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Google Apps at WLU. Fazil Rasheed Frasheed@wlu.ca Andrew Harris Aharris@wlu.ca. Agenda. Why Cloud Services Situational Analysis Alternatives Key Success factors Implementation What are Google Apps? Current Status Technical Consideration Q and A. Background- Why Cloud Services.
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Google Apps at WLU Fazil Rasheed Frasheed@wlu.ca Andrew Harris Aharris@wlu.ca
Agenda • Why Cloud Services • Situational Analysis • Alternatives • Key Success factors • Implementation • What are Google Apps? • Current Status • Technical Consideration • Q and A
Background- Why Cloud Services • Cost savings - Cloud services present an enormous opportunity for us to divert spending away from IT infrastructure • Shift the financial burden - from upfront capital expense to ongoing operating expense • System Downtime - removes the burden of infrastructure maintenance from our IT staff and puts it in the hands of a much larger entity that can offer 99.99% SLA. • Ease of use and administration - IT staff can easily implement, monitor, and maintain systems from literally anywhere. Students are able to access documents and collaborate on projects from anywhere. • Why Cloud Services Situational Analysis Alternatives Key Success factors Implementation What are Google Apps? Current Status Q and A
Situational analysis • Limited storages space – 25MB for emails • Forwarding – most students forward their email to a cloud-based provider • Students were demanding a better email solution • Storage in ITS – with our limited budget, storing users’ emails was becoming an increasingly expensive • ITS burdened with keeping the Groupwise System updated • Why Cloud Services Situational Analysis Alternatives Key Success factors Implementation What are Google Apps? Current Status Q and A
Alternatives • Why Cloud Services Situational Analysis Alternatives Key Success factors Implementation What are Google Apps? Current Status Q and A
Key Success Factors • Ease of integration with our current environment • Support for Multiple Campuses • Retention of username/password • No Disruption of Email delivery • Migration of current Email • Privacy • Contract with Google • Communication Plan • Marketing Plan • No additional capital requirement • Why Cloud Services Situational Analysis Alternatives Key Success factors Implementation What are Google Apps? Current Status Q and A
Implementation • Formation of a Core Team – April 2010 • Project Manager • Technical Architect (LDAP, Provisioning etc.) • Help Desk – Documentation, Training • CPAM – Branding and Marketing • University Secretariat – Contract negotiation • Student Union/ Student Services • External – SADA, Consensus, OMNI-TS, Other Universities • Charter Approved – April 15th • Go-Live –August 30th • Why Cloud Services Situational Analysis Alternatives Key Success factors Implementation What are Google Apps? Current Status Q and A
Google Apps - Overview • Why Cloud Services Situational Analysis Alternatives Key Success factors Implementation What are Google Apps? Current Status Q and A
Current Status • Fully deployed – all students • >17,000 accounts activated • All incoming students provisioned • Development of retention policy • Retirement of GW accounts • On-going Consultation with Student Union • Why Cloud Services Situational Analysis Alternatives Key Success factors Implementation What are Google Apps? Current Status Q and A
Technical Considerations • Student demand for a “gmail”-like experience • Novell GroupWise Web Access • 25k+ accounts to provision • Student e-mail residing on fiber channel drives – not feasible to offer “unlimited space” • Managing identities • Migration of e-mail from GroupWise to Google Apps domain • Administration • New e-mail domain (@mylaurier.ca)
Design (Mail flow) • @wlu -> @mylaurier.ca • GroupWise internal routing (rule injection) • External mail routing • Banner (internal systems, applications) • Mailing lists
Design (Login) (Sada Systems)
Implementation • Sada Systems login/migration page • Pilot • Began production provisioning in late August • Introduced new WLU webmail in conjunction with portal • Injected GroupWise delegation rule and external mail aliases • “Cut over” / “go live” • Monitored usage and migration queue processes
Post Mortem (Pros) • Students get the experience they want • E-mail maintenance tasks reduced • Can retire students from GroupWise • Infinitely scalable • Google Apps admin interface improving
Post Mortem (Cons) • The word “Cloud” • Account support • Google Support • Account management • Google Roadmap (not Google exclusive – “cloudy”)
Looking forward.. • BEIS module (Banner Enterprise Identity Management System) • Full IDM integration • “Real” SSO • Account management • Aligning new features with what is needed / wanted
Q & A • “You’re lucky to have Gmail,”“All Gmail users now get the highest level of security, so they have incredibly secure communications” “That’s what I think you should be pleased about in using this service with confidence.” • Dr. Ann Cavoukian - The Cord, September 6th 2010 • Background Why Cloud Services Situational Analysis Alternatives Key Success factors Implementation What are Google Apps? Current Status Q and A