In an effort to give higher education a leadership position in managed technology services, Apogee acquires Cumulus Technology Services Inc.

By CIOReview | Friday, January 20, 2023

By acquiring SecureCloud, Apogee expands its managed technology services offering for colleges and universities, highlighting its commitment to be the choice of managed technology services providers

Apogee, the leading provider of managed technology services for higher education, has completed the acquisition of Cumulus Technology Services Inc., a cloud service provider for higher education based in Ventura, Calif., Cumulus Technology Services is an expert in secure cloud services for higher education and is an Amazon Web Services (AWS) Select Consulting Partner. Achieving innovation and transformation is a core objective of Apogee's managed technology partnership. Higher education IT innovation can now be enabled through Apogee's cloud-based managed networking and IT services, improving student experiences and enabling institutions to compete more effectively.

IT teams in higher education face intensifying difficulties hiring and retaining IT talent, despite the growth in the role of technology in attracting and retaining students. The need for offshoring IT operations, controlling costs, improving operational efficiency, and developing innovative solutions is high. Higher ed can now benefit from managed cloud services more quickly, thereby unlocking innovation time as promised by Apogee

Apogees commitment to empowering colleges and universities to do and achieve more is the driving force behind the acquisition of Cumulus Technology Services, said Apogee Chief Executive Officer Scott Drossos. I am thrilled to welcome this team of higher ed experts to Apogee. We have the services, talent, and scale to be a catalyst for change and guide higher education customers on their digital transformation journey. I look forward to extending the Apogee managed services portfolio into the cloud and hybrid cloud to enhance the security and performance of higher ed applications, data, and infrastructure.

Apogee managed technology services will integrate the following acquired services in the coming months:

Security, data center, and cloud management expertise are now available with Secure Cloud Services from Apogee. Providing colleges and universities with even greater performance, scalability, resilience, and security of their applications, infrastructure, and data will be a key advantage for Apogee thanks to Cumulus Technology Services' extensive enterprise resource planning (ERP) cloud migration and containerization expertise, Backup-as-a-Service (BaaS), Disaster Recovery-as-a-Service (DRaaS), and Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS).

By integrating and synchronizing institutional ERP systems such as Ellucian Banner® with learning management systems, such as Canvas by Instructure, Cumulus Data Adapter (CDA) greatly enhances IT administration efficiency and student experience. With CDA, IT professionals are able to streamline student data integration challenges and improve the student experience for class registration and attendance by offering it as a managed service.

Providing security services enhances Apogee's security expertise and experience, enabling the company to provide college security assessments that have been proven in battle; preparing for ransomware incidents with short- and long-term plans, budgeting, technology selection, implementation, and staffing; and preparing for disaster recovery.

Cumulus Technology Services offers a broad range of consulting services that are tailored to higher education customers, said Candace Jones, vice president, Business and Administrative Services, Pasadena Area Community College District. Their wealth of experience supporting institutions of all sizes coupled with their strong AWS expertise and knowledge allows institutions to quickly realize their technology goals.