Migration to Google Apps For Education and Goodbye MICROSOFT!

The University of Mississippi
SCHOOL OF BUSINESS
ADMINISTRATION
MIGRATION TO GOOGLE APPS
FOR EDUCATION
AND
GOODBYE MICROSOFT!
The University of Mississippi
SCHOOL OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION
Del Hawley
Senior Assoc. Dean
Assoc. Prof. of Finance
Brian Reithel
Professor of MIS
Sam Hammoud
IT Manager
Adjunct Instructor of MIS
Bart Garner
Director of IT
Instructional Asst. Prof. of MIS
Agenda
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Our Background
Why Google Apps?
Communication Plans
Migration Plans
Users Responses
Results, Outcomes, Trade-Offs
Background - Before
•  Went to MS Exchange in 2000 so LOTS
of user “inertia” wrt using Outlook
•  About $7500/yr cost for MS licenses:
servers, Exchange, Office
•  Large investment in server and storage
hardware and Barracuda
•  Sam spent substantial time on
maintenance of software and hardware
Background - After
•  Very little user resistance or angst, and
most people welcomed the change.
•  Eliminated most of the MS licensing cost:
–  Google apps are all free
–  Office 365 is free for academic use
•  Eliminated all email-related hardware and
support cost
–  Storage is free and unlimited
–  SPAM filtering is outstanding (no Barracuda)
•  Sam spends a lot less time on maintenance
Why Google Apps?
FERPA Compliant
No physical server
maintenance
Easy Collaboration
99.97% Uptime
Free with
24/7 support
Unlimited Storage
Use on Any Device
Communication Plan
•  Email Announcement
–  As soon as your organization decides to “Go Google.”
•  Email 1: First Notification
–  About two weeks before the migration.
•  Email 2: Reminder
–  About one week before the migration.
•  Email 3: Reminder with Preparation
–  About two days before the migration.
•  Email 4: Final reminder
–  On the day of the migration
•  Email 5: Welcome message for migrated users
–  Right after the migration
Communication Plan
•  Email Announcement
–  As soon as your organization decides to “Go Google.”
Caveat:
•  Email 1: First Notification
–  About two weeks before the migration.
Most
users
won’t
read
–  About one week before the migration.
ANY
Email 3: Reminder with
Preparation
–  About two days before the migration.
of
those
emails!
Email 4: Final reminder
•  Email 2: Reminder
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–  On the day of the migration
•  Email 5: Welcome message for migrated users
–  Right after the migration
Migration Plan
•  Sign up your domain for Google Apps for
Education
•  Decide on your organizational structure
–  Core IT, Early Adopters, Global Go Live
•  Decide on mail flow during migration
–  Dual Delivery vs. Split Delivery
•  Prepare Migration Servers and Tools
–  Google Apps Migration for MS Exchange
(GAMME)
Data Migration To Google Apps
Email Routing in Dual Delivery Mode
Applied to Core IT Group
Email Routing in Split Delivery Mode
Applied to Early Adopters
If user has Google Apps account,
then deliver there if not deliver to
legacy mail server.
Outcomes and Responses
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Migrated 140 Users
Extensive preparation is key
Google supports you in every step
2 Months transition period
Expect resistance and complaints
Eyes on the prize – Goal focused
Post migration issues
GASMO for Outlook
Outlook/GMail Trade-Offs
Outlook
GMail
Folders
Labels
Deleted stays there forever
Trash is Gone (3o days) – Archived
stays forever
Clunky search based on indexing
Outstanding search using Google
One click print
3 click print
Manages signatures well on replies/ Stacks signatures on forwards and
forwards
reply-alls
Not much customization possible
Tons of customization – Google and
3rd party labs, extensions and apps
– mostly free.
Manages attachments well
Attachments are at the bottom of
long messages – other issues
because its web-based
Old School…
•  POP3 – Google supports POP3
•  SSL/TSL – Uses Port 993
•  SMTP – TSL Port 587
More Than Just Email…
•  Google Drive – shared files and folders as
well as accessible from multiple devices
•  Google Hangouts – chat, meetings, and
more
•  Google Calendar – can create shared
calendars, in addition to individual
calendars
A Multi-Platform Solution
•  Works beautifully with smartphones and
tablets using Google’s apps
•  Accessible from any browser anywhere
•  Can still use with Outlook, too, for those
“Outlook Power Users” (IMAP)
•  Easy learning curve – many folks already
have experience with Gmail
Lots of Future Options
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Google Classroom
Google Docs
Google Sheets
Google Slides
Google Sites
Image credit: http://www.edudemic.com/
Summary
•  We experienced a relatively smooth migration
•  Google provided powerful tools and professional support
•  We have already seen a positive benefit, in terms of IT
support staff time being freed up from recurring email
server management tasks. Legacy system will be kept for
one year.
•  We are barely beginning to explore the power of
Hangouts, Drive, and other tools
•  There are a number of future options and capabilities in
Google Apps for Education that we will explore over the
next few months
•  The price can’t be beat!
Are we glad we did it?