As early as March 2020 — and virtually overnight — IT managers and tech professionals in school districts across the country were faced with the daunting prospect of supporting millions of K–12 students through online platforms in the wake of COVID-19. Today, many institutions are also proposing hybrid teaching environments: a combination of online and in-class scenarios that involve staggered student attendance schedules to better accommodate social distancing in school buildings.

This unprecedented shift, driven by an equally unprecedented global pandemic, has placed an immense strain on schools’ IT backbones. After all, most schools are designed for in-person attendance rather than distributed virtual experiences. As a result, many networks and their supporting IT infrastructure are not sized for this type of higher demand.