Technology Advisory Group

TAG has heard some concerns among faculty lately about the upcoming email transition to Microsoft Live @ Edu.  Most of the concerns have centered around making sure old email can be migrated into the new system.  Here are a few clarifications:

• If you use RoyalMail and Thunderbird, there are two places email can be stored.  Each faculty member currently has 200 MB of space on RoyalMail – that email is stored on an on-campus server.  But many people have additional email stored in “local mail” folders – this email is stored on your computer’s hard drive.
• Email stored on the RoyalMail server (that 200 MB) will be migrated into the new Microsoft Live @ Edu cloud environment by IR.
• Instead of the old 200 MB quota on the RoyalMail server, the Microsoft Live @ Edu system allows each user to store 10 GB worth of email.  We’ll soon be sending out some instructions for how to figure out how much email you have stored on your local system so you can tell how close you are to that limit.
• There will be a way for faculty to migrate their local mail from their hard drive to the Microsoft Live @ Edu system.  We don’t have specifics from IR yet, but faculty will not lose access to their old email.  Faculty, as end users, will have to actively do something to help move their mail once the transition time comes – but we don’t have to do anything yet.  During the transition, CTLE TechCons will be on hand to help faculty with the migration.
• IR is not against faculty migrating their email to Gmail instead of using Microsoft Live @ Edu, as long as we keep in mind issues of Personally Identifiable Information (PII).  The University has to comply with increasingly strict federal laws, like FERPA, that protect PII.  Any information dealing with a student’s “educational record” should not be stored on Google’s servers.

The bottom line is – don’t panic, you’ll still have access to your old email.  If you have questions or other concerns about the email transition, please let TAG know!