Key points:
- Ellucian has been recognized in the Education category for driving AI-powered cloud innovation in higher education.
- Ellucian Student integrates students, HCM, and finance into a single AI-native, SaaS platform designed to support the end-to-end student lifecycle.
- Ellucian AI provides trusted intelligence, automation, and action support for nearly 10,000 higher education processes using the Ellucian Higher Education Knowledge Graph.
Reston, Virginia, USA, October 27 /PRNewswire/ — Ellucian, a provider of higher education technology solutions, today announced it has won the 2026 Stratus Cloud Award in the Education category. This marks Ellucian’s third consecutive year receiving the Stratus Award. The award, presented by the Business Intelligence Group, recognizes companies, products, and individuals that deliver truly differentiated cloud offerings in the market.
Specialized innovation for higher education
Ellucian won for Ellucian Student, a comprehensive solution for higher education that supports the end-to-end student lifecycle. Built on a native SaaS architecture and powered by the Ellucian Platform, Ellucian Student integrates students, HCM (Human Capital Management), and finance into an AI-native environment, connecting people, resources, data, and decisions around student success.
Laura Ipsen, President and CEO of Ellucian, said: “We are honored to receive the Stratus Cloud Award for the third consecutive year, as this reflects the success achieved by our customers—especially their students. Institutions are asking AI to tackle truly complex challenges, from understanding how financial aid processes actually work to how registrar offices handle various exceptions, and then turning those insights into meaningful actions. Ellucian Student was designed from the ground up to support the entire student lifecycle, enabling faster responses for students while reducing administrative burdens so that teams can focus on what matters most. We thank our customers for their collaboration and expertise, which continue to shape how we innovate in higher education.”
AI built for how higher education operates
Ellucian AI is built on the Ellucian Higher Education Knowledge Graph, a dynamic directory encompassing nearly 10,000 higher education processes, grounded in over 50 years of experience collaborating with colleges and universities. It provides Ellucian AI with institutional context, enabling it to operate within the unique business logic, regulations, policies, and workflows of higher education.
Through Ellucian Student, institutions can:
- Automate complex workflows: Intelligent agents coordinate actions across institutional processes.
- From insight to action: Embedded intelligence helps institutions identify needs and respond faster.
- Operating with confidence: AI operates within the institution's policies, roles, and governance framework.
- Reduce fragmentation: A unified SaaS foundation connecting data, processes, and experiences.
Driving the next generation of cloud computing
The Stratus Award recognizes organizations and individuals who define the next phase of cloud computing, where success is measured by what systems deliver, not where they run. Winners are selected based on their impact in driving cloud innovation, delivering measurable value, and advancing the industry.
Russ Fordyce, Chief Recognition Officer at the Business Intelligence Group, said: “For a decade, the question about cloud computing has been, ‘Where does it run?’ This year, every serious entry answered a different question: ‘What can it do without us?’ Ellucian earned this recognition in the education category because it demonstrates what its technology accomplishes, not just what it promises. Today, cloud computing is being measured by this standard—and this team is meeting it.”
To view the full list of winners, visit: https://www.bintelligence.com/posts/24-stratus-award-winners-show-the-cloud-has-stopped-storing-the-work-and-started-doing-it
What are the Stratus Awards?
The Stratus Cloud Computing Awards honor companies, products, and individuals that innovate in the cloud space and deliver truly differentiated products and services. Since 2014, the program has recognized organizations that create measurable value through cloud solutions, spanning infrastructure and platform services, security, edge computing, and the AI systems running on them today. Each nomination is evaluated by a panel of experienced business professionals using objective scoring criteria to identify work that genuinely pushes the boundaries of the cloud.
What is the Business Intelligence Group?
The Business Intelligence Group (BIG) is an independent awards organization that has recognized outstanding achievements in business since 2012. Now entering its 14th award season, BIG operates 12 annual programs covering innovation, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, customer service, cloud computing, sustainability, sales and marketing, workplace culture, and women’s leadership. Its business awards programs include the BIG Innovation Awards, AI Excellence Awards, Fortress Cyber Security Awards, Excellence in Customer Service Awards, Stratus Awards for Cloud Computing, Sustainability Awards, SAMMY Awards for Sales and Marketing, Best Places to Work Awards, Herizon Awards, We Love Tech Awards, NAA Top Employers Award, and BIG Awards for Business.
Unlike popularity voting, BIG’s projects use a panel of expert judges and objective evaluation criteria to identify organizations, products, and individuals making real, measurable impacts. Winners receive a comprehensive promotional toolkit, including blockchain-verified credentials, press release support, social media assets, and prominent exposure within BIG’s global community of over one million business professionals.
To learn more about the BIG Awards program, nomination deadlines, and judging criteria, visit bintelligence.com
What is Ellucian?
Ellucian provides innovative support for higher education, partnering with approximately 3,000 clients across 50 countries to serve over 21 million students. Ellucian’s AI-powered platform is trained on the richest dataset available in higher education, enhancing efficiency, delivering personalized experiences, and increasing engagement among students, faculty, and staff. With decades of experience and a focused commitment to the unique needs of educational institutions, Ellucian’s platform offers best-in-class SaaS capabilities and delivers the insights needed today and tomorrow. These solutions and services span the entire student lifecycle, including data-rich tools for student recruitment, enrollment, and retention, as well as workforce analytics, fundraising, and alumni engagement features. Ellucian’s innovative solutions, extensive partner ecosystem, and community of over 45,000 users provide best practices that drive institutional success and improved student outcomes.
Media contact
Greg Giangrande, Chief Communications Officer
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Jess Weston, Communications Manager
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