It was once a daunting task to manage thousands of student, staff and faculty devices in higher education. It became even more difficult as colleges embraced hybrid learning and remote work, introducing personal devices into the mix and allowing work across multiple time zones and platforms. For IT departments, this presented a multitude of challenges and security concerns, not to mention drain on manpower.

In the past, managing devices might have meant literally going from computer lab to computer lab, with IT staff members physically downloading updates and other software onto each device. But now, keeping the whole ecosystem online can be done digitally.

This is where software asset management (SAM) programs come in. These are highly organized systems for managing a variety of devices, supporting each step of the lifecycle. Products like Microsoft Intune, Jamf and ServiceNow offer these capabilities, and they might be just the solution that higher ed needs to level up efficiency and safety across administrative, educator and even student devices.

In a recent CDW white paper, experts suggest optimizing logistics and funding to rethink how institutions deploy, manage and sustain device programs. The authors point to shrinking post-pandemic budgets and supply chain issues, all amid the backdrop of a “proliferation of devices,” which can enhance user experiences but also cause new challenges.

Here’s what IT staffs in higher education should consider as they look to implement a school asset management or software asset management (SAM) program.

Today, Microsoft announced that it is changing the online storage it allots to Microsoft 365 for Education customers. Additionally, it will retire its Office 365 A1 Plus program for Education in one year.

“Today Microsoft is introducing changes to our offerings across our Microsoft 365 for Education suite that will place limits on storage and retire the Office A1 Plus program,” the Microsoft Education teams writes in the announcement post. “The increase in consumption of technology in education has made free, unlimited storage plans prohibitive, and become a large vector for security risks and fraud. Our goal with these changes is to continue to offer education customers generous allowances, new tools to support these changes, and time for thoughtful transitions.”

Education customers with Microsoft 365 or Office 365 will see big changes to their storage allotments when their contracts renew, and no sooner than August 1, 2024. Going forward, all school tenants will receive 100 TB of free pooled storage across OneDrive, SharePoint, and Exchange, with an additional 50 GB or 100 GB of pooled storage per paid user for A3 and A5 subscriptions, respectively. The firm is offering these customers a set of free tools that will help them manage their data and delete files that are no longer needed. And schools will be able to purchase additional incremental storage (or explore cost-effective Azure storage options).

Microsoft is also retiring its Office 365 A1 Plus program for Education effective August 1, 2024. This is a free offering that includes the Office desktop apps for qualified schools that purchase Office for their faculty and staff. After existing licenses expire, schools can move to Office 365 A1, a no-cost option that includes the Office web apps, or a choice of Microsoft 365 for Education suites at “significant discounts off commercial pricing.”

Tied to the storage change noted above, users on the no-cost Office 365 A1 subscription will be limited to a maximum of 100 GB of OneDrive storage per user within the school’s 100 TB of pooled storage, effective February 1, 2024.