Legal Context

A wide range of national and international legislation and regulations related to information e.g. Freedom of information, Data protection, Anti - terrorism legislation, Intellectual Property and Copyright legislation have had a significant impact on institutional strategies, which are often not addressed as part of an IT strategy.

Technology Context

The ubiquity of the Internet, ever increasing computer power in smaller and cheaper devices and high-speed broadband connectivity via a range of services and devices are enabling information storage and transfer to be faster , more integrated, more customised and accessible anywhere, anytime.

Students are used to owning, accessing, and controlling technology in their personal lives and they want to be able to integrate this technology into their student lives. They expect to use their own equipment to engage in learning in an institutional context and to personalise institutional services (JISC/MORI). There is also a growing demand from learners for streaming media, mobile computing, podcasting and Web 2.0 (UCISA 2008).

Students are being offered free services by a range of external providers with a variety of features and capacity that institutions cannot hope to match, students are voting with their feet and some institutions are outsourcing some of these services.

Cloud Computing provides the potential for almost infinite flexible and scalable external computing and processing services, which may offer not only cost savings but the ability to connect with customers, partners and suppliers as never before. Services such as Google Apps and further development of Web 2.0 technologies and virtual worlds such as Second Life are challenging conventional concepts of information and identity.

Service Oriented Architecture and open standards offer the potential for integrated services across institutional processes. Alongside open source software they offer institutions the opportunity to create 'customised service based' systems to better meet the needs of their students, staff and stakeholders.