CloudSwyft rolls out virtual lab solutions for STI schools

CLOUDSWYFT has deployed its virtual lab solutions to STI Education Systems Holdings, Inc. schools on Oct. 18, an official of the education technology firm said, as he provided a preview of its future offerings including “virtual desk spaces.”

“Deployment was successful and the students had already accessed it successfully,” Dann Angelo De Guzman, founder and chief executive officer at CloudSwyft, said in a briefing on Tuesday.

CloudSwyft provides access to multiple software applications, which students may use at any time at their convenience. Universities may also customize the lab infrastructure it aims to offer to tailor to their respective programs.

Through CloudSwyft, students may access applications such as Autodesk, Inc.’s AutoCAD, Microsoft 365, and Adobe Systems through their universities’ virtual lab regardless of their computer systems. Only “at least 2 Mbps (megabits per second)” will be needed to use the platform.

The opportunity with STI was a “blessing in disguise,” as the institution was said to be looking for lab management platforms as it continues to offer educational programs amid the pandemic.

“They have been looking for a solution that can solve this problem since last year and they’ve only found out about us when one of our philanthropic and social impact efforts that we’ve done with Microsoft Global Schools Initiative,” Mr. De Guzman said.

“Some of their faculty members were actually recipients of those social impact efforts of one of the nonprofit organizations in the Philippines that we’ve worked with and that’s where they saw the CloudSwyft platforms and that’s where they saw the virtual lab space solutions and how it works,” he added.

Mr. De Guzman added that the partnership with STI Education will be “long-term,” and feedback regarding the use of its platform will be collected after a semester.

CloudSwyft said it is trying to “hand-hold” schools and universities as they immerse themselves into the platform. CloudSwyft said it offers free proof of concepts and free pilot-testing for a limited time.

“It’s inevitable for these educational institutions to be skeptic, to be anxious or concerned about the bandwidth infrastructure, the network, is this something that will work because this is totally new for them and the pandemic is totally new for everybody,” Mr. De Guzman said.

Aside from the virtual lab platforms, CloudSwyft is also offering “future-ready skills solutions” where the virtual labs feature content for technology skills courses to aid educational programs and may also be availed of by corporate clients.

CloudSwyft describes “virtual desk spaces” as similar to virtual labs for educational institutions. However, this will be designed for office employees who are working from home.

“This is targeted for enterprise and corporate where we will be the more cost-efficient and the more scalable, easier, simpler alternative compared to the traditional expensive VDI (virtual desktop infrastructure) solutions that many companies or many enterprise organizations are using nowadays,” Mr. De Guzman said. — Keren Concepcion G. Valmonte