Michael Pickett, CIO at Brown convened the session..<\/p>\n
The session was not a presentation, but a discussion.<\/p>\n
Brown was one of the first institutions to implement Google Apps for faculty, staff, and students.<\/p>\n
Question: Why consider Google Apps? (versus Microsoft Live, etc.).<\/p>\n
Discussion: One school is using Exchange but is thinking about switching.\u00a0 Customization capabilities depth and breadth seems to deliver more than Microsoft’s product.\u00a0 Google has been pushing toward the cloud for much longer.\u00a0 Rick Matthews CIO at Wake Forest: this is what they asked for.\u00a0 Now they’re hearing this from faculty who want to use the collaborative features with the tools.\u00a0 Microsoft’s solution seems focused on having desktop software, Google seems more in the cloud.\u00a0 Microsoft seems to be about a year behind Google.\u00a0 For Brown, there are business continuity reasons for Google (MS didn’t have redundant data centers a year ago, but they do now).\u00a0 Some things in Google Apps aren’t robust enough yet. 18,000 accounts moved over to Google.\u00a0 Does everyone like it?\u00a0 No.\u00a0 And it slows down at times.<\/p>\n
Question: How has it gone for schools who switched?<\/p>\n
Discussion: It’s terrific.\u00a0 We’re considering Faculty & Staff and are interested to hear more.\u00a0 Brown: the big stepping stone for Fac\/Staff had to do with the calendar and threaded conversations.\u00a0 Small changes in the interface from Outlook to the web browser, but a big deal for admins.\u00a0 Miserable for two weeks, and then you’ll be fine.\u00a0 Lessons learned at Brown: a problem to solve: need to move off of Exchange or upgrade.\u00a0 Did a full cost analysis.\u00a0 Looking for: significantly more quota (over 2GB).\u00a0 Standards-based implementation.\u00a0 Looking for something that would work with POP, IMAP, etc.\u00a0 Calendar being caldav compliant is good.\u00a0 Secure access from anywhere is also a benefit.\u00a0 Saving money: BOT said to find every way to save money and not layoff people.\u00a0 $700K-$1M to upgrade.\u00a0 But it’s not a slam dunk or a sure thing that this is a smart thing to do.\u00a0 There’s so much freedom that you can get into trouble.\u00a0 Multiple accounts cause havoc on his phone sometimes, but Safari looks good.\u00a0 Chrome is perfect.\u00a0 A discussion of quirky interfaces followed.<\/p>\n
Question: Have administrative users switched over from Outlook as a client to using the web interface.<\/p>\n
Discussion: it’s a real mixed bag.\u00a0 They push the native interface for a week.<\/p>\n
Question: Recovery, archiving, restoration.<\/p>\n
Discussion: Native Google – no restoration short of a legal requirement.\u00a0 Postini for discovery.\u00a0 Archiving is not in place today, but they (Brown) will soon.<\/p>\n
Question: Policy issues for faculty\/staff<\/p>\n
Discussion: Don’t do this without support from President \/ Provost.\u00a0 There’s a lot of bad information out there.\u00a0 There are compromises, though.\u00a0 Most of the questions were based on bad information.\u00a0 Concerns about scanning e-mail and privacy.\u00a0 Esoteric questions: ITAR export restrictions.\u00a0 Health information doesn’t belong in GMail.<\/p>\n
Question: How do you handle new features coming unnanounced?<\/p>\n
Discussion: We are told to embrace change.\u00a0 Google gives you a ton of things out of the box.\u00a0 If you have to wrestle with turning them on and off, it will be tough.\u00a0 We went as open as we could be with new features.\u00a0 Labs.\u00a0 Cool, but be careful.\u00a0 Set expectations correctly.\u00a0 It depends on your culture at your campus.\u00a0 These can be dangerous things, but they put power in the hands of the people on campus.\u00a0 Departments clamored for access.\u00a0 IT just got out of the way.\u00a0 Not a traditional roll out for most people.\u00a0 Admins were different.<\/p>\n
