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We should consider superfast broadband alongside power, heat and water as being fundamental requirements for this century, argues Brigantia’s Iain Shaw in this opinion piece about the changing back to school market.
We have many members that supply schools with everything from connectivity, networking and managed firewalls through to a wide range of hardware including such topical devices as 3D printers and consumables.
The summer holidays are very important for the delivery and installation of business won in the lead up to the long vacation so everything is ready for the start of the new academic year.
Brigantia predicts that over the next few years there will continue to be a demand for laptops and desktops although we also feel that there will be a massive growth in demand for other networked devices and managed solutions.
Schools will move toward both local and full cloud solutions depending on the quality of broadband infrastructure that is available. As we progress to an ever more joined up world the types of devices that will connect will grow with the applications that schools wish to run both within the school and remotely for staff, pupils and parents.
The educational experience of the next generation of school students will only be limited by a failure of broadband infrastructure providers such as BT to upgrade their entire network to allow for the delivery of superfast broadband at reasonable cost to all parts of the country.
It is of national importance that superfast broadband is made available for the benefit of all school students and I would argue this is of far more importance than buying expensive TV sports rights. We should consider superfast broadband alongside power, heat and water as being fundamental requirements for this century, and any one of these not being there is a serious infrastructure failure that requires government intervention.
About the author
Iain Shaw is divisional director at dealer services group Brigantia.
