Forecast 2014: Boost your mobile bandwidth

At the same time, the university is committed to moving as many administrative and student services to the cloud as possible, including the main ERP and student management systems.

Mobile and cloud computing often are the first interaction points that prospective students, faculty and staff have with the university. "Access drives enrollment, research funding and graduation rates. Being able to easily access applications from a 4-inch device and/or the cloud gives us a competitive advantage," Howard says.

Forecast 2014

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Eric Hanselman, an analyst at 451 Research, says bandwidth should be a primary consideration for any organization considering a wholesale move to the cloud. "It can be tempting to take all core applications and key databases and run them in a cloud environment," he says, but if you don't have high-powered wireless access, high-capacity connectivity and secondary circuits, you'll likely face problems that can critically affect your operations.