Question: Were legacy messages converted?<\/p>\n
Discussion: Yes. With an outside vendor, though most was done internally.\u00a0 Exchange access was turned off and about 1,000 people who had moved on who hadn’t been in for a while that hadn’t converted.\u00a0 They had to agree to Brown’s user policies.\u00a0 These 1,000 were moved, but access was cut off until they agreed to the policies.<\/p>\n
Question: Speed\/performance?<\/p>\n
Discussion: Some things appear to be slow, some are faster.\u00a0 It varies.\u00a0 Some things are puzzling within our network configuration.\u00a0 Wireless vendor product making a difference for performance compared to wired.\u00a0 Search is so much better in Google.<\/p>\n
Questions; Legal Issues?<\/p>\n
Discussion: Legal counsel was involved, as was legal counsel from Rhode Island School of Design.\u00a0 No show stoppers.\u00a0 Everything has risk.\u00a0 Lesson learned: You need to talk to people about what’s good and bad. What won’t be as good.\u00a0 Can you live with it?\u00a0 Legal Counsel was in the 1st round, right after the president.<\/p>\n
Question: accessibility for users with disabilities. Supposedly high on Google’s priority list.<\/p>\n
Discussion: No pushback.<\/p>\n
Question: How are accounts handled as students become alumni?<\/p>\n
Discussion: We have distinct e-mail addresses that aren’t ever reused.<\/p>\n
Question: What is the exit strategy.<\/p>\n
Discussion: You can pop them out and delete messages.\u00a0 It’s doable.\u00a0 The contract says that you own your data.<\/p>\n
Question: Expunging data?<\/p>\n
Discussion: The won’t keep your data, but the contract is changing.<\/p>\n
Question: Campus Agreement: we pay for office suite?\u00a0 Did you save any money on licensing or staffing?<\/p>\n
Discussion: No staff were laid off.\u00a0 They were repurposed.\u00a0 Google Apps is not a replacement for MS Office.<\/p>\n
Question: Increased bandwidth costs?<\/p>\n
Discussion: Negligible.\u00a0 Even with attachments moving from 10MB to 20 MB.<\/p>\n
Question: Google Sites?\u00a0 Policing them?<\/p>\n
Discussion: We don’t know enough to do that.\u00a0 But we’re worried.<\/p>\n
Question: We have no control over how people share, and we can’t take things away from them when they no longer work for us.<\/p>\n
Discussion: When you leave the University, you account terminates.\u00a0 Sharing documents is a real one.\u00a0 There are worries, but they focus on communication.\u00a0 What if faculty put grades in GDocs and shared them with TA’s?\u00a0 No legal issue there, but don’t be stupid and make it public.<\/p>\n
Question: Yale: When is a good time to roll out?<\/p>\n
Discussion: Students at beginning of fall term last year.\u00a0 Fac\/Staff in February.\u00a0 Piloted departments over 2 months, big push in May.\u00a0 Most over by early June.\u00a0 New features come out once a week.\u00a0 Intel, Motorola, etc. use it.<\/p>\n
Question: Blackberry Enterprise Server?<\/p>\n
Discussion: Ditched it.\u00a0 Calendar nowhere near as functional.\u00a0 5 people went back.\u00a0 Droids work well too.<\/p>\n
Questions: Data storage outside the US?<\/p>\n
Discussion: Google has a white paper.\u00a0 Data not stored in unfriendly countries.\u00a0 Messages in Google are obfuscated over 5 servers in different data centers.\u00a0 That makes it hard to reassemble the letter.\u00a0 But there is redundancy.<\/p>\n
Question: compromised accounts – how do you know what’s happened?<\/p>\n
Discussion: they’ve helped confirm last login.\u00a0 What’s been accessed?<\/p>\n
Question: Were contacts migrated?<\/p>\n
Discussion: yes, for those saved on the server.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Michael Pickett, CIO at Brown convened the session.. The session was not a presentation, but a discussion. Brown was one of the first institutions to implement Google Apps for faculty, staff, and students. Question: Why consider Google Apps? (versus Microsoft … Continue reading