What does it mean to “go to the cloud”?

The cloud refers to software and services that run on the Internet instead of on a server at WashU or even locally on your computer. Most cloud services can be accessed through a Web browser like Safari or Google Chrome, or even a mobile app. If you’ve ever streamed a movie on Netflix, accessed email on your phone, ordered something from Amazon or retrieved a file from WUSTL Box or Teams, you’ve accessed information from the cloud.  

Cloud-based systems give us access to real-time data and are easier to update and support. Workday pushes out new functionality and fixes to its clients twice annually, so we’ll always be operating on the latest version of the system. Moving to the cloud also means that we are buying what is essentially a shared system, so we can’t customize the way we’ve been able to with our home-grown systems. While there are tradeoffs with this approach, we are confident that Workday Student is the right solution for WashU.   

Visit the About page for more information on the benefits of moving to Workday Student.