Internet2 Kicks Off 2025 with a Major Cloud Scorecard Update
I think going forward, the Cloud Scorecard is going to continue to be relevant because we, the community, have a vested stake and interest in this… and we're the ones who are going to be using it.
I'm both a contributor, I would say, and a consumer. I'm contributing to the overall process of development — and then I'm also consuming the output. I've certainly got a stake in the Cloud Scorecard's success, as do so many others in the community. I think that's the key to keeping it relevant.
Grush: Finally I'd like to ask Sean, what are your wishes for the Cloud Scorecard service going forward? What have you resolved to work towards?
O'Brien: I'll share my three New Year's resolutions for the Cloud Scorecard.
Resolution number one is simply getting feedback that this resource is providing value to both the supply and demand sides. I'm encouraged that the Cloud Scorecard presents an opportunity for vendors to showcase their products and the ways their products meet higher education standards. And it's exciting that higher education institutions are able to find solutions they want as they derive value from the responses we've collected.
Resolution number two, we would love to get more vendors into the Cloud Scorecard. The more vendors who are in there, the more value I think the scorecard has in terms of people being able to see options and find services. And that's particularly helpful for early-stage vendors, if you think in terms of having a scorecard done before someone in procurement or a leader in central IT gets asked about your service. Already having your scorecard available is very advantageous.
My third resolution — and this is already in development today — is to launch natural language search for the Cloud Scorecard, to enable people to ask detailed questions about specific services or a specific technology and get a response just like they would expect from an AI chatbot. We look forward to highly conversational search and chatbot-style functionality coming soon. In fact, we're close to being ready to go live on that. Bottom line, I think that as we focus on helping users interact with the platform and keep our sights set on community-driven development, we'll get there sooner than we might expect.
[Editor's note: Image by AI. Microsoft Image Creator by Designer]
About the Author
Mary Grush is Editor and Conference Program Director, Campus Technology.