Migrating to Google Apps for Student Kevin Macnaughton, Team Lead, IT Services April 28, 2014

Agenda Background Platform Selection Migration and Communication Plans Technical Details Lessons Learned Outcomes April 28, 2014

Background UWindsor initiated a project to renew student webmail options in fall of – Student comments on the existing service were generally unfavourable – Vendor was changing interface – Need to comply with standards, such as AODA – New options were available, presenting an opportunity to improve student experience April 28, 2014

Background Existing service was in-house solution – Single CommuniGate Pro server – Customized skin used – Used local SAN disk for storage – Mailboxes limited to 100MB April 28, 2014

Background Issues with current solution – Mailbox limit (100MB) – Interface was non-intuitive – Message formatting often broken – No support for accessible views – SAN disk is expensive April 28, 2014

Background Project structure and Governance – Technical Team that reported to Student Computing Committee for approval – Student Computing Committee consisted of reps from student bodies, ITS and other campus representatives April 28, 2014

Friends and Assists Worked with several Universities in Ontario were migrating to or selecting Google Apps: – McMaster, OCADU, WLU UAlberta gave extensive and invaluable support based on their migration experience Lakehead broke the ice in Ontario April 28, 2014

Platform Selection Decision factors – Student experience/comfort – Capabilities and features – Cost (money and support) – Compatibility with existing environment April 28, 2014

Platform Selection Methodology – Developed comprehensive evaluation matrix Technical features, Privacy/management issues Migration possibilities Integration possibilities – Matrix completed by Technical Team and vendors – Interviewed existing education customers April 28, 2014

Platform Selection Choices evaluated – Upgraded CommuniGate Pro – Microsoft – Google Apps for Education Google Apps won based on student familiarity, ease of use, cost, and integration possibilities April 28, 2014

UWinGmail Services included in UWindsor Google Apps – Gmail – Google Calendar – Google Talk – Google Docs web-based tools April 28, 2014

UWinGmail Key implementation details: – Users address – Will still use UWinID and password – Migration will be Voluntary Contract protections: – UWindsor maintains ownership of data/IP – No data mining, profiling, or ads April 28, 2014

UWinGmail Branding will be both UWindsor and Google April 28, 2014

Migration Plan Three key elements to project 1.Communicating information around privacy impact of cloud services 2.Addressing requirements for disclosure and user acceptance 3.Implementing a phased migration approach April 28, 2014

Migration Plan Data to be migrated and how: – (inbox and folders) Automatic using IMAP – Calendar and Contacts Manual using export to iCal, vCard – Web pages Manual move to student web space on another server April 28, 2014

Communication Plan Three messaging stages: – Launch and privacy awareness – Project updates – Individual migration phase Multiple messages to each student Migration status page April 28, 2014

Communication Plan Migration stage: 1.Invitation to Migrate Disclosure and AUP review Self-insertion into migration queue 2.UWinGmail Account Active Mail migration in progress 3.Migration Complete Review messages, migrate calendar + contacts January 31, 2011

QUESTIONS?

Technical Details Key pieces: – CommuniGate Pro server – UWinGmail website and registration portal – Migration control machine and workers – Google Apps domain January 31, 2011

Technical Details Google Apps domain setup: – Migration API enabled aliases for all accounts – Accounts created by migration script – Passwords populated by migration script – IMAP, POP and Google Sync enabled January 31, 2011

Technical Details Migration scripting architecture: – Migration portal Show AUPs, record acceptance to db, add to queue Provide migration status page – Workers 10 Windows VMs Run GAMME tool (using Migration API) January 31, 2011

Technical Details Migration scripting architecture: – Migration control system runs scripts (Perl) updates db, does logging system is multiple queue-driven cron schedules control queue checks January 31, 2011

Technical Details Mail routing – All accounts Still only one MX record for all mail – Campus mail gateway routes to mail servers All mail systems believe @uwingmail.uwindsor.ca April 28, 2014

Technical Details Mail routing – UWinGmail routes every message to gateway including UWinGmail-to-UWinGmail messages allows delivery management provides central logging for non-repudiation April 28, 2014

Technical Details Single Sign-On – UWinGmail configured to use SSO – Configured against campus CAS easiest to integrate does not provide true logout though – Mobiles do not use CAS authenticate using pass stored in Google account April 28, 2014

Lessons Learned Overcommunicate – Students want to know details / progress – Need to keep at top of inbox/mobile display Don’t communicate too much – Receive too many messages from Uni – Avoid long s April 28, 2014

Lessons Learned Deadlines work best – more migrations from sticks than carrots Clarity is key – temporary account locks caused many issues April 28, 2014

Outcomes Started with accounts, 17M messages Active student migration took 3 months High adoption rate Migration failures around 1% April 28, 2014

Outcomes Alumni account migration took 1 year Slow migration, allowed long contact time Way lower uptake Extended to all Alumni April 28, 2014

Outcomes Average mailbox size is already over 200MB Huge adoption of Google Docs – over document creators – over documents Google Drive has uptake too – 430,000 files stored in Drive April 28, 2014

Minor Hiccups Many students’ passwords did not meet Google’s minimum complexity Delay between Google Apps account creation and mail acceptance April 28, 2014

Minor Hiccups Some students had mail directed to other campus systems Automated messages caused issues – due to not being properly structured – one bad message would stop entire queue! April 28, 2014

Q & A April 28, 2014