[CAnet - news] More universities switch to Google mail and calendar services

For more information on this item please visit my blog at 
http://billstarnaud.blogspot.com/
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[Here is another example following UoArizona of how universities and
enterprises are switching to e-mail and other services offered by Google and
Amazon (for grid services), etc.  In fact Mark Gaynor predicted this trend
several years ago in a seminal paper "The Real Options Approach to
Network-based Service Architecture" where he argued that as innovative
applications matured on the Internet they would migrate from an edge based
services to a centrally managed service. At the time, most of us thought
that the telephone company would be the natural supplier of such services -
but they have been largely displaced in that market by companies like
Google, Amazon, etc. Of course, as more universities and institutions move
to Google and Amazon for these types of services it may have a major impact
on the research network architectures i.e having your own dedicated network
pipe to the nearest Google, Amazon server complex. Thanks to Rene Hatem and
André Quenneville for this pointer. Some excerpts from the IT business
article -- BSA]

Mark Gaynor's paper:
http://www.canarie.ca/conferences/advnet2001/gaynor.ppt

IT Business article
http://www.itbusiness.ca/it/client/en/home/News.asp?id=41761


*Server crash spurs Lakehead to speed up Gmail rollout*

*Staff switch over more than 38,000 e-mail accounts in three days*

The university in Thunder Bay, Ont., knew it needed a new e-mail system and
had spent several months looking at alternatives before settling on the
online application suite from Mountain View, Calif.-based Google Inc.

Lakehead switched over 38,000 e-mail accounts to Google Gmail in three days,
with almost no interruption to service.
Google also helped out with some extra customer support during the
high-pressure changeover, though Kevin Gogh, enterprise product manager at
Google, said there was "nothing that (reached) extraordinary levels."

Besides replacing Lakehead's tottery old e-mail system, the conversion
brought some added benefits. Because it is getting the whole suite for no
charge and it is entirely hosted by Google rather than on university
hardware, the university expects to save $2 million to $3 million a year on
maintenance and about $6 million annually on infrastructure.

And, Jafri said, students, staff and faculty now get 2GB each of storage
space, versus 60MB with the old system. In addition, he expects Google to
deliver 99 per cent availability. "It's very hard for us to get to that
level of availability."

Now fully operational on Gmail, Lakehead still has some work to do on other
aspects of the conversion. This month, the university will be converting
from an ageing in-house calendaring system to the Web calendaring facility
included in Google Apps.

The suite also includes a Web chat capability, and the company will probably
add other features, Gogh said. "Our goal with Google Apps for Education is
to provide a very rich set of communication tools."
The suite has been available free of charge under a beta program since late
summer, he said, and universities and colleges that adopt it during that
beta period will never have to pay.

As is Google's practice, the company has not said when the beta period will
end, but Gogh said the company is working on a "premium version" of Google
Apps for Education for which there will be a charge.



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