Communications upgrade for Flinders University

Gordon Brimble

Project Manager

WhatWhyWho

WhenHow

OutlookEntourageOutlook Web (OWA)

Microsoft Exchange Server

OutlookThunderbirdMac MailEntourageIMPinternet

internet

ISD servers

Departmentservers

OLD

NEW

What will be copied automatically?Mailbox contents

– Emails in Inbox and subfolders plus their attachments– Sent, trash/deleted items, drafts

What will NOT be copied?• Address book and Calendar• Filtering rules• Personal folders stored on your local computer

- It is a copy operation, so everything will remain as is

- These may be migrated manually, see your support staff or Tips and Tricks

What remains the same?

• Email addresses– FAN@flinders.edu.au– First.lastname@flinders.edu.au (if used)

• Mailing lists, distribution lists• Automatic emails generated by applications• Generic and aliased email accounts • Students and postgrads by coursework• Adjuncts and others without HR numbers• Signatures (note that a Flinders standard is coming)

Why• Email systems at Flinders developed independently over

time by Departments & Faculties• Incompatible systems inhibit collaboration• ICT Review Panel recommends development of a

universal online collaboration platform• Priority Action to implement a University wide

Communications Service– E-mail– Calendar/diary– Contacts

Current communications• Multiple email clients with different capabilities

– Thunderbird– Outlook– Entourage– Mac mail– IMP

• Most common client doesn’t support calendaring• Third party calendar package of limited functionality• No Global Address List

Communications requirements

• Consistent desktop experience for all users• Best practice solution (widely used)• Single application for email, calendars, contacts, tasks• Accessible anywhere (web interface)• Reduce costs of ownership and support• Compatible with further collaboration applications• Support for mobile workforce

Solution selection

• Independent feasibility study in 2008 recommends Microsoft Exchange server

• Original design for in-house solution became very costly due to large mailbox quota requirements

• Maturation of Cloud Computing services reduced costs dramatically

• Decision to use Microsoft Exchange Online service in May 2010

Benefits of hosted solution• Consistent user interface• University-wide integrated calendar management• Connectivity for Mobile devices• Large user accounts provided (25GB max per user)• Automatic archiving (10 years)• High availability guaranteed (99.9% scheduled uptime)• Provision and support of infrastructure transferred to

Microsoft specialists, freeing up our staff• Security, patching and upgrades automatically provided• No capital expenditure

Who

• Staff and research postgraduate students’ mailboxes to Microsoft hosted exchange server (~5000 accounts)

• Student email will continue to be hosted on Flinders servers until staff migration is complete

• Later, undergraduate students will migrate to Microsoft Live@Edu

When

• Pilot 1 – approx 20 users from ISD Customer Services Centre, August

• Pilot 2 – approx 100 users from ISD, departmental support teams, selected departments in September

• Main migration October to December, in waves nightly / weekends

• MeetingMaker changeover at end of migration

How• Users get training as needed:

– Online training modules– Course notes online http://www.flinders.edu.au/staffdev – Webinars– Classroom courses

• Users kept aware of progress:– Flinders In Touch– Noticeboards– Staff Emails– Profdev Listserver– Websites

How• Users clean up mailboxes and contacts

– Preferably under 500MB to ease migration– Save and remove large attachments (>19MB)– Purge Deleted items and Sent items– Archive large mailboxes, old emails to file server folders

• Schools/Business Units selected for overnight migrations– Heads approve migration date– Staff informed well in advance

• After migration, you will need to create a new password• If any emails cannot be copied you will be notified

User Experience - Outlook• Online Services Single Sign-on

– Starts up automatically when you log on to desktop– Logs you in to online email Exchange Server– You click to start up Outlook

• Outlook synchronises with Exchange to download new email

• Through the day Outlook synchronises with Exchange every few minutes, after you send an email, after you change calendar

• If you log on to a different computer it will re-synchronise your mailbox

Online sign in

User environment• MS Outlook integrated into Office Suite for Windows

desktops– Drag and drop integration between apps

• Entourage is consistent with Outlook– Outlook for Mac coming soon– Mac Mail/iCal/Contacts works with Exchange Server

• Outlook Web Access provides Outlook emulation though browser - this is the client for Flinders desktop – Most functionality with Internet Explorer v7 and up– “Lite” functionality with Firefox and other browsers– Supports Calendars and contacts as well as email

Outlook email

OWA – Internet ExplorerLogin to OWA.flinders.edu.au with FAN@flinders.edu.au, password

OWA – other browsers

Calendar

User Experience

• Hosted Exchange Service in use in Universities worldwide, highly accepted

• Other Australian universities about to migrate• Standard Exchange Server technology, just hosted in a

remote data centre• ISD staff using the target environment since July, works

fine– Thunderbird users moved to Outlook– Apple Entourage, Mail

• Please visit the project website:

Questions?

• Talk to your local IT support team

• You can email to exchange.feedback@flinders.edu.au

• Ask me now