As you already know, Worcester State University’s student email has been hosted with Google for almost two years.  During this period, students have enjoyed a significant increase in service quality and resource availability; since the migration of student email from the University’s internal Exchange system to Google, Information Technologies has carefully documented student support requests, application availability, and integration with existing University resources.   By any metric, this migration has proven to be very successful.

Timeline:  Google Gmail migration, of FacStaff accounts, begins @ 6.00pm, Sunday, May 16th

During the weekend of graduation, Worcester State’s faculty and staff will join students on Google’s Gmail servers.  For the past two years, Gmail has proven to be extremely reliable for our students; it’s exciting that faculty and staff now will have the same extended suite of resources available for their use.  Additional, more detailed information will follow over the next several days.  For now, the important dates and highlights.

1.       Faculty and staff Google accounts will be created 6.00pm, Sunday, May 16.  There will be no change in user email addresses, nor will there be any significant interruption in the receipt of incoming email.

2.       At 6.00pm. Sunday evening, May 16, local WSC Exchange email accounts will be read-only.  What this means is that if you’re on campus or connect to the campus network via VPN, the only email that you’ll be able to access through Outlook are messages sent and received prior to the 6.00pm Google transition.    You will not be able to send our receive email through your Outlook email client.

3.       Information Technologies will provide a direct link that will enable users to access their email through  Google’s Gmail interface as soon as the accounts are created.  The Google Gmail interface is extremely simple to use and is similar to the web-based version of Outlook that you may have used through the Community System.

4.       Users will be able to send and receive email through their new Gmail –hosted accounts *immediately.*  Information Technologies will copy over all the email content that users currently have on WSC servers automatically.  Due to the volume of this content, it may take up to two days for all of your old (read: “legacy”) email to be copied over.  Most legacy email should be available by Monday morning.

5.       Beginning Monday morning, Information Technologies will provide instructions on how to use Outlook as a desktop email client to access email from its new Google location. 

6.       At 6.00pm. Sunday evening, May 16, WSC’s local Blackberry Enterprise Server (aka BES) will be retired.   Current BES users have received instructions on how to connect to their Gmail-hosted accounts.  

7.       With the migration to Google’s Gmail, any member of the campus who has a smart phone (i.e., Blackberry, iPhone, etc.) will be able to access their email.  Instructions can be found at http://www.google.com/mobile/more/ .  Be SURE and use this URL to change your password prior to setting up your mobile device < https://wwwfac.worcester.edu/it/tools/pwdlookup/login.aspx>.

Again, as most of you already know, it is costly for the University to provide faculty and staff with the email/data storage capacity and collateral services that are now an important part of day-to-day operations.  Based on internal testing and a significant number of conversations with faculty and staff, the University believes that it is in its strategic and fiscal best interests to migrate all user email stores to Google.   This migration will take place during the weekend of graduation; the migration will have minimal impact on the ability of faculty and staff to perform their WSC responsibilities.

There are a significant number of pedagogical advantages to a Google email migration: the ability to generate blogs, custom websites, wikis; the integration with YouTube for multimedia presentation; the availability for live chat/messaging with students; the option of using a smart phone (iPhone, Blackberry, Droid etc.) to access email. 

Please see below for a fuller discussion of a full migration to Google data storage. 

1.       What’s wrong with our current email system?
Nothing, really, other than the University doesn’t have the capacity to significantly expand service.  Our current email system is housed internally, which means that WSC must cover the costs associated with licensing and infrastructure.    The current MS Exchange system works fine; the problem is that the University does not have the funds or the staffing to justify a significant expansion of resources for email and data storage.  Additionally, housing faculty and staff email internally results in a split data environment—students are not integrated with faculty resources, which creates a number of communication and logistical issues.

2.       Will I still be able to use Outlook?  Will my email address change?
Your email address will remain the same and there will be minimal interruption in email service during the migration.  Microsoft Outlook fully integrates with Google’s email stores, so you will not see any changes in terms of your desktop applications, either.  Information Technologies will roll out a data synch tool that will transfer all of your current email, contacts, calendar appointments, etc. to Google automatically. 

3.       What other schools are partnering with Google for email and document storage services?
Over 450 University and universities already have partnered with Google for email and document storage services, including Dartmouth, Arizona State University, Northwestern, and the University of Southern California.  You can read an account of Google's higher education program by visiting: http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2007/11/27/email 

2.       Is Google's email service reliable?
The short answer is yes.  Google has made a significant investment in its email and data infrastructure that guarantees a high level of redundancy and reliability.  While WSC's email system has been extremely reliable, its storage capacity is limited (Google offers 600x more data storage to each user than WSC).  Additionally, Google’s data infrastructure is distributed over a large geographic region (WSC's infrastructure is centralized on campus) to help minimize outages in the event of a regional disaster. 

3.       Will I see advertisements in my University email?
No.  As part of WSC's agreement with Google, there will be no advertising presented to WSC Users.

4.       Will Google read my email?
As part of Google's terms of agreement, no personally identifiable information will be gathered from any user's account.  General trending data may be gathered from users as a whole, but this is standard practice for any email provider.  There are no additional FERPA or other regulatory concerns associated with a migration of faculty and staff email to Google.

7.       I already have a Gmail account.  Can I use this instead of WSC's email?
WSC's email has been designated as an official means of University communication, so you will have to use your University email address for communication with your students, faculty and staff.  However, you will be able to self-forward non-WSC email messages to your WSC-Gmail account, as well as check outside accounts (if supported by your provider) within WSC-Gmail.

8.       How will I access WSC-Gmail and when will it become available?
WSC plans to complete faculty and staff migration between Monday, May 17 and Wednesday May 19th.  You will be able to access WSC-Gmail through the University's Community System.

9.       What happens to my current email, contacts, and calendar items when we move to WSC-Google email?
When WSC-Gmail goes live in May, you will still have access to the items on the University's current email system.  Information Technologies will roll-out a data synch tool, which will migrate your personal data to Google automatically.  Additionally, IT will document a manual process which will enable you to migrate specific data in priority fashion. 

10.   Why should I be excited about the WSC-Google partnership?

·   A huge increase in the amount of email and data that you can store online (7GB for email and an additional 7GB for data storage)

·   Better SPAM filtering

·   Proven reliability and ease of use

·   The ability to use collaboration features

·   The ability to generate word processing, spreadsheet, and presentation files without having an office suite installed on your computer

·   The ability to use Outlook to access your email, in addition to Google’s easy to use web interface

·   The ability to access email through your data capable cell phone