Colleges that moved from on-campus classrooms to remote learning due to COVID-19 had to quickly upgrade networks to support new VPN connections for remote access. Fortunately, many online-learning platforms rely on cloud-based applications that don’t put additional strain on campus networks.
For example, The College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Mass., added extra VPN user licenses for students and staff now working from home. It also ramped up its VPN-server capacity, according to Dr. Ellen J. Keohane, the college’s CIO. “We’re definitely seeing higher demand on that.”