A couple of weeks ago, the Commission on Higher Education (CHEd) announced that it would make flexible learning a policy even beyond the coronavirus pandemic. This would mean that, moving forward, educational institutions have the freedom to adopt a combination of digital and non-digital technology as teaching tools depending on what works for their respective academic communities.

Since then, a spirited debate regarding the soundness of this decision has erupted. But regardless which side of that argument you fall on, there is no denying the power of technology to bring about significant social good, including preparing young Filipinos for their future careers.

Cloud technology, in particular, is a useful investment for meeting the many challenges of today and a post-pandemic world. And when combined with other new and emerging technologies, cloud could make a significant social impact where the stakes are high and the need is real: education, agriculture, and transportation mobility.

Teach the world

Before the pandemic, our major universities had clear divisions between the online and in-person educational experience they offer (where it was offered), and often with different tuition rates, degree requirements and faculty compensation. The pandemic effectively erased that division, exposing deep inequities related to high-speed internet access and collaboration tools.

No doubt local internet service providers and telcos need to step up to address the serious problem of connectivity, and then there is the issue of getting the hardware in students' hands, especially those without the means to buy their own.

On the part of learning institutions, they can work with cloud vendors and embrace cloud solutions that will allow them to offer standardized, repeatable educational experiences at a lower cost barrier to entry: There would be no need to invest in bulky, expensive servers; in many cases, all their professors and students need is an app and a mobile device to begin teaching and learning. Using the cloud, universities can also create automated processes to track and increase student engagement – another issue that has cropped up as learning shifted to the virtual space.

Feed the world

In the field of agriculture, cloud technology is being used with satellite data, agricultural IoT, and edge computing to enable smart agriculture, a $11.45 billion business in 2018 that is expected to expand to $30 billion by 2027, with increased focus on livestock monitoring, disease recognition, and farm resource efficiency.

The demand for 'smart farming' is intensifying as the global population continues to grow while natural resources needed to feed that population are increasingly at risk. Using cloud technology in tandem with Internet of Things (IoT), satellites, drones, wireless, and wireline technologies can enable the kind of data processing farming organizations need to practice precision agriculture.

For example, using cloud solutions to analyze weather, drone, satellite, and other data to understand the moisture level of the soil, farmers can apply the right amount of water to specific zones of their land, making better use of irrigation and saving water where they are able. Cloud-enabled farming can also potentially reduce food waste, which tragically we have seen a lot of during our country's stretches of strict lockdowns. Analytics for retailers can manage ordering based on past consumption and also adjust based on dramatic changes to consumption similar to what we have seen during this pandemic, making sure that the inventory is made up of just the right amount of produce.

Move the world

Deloitte has been tracking the exciting trends in mobility for some time now, and one research showed that data traffic associated with mobility and transportation could grow to 9.4 exabytes every month by 2030. Cloud will be a critical component in mining this rich data in order to come up with relevant and sustainable mobility solutions, especially in the urban environment.

A network of cloud, IoT, the edge, and wireless/wireline technologies can give the public sector more insight into managing everything from safety, emmissions, and congestion to transportation convenience, access, and equity.

It will be particularly interesting to see if and how some of our major cities will use these emerging technologies especially as biking continues to be a popular transportation option during this period of restricted mobility. Last year, the cities of Marikina, Pasig and San Juan were recognized as the most bike-friendly cities in Metro Manila during the first Mobility Awards. Already having that mindset of support for cycling as a more sustainable and cost-efficient transportation option, these cities may be the ideal environments to test-drive cloud technology as an enabler of mobility.

Organizations that have been disrupted by the coronavirus pandemic have, for the most part, turned to technology to ensure continuity of operations. They needed to. But in addressing this need, organizations and institutions can also realize some social good. As we all work to adjust to the 'new normal' by harnessing existing and emerging technologies, let us not miss the opportunity to use those same technologies to create a new 'better' normal.

The author is a Risk Advisory Partner at Navarro Amper and Co., a member of the Deloitte Asia Pacific Network. For comments or questions, email jlavalll@deloitte.com. Deloitte Asia Pacific Ltd. a company limited by guarantee and a member firm of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Ltd. Members of Deloitte Asia Pacific Ltd. and their related entities, each of which are separate and independent legal entities, provide services from more than 100 cities across the region, including Auckland, Bangkok, Beijing, Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Hong Kong, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, Manila, Melbourne, Osaka, Seoul, Shanghai, Singapore, Sydney, Taipei, Tokyo and Yangon.