any host capable of powering it up.

Virtual machines have opened up all kinds of possibilities in managing technology at your school. But they are not without cost and may not always be practical in your particular situation. Proceed with care and it may save you a bundle, proceed carelessly and it may cost you your job when everything blows up

We'll explore a few of these ideas in the coming weeks.

Note: I am not an expert in either VMWare or Microsoft Hyper-V, leaders of virtual machine technology. This is not indended to be technical document, rather an overview for our many Charter School Administrators who  may really not want to know that much!

Why you should ban USB drives at school

After spending hours restoring desktops recently, which a clever student had booted from a rogue USB flash drive loaded with Malware, it dawned on me that the convenience of these handy little gadgets might just be overrated. And when combined with the benefits of the cloud, specifically the free cloud available to students via the Office 365 (live@edu) service, the risks vs. benefit ratio has clearly tipped towards risk.

I know it seems like such a simple way to transport data like homework, projects, photos, etc, but it also just as easy to transport utilities that can destroy the hard drives on your computers, take direct control of the underlying computer hardware, or modify computer registry errors in a way that is nearly impossible to repair.

You may have the very best security practices in place, such as a perimeter Unified Threat Management (UTM) device, endpoint Anti-Virus protection, and separate VLans (network isolation), and yet be vulnerable to a meltdown caused by a free download from the Internet attached directly onto a PC in your school. It is nearly impossible to guarantee computer security if there is physical access to the device.

Banning USB devices is one of the simplest and most effective ways to reduce the cost of network administration in your school.

But aside from the security aspects, there are also some real practical benefits of tossing those USB drives. Let’s take a look at the advantages to see if they don’t, in your specific circumstance, outweigh the benefits.

Here are the top 10 reasons why you should ban USB drives at your school, in favor of the cloud:

• 10) Eliminate the cost of purchasing the hardware. At $5.00 - $75.00 ea. (depending on capacity), you could save a bundle of money.
• 9) Reduce the cost of managing the devices – tracking these identical (presumably) looking devices and accounting for them can be burdensome.
• 8) Avoid the cost of replacing the devices – responsibility for replacing the drives when they are lost; placing identity (ownership) upon them is difficult.
• 7) Reduce plagiarism - unauthorized sharing of work is nearly impossible to detect and prevent while using a flash drive.
• 6) Improve collaboration – accountable sharing of work is possible in the cloud, impossible on a flash drive.
• 5) Reduce support costs – time spent unnecessarily managing infected or otherwise misconfigured hardware is a real cost.
• 4) Lower the cost of your infrastructure – spending money on student servers can in most cases be completely eliminated.
• 3) Improving teacher to student interaction – with cloud based services, teachers can simultaneously push information to an entire class of students.
• 2) Increase student access to teachers – individual work can be made available to teachers with no extra effort by the student other than saving the work to their private cloud space.
• 1) Eliminating the excuse of “I forgot my homework, it's on my flash drive!” Homework is always a device away (computer, tablet, phone, etc). Presuming it is done, of course!

There you have it, ten solid reasons to ban flash drives from your school.

Now if you are more gently persuaded, have plenty of resources, and don’t want to offend anyone’s sensitivities, you could adopt a more persuasive approach to the matter by making cloud services available to your students and making flash drives subject to inspection if used on school computers.

Given the chance, smart students will quickly realize the tremendous advantages of using their own private cloud and soon leave their flash drives at home.

Data Management Plan

Sometimes the most basic concepts can really trip you up. That happened last week when a new school was asked to come up with a Data Management Plan for a grant application.

They reached out to us for insight, and here is our take on the subject. If you are struggling to describe a way to corral those wild 1's and zealous 0's, perhaps this will help. Please feedback your insight and suggestions.

Definitions

Data: digital information in any format utilized by a school for the management of people, processes, and things (resources) associated in any capacity with the school.

Management: awareness, oversight, and control of the aforementioned data.

 

Overview

Data management planning addresses three core components:

1. Ownership and oversight: Managing both the data and the resources that control information systems;
2. Data Security and compliance: Protecting  privacy, controlling access, and securing resources from within and without;
3. Data retention, archiving, backup and disaster recovery planning: Assuring data access in any circumstance for the timeframes specified by law and by policy.

These three core components are intentionally broad to address the wide variety of choice associated with implementing information systems which house, transport, and protect data. However, there are basic standards driven by industry, law, and state education agency guidelines that should be considered standard practice, as individual school boards implement policy.

The purpose of this document is to set forth broad concepts associated with Data Management Planning for Charter Schools and to provide a basic checklist to identify weakness.

Ownership and Oversight

Schools should have direct ownership or contractually delegated control of all resources which are used to store, route, and distribute data. Common examples of these resources are domain names, web hosting accounts, email systems, and hosted applications that store data in the cloud.

The seemingly small matter of legal ownership can cause enormous challenges if mismanaged. It is very common for well-intended parents, volunteers, or even board members to have control of these resources.  However, it can be very difficult to regain control of these resources if problems arise or relationships sour.

