Ten Years of Hosted Cloud Operations
In May 2016, SurveyDIG launched its first cloud-hosted SaaS environment for a regional public university. Prior to that deployment, campus evaluation systems typically lived on local campus servers, dependent on internal data center infrastructure and local database administrators.
Moving that first institution to our cloud hosting environment was a major turning point. Ten years later, that deployment demonstrated how cloud-delivered evaluations can combine high availability with deep student information system integration.
Surviving Two Competitive RFPs Over a Decade
In higher education, state institutions are typically required by procurement rules to re-bid major software contracts every few years. Long-term vendor relationships cannot coast on habit; they have to earn renewal through rigorous evaluation committees representing faculty senates, IT directors, and academic affairs.
Over a 10-year partnership, SurveyDIG won two consecutive competitive RFPs at that institution:
- The First Renewal: Validated that moving from on-premise hosting to cloud SaaS eliminated server maintenance burdens for campus IT while maintaining high student participation.
- The Second Renewal: Proved system resilience across peak traffic surges—processing tens of thousands of student evaluations during compressed finals week windows without downtime.
The Reality of Higher Ed Procurement
Institutional technology rarely stands still. After a full decade of uninterrupted service, the university eventually transitioned—not because the evaluation workflow failed, but because of a broader institutional trend: enterprise software bundling. When an institution negotiates a multi-million-dollar campus-wide suite contract that includes a basic survey module as a throw-in, administrative pressure to consolidate licenses often overrides department-level preferences.
That is an understandable administrative decision. But a ten-year track record built across two competitive procurement cycles proves that specialized evaluation software delivers dependability that generic add-on survey tools struggle to match.
What Real Higher Ed SaaS Reliability Means
Hosting course evaluations in the cloud is different from hosting standard business applications:
- Extreme Traffic Spikes: 80% of term volume occurs within a narrow two-week window right before finals. The infrastructure must handle heavy concurrent student traffic without slowing down.
- Tight Registrar Deadlines: Grade submission and report release windows are non-negotiable. Reports must remain securely locked until grades are rolled, then release cleanly to deans and department chairs.
- Direct Engineering Support: When a registrar or department coordinator has a question during finals week, they cannot wait 48 hours for a support ticket. They need direct answers from engineers who understand academic terms and SIS data feeds.
As we mark ten years since our first SaaS deployment, SurveyDIG remains dedicated to that core principle: delivering dependable cloud evaluations that respect academic timelines and campus governance.