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Cloud timetabling isn't Anywhere, it's here!

At CELCAT’s recent International User conference I had the privilege of announcing the launch of CELCAT’s new cloud service, Timetabler  Connect.

Connect is designed to host Timetabler  10, Calendar 3 and the web API in the Microsoft Azure cloud.

We look forward to making future announcements about the release of these applications for private cloud and on-premise environments. For now, our focus is on developing CELCAT’s 5th generation timetabling tool for our cloud environment.

The launch announcement highlighted the synchronicity between hardware and software advances and Timetablers development. Over the past 30 years Timetabler  has experienced several quantum leaps forward.

1st generation timetabling

This occurred BC, Before CELCAT. It covers manual and paper-based timetabling, as well as the use of Word tables and Excel spreadsheets.

2nd generation timetabling

Timetabler  2 & 3 were single user clients created in DOS. They were basic and didn’t have a friendly GUI. Issues included no collaboration and a single point of failure.

3rd generation timetabling

Is comparable to Timetabler  4 and 5 where the software was rewritten on Microsoft Windows and used a Paradox database. These multi user clients provided limited access, improved performance and increased collaboration.

4th generation timetabling

Timetabler  6, 7, and 8 were major leaps forward. The industry standard SQL database was introduced along side Timetabler  Live, a fully functional web client and course and exam scheduling.

5th generation timetabling

The expectation is that institutions can onboard to a cloud based timetabling application available to staff and students anytime, anywhere on any device. The headache of finding hardware to run the software on as well as the staff to manage is passed from the institution to the supplier.

Timetabler  10 will provide institutions with ultimate flexibility. It can operate in our Cloud environment using Connect and it can operate in your private cloud or on-premise. Although we are focused on using Microsoft Azure which is where we expect the database to be hosted for now, we will be looking at cost effective alternatives for hosting the applications.