Imagine the damage a disgruntled former staff member or parent could inflict if they own your domain name, website hosting account, email system, or other hosted application. Don’t laugh, we have seen it happen.

Checklist:

• Do a simple ”who is” query on the internet and determine who is the registrant of your school's domain name. Is that individual or company still associated with your school? And do you have long-term confidence in that relationship? Is the address and contact information current?
• Determine who hosts your school website. Who owns the hosting account, who has access to control the web server (usually a control panel)? This is not the same as access to the website itself.
• Evaluate the email accounts used to communicate with students, parents, and the community. If your teaching staff is using Hotmail, Yahoo, Gmail, or other consumer based email system you have no control over the contents of those systems. In any kind of Open Records query or legal discovery, you will be unable to search messages without the express permission of the owner of that email account. This could be both embarrassing and costly.
• Review any hosted (Cloud) applications such as a backups, management systems (eRM or IEP), or desktop management systems. Do you have ownership of those accounts and termination processes when managed by a service provider?
• Determine who owns your social media accounts. If it is not you or someone in your organization, takes steps now to gain control of those accounts.

Data Security and Compliance

Fundamental to managing data is controlling access to that data in order to comply with privacy laws, ensure integrity in the education process, protect students and staff from data breaches, restrict sensitive or confidential information to authorized users, and provide safeguards for financial transactions. Infrastructure choices will impact these objectives and should be considered well in advance of any solution implemented.

Many of these challenges can be avoided by using the built in security and access controls provided in a  Microsoft Active Directory based network. But primary schools may find this security model too complicated. Other solutions may need to be considered.

Email systems should have central administrative capacity as well as the ability to do Open Records requests or legal discovery searches. These systems also need to be capable of addressing the wide range of employee changes without difficulty. Confidential email messages need to be archived and retained for the appropriate periods of time, and email destined for former staff needs to be redirected to an administrative user or replacement email account.

Computers and users need to have several layers of security protection starting at the perimeter and ending on the device in order to protect the data sets being accessed. This starts with a CIPA compliant firewall and is enhanced with added layers of protection through security updates or patches and anti-malware services (virus, spyware, malware protection).

Checklist:

• Review the age and feature set of your firewall, new generation firewalls (termed Unified Threat Management devices) provide a wide range of security services that directly impact data management. One of the foundation services is Child Internet Protection Act (CIPA) compliance, which is a basic  component of eRate funding eligibility.
• Review your device based security services (Virus and Malware protection) and consider enforcing security compliance as a condition of internet access. This is a simple process with new generation UTM devices (firewalls).
• Consider implementing Active Directory services into your network environment if you are not doing so already. Couple this with group policies and automatic security patch updates.
• Avoid using personal email for school business, this not only dilutes your brand, but could be very embarrassing in the event of an Open Records Act inquiry or legal proceding.

Data Archiving, Retention, and Disaster Recovery Planning

The most frequent data management deficiency is the lack of planning for the retention of data and the lack of testing backup systems for the recovery of data and associated information systems in the event of a disaster. Typically, retention planning never happens and eventually, hardware failures always occur. Both deficiencies are an important subject for consideration in a data management plan.

Data retention requirements vary by subject matter and user class, each data set should be identified and described in terms of the following four criteria:

1. File format – the format type used to store the data (Word, Excel, pdf, database, image, etc.);
2. Archive length – the time required to retain data;
3. Storage location – the physical location of the stored data;
4. Access control – the security and user permissions associated with the data.

In a well managed environment, data is centrally managed, automatically backed up, and secured with a reasonable level of password protection and/or encryption. Far too often, we see data scattered across a wide variety of staff resources, poorly structured, improperly secured, and inadequately backed up.

The tasks of data archiving, retention, backup, and disaster recovery planning are really connected components of a well structured data management plan. The simplest and most effective way to address these tasks is to view them as a continuum, or a data life cycle – data is created, stored, then deleted at appropriate times, with appropriate security measures during each phase.

Checklist:

• Take inventory of data associated with your school and describe each data set by the above criteria.
•  Seriously question any tape backup systems that are not managed by a highly competent and trained network engineer – 80% of all tape back-up systems fail during recovery.
• Take advantage of the data retention features found in information systems you use. For example, there is no better email archiving, backup, and security solution than Microsoft Exchange Server – the program used to create the email system. Even better is when the Exchange environment is hosted offsite in Tier 3 data centers hosted by Microsoft.
• Consider a single system to manage this process to the extent possible, it will simplify your planning an  execution.
• Test, test, test – always do a full disaster recovery test to validate your plans and document your processes.

Summary

Data management planning need not be an overwhelming project. Rather it should be the logical conclusion to well-designed information systems. When implementing any technology solution, always consider it in light of your data management requirements. Be sure the system compliments your plan, but does not complicate it.

Keep legal and logical control of your data resources, ensure data is secure from all types of threats, and establish clear policies for data lifecycles – including the destruction of data when appropriate.

Contact us if you need assistance drafting a data management plan specific to your school, which may be required for your initial charter application or a grant.