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Tom Lewis, Director Academic & Collaborative Applications UW Information Technology

The Saga of UW’s Office365 Implementation. Tom Lewis, Director Academic & Collaborative Applications UW Information Technology. July – August 2011 Foolish Optimism. Live@edu migration/ g eneral a vailability O365 project kickoff meeting Project end date of November 2011

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Tom Lewis, Director Academic & Collaborative Applications UW Information Technology

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  1. The Saga of UW’s Office365 Implementation • Tom Lewis, Director • Academic & Collaborative Applications • UW Information Technology

  2. July – August 2011Foolish Optimism • Live@edu migration/general availability O365 project kickoff meeting • Project end date of November 2011 • Equipment needs identified and orders placed • Decision to use F5 load balancers – new project spun up • Asked Microsoft for permanent test tenant • Senior UW-IT leadership emails senior Microsoft leadership about delay and lack of response to our request

  3. September – October 2011Uh-oh • All equipment delivered and built out • Dogfood tenant finally provisioned by Microsoft • A month after UW-IT leadership email • Not a true EDU tenant or XL size • Slippage of timeline • Start to realize how horrible the transition will be for Live@edu users

  4. November – December 2011Eyes Opening Widely • Deep dive with Microsoft on O365 and UW environment • Contracting with Microsoft Premier Deployment team • More discovery on how bad the migration for Live@edu users • First taste of how poor Microsoft’s support of O365 versus Live@edu • TAP & MSO based Strawman for migration

  5. January – February 2012Holding…. • Engaged with Microsoft on deep dive for TAP • Standard non-EDU and XL tenant fiasco • UW Medicine decides they want to move to O365

  6. March - May 2012: Holding… • In-place conversion versus “greenfield” approach • Decision to go with “greenfield” approach • Problems with DirSync limitations • Confirmed with Microsoft a migration path for Live@edu users • Move away from FIM and go back to DirSync

  7. June – August 2012More Holding… • Contract should be signed and ready to go by July 1st • Strawman for migrating Live@edu users finalized • Ask Microsoft if we can keep old Live@edu tenant and upgrade it to O365 • Microsoft responds two months later that they can upgrade our existing Live@edu tenant

  8. September – December 20121 of Many Stages of Grief • Microsoft does bait and switch on contract • Live@edu upgrade to Office 365 finally happens • Major outage of Live@edu • Contract and licensing for O365 finalized (signed) • Talks with Microsoft to confirm we have proper support for O365 • Changed the mail attribute value to <uwnetid>@uw.edu

  9. January – April 2013Grief Diminishes • Changed primary SMTP for mail enabled users • Followed the Google groups method of email address of <group name>@uw.edu for Exchange enabled groups • Mega GAL testing • Decided to scrap everything with WAVE 14 and go to WAVE 15 • Microsoft provisions WAVE 15 tenants

  10. May – August 2013Change of Direction • Decision to install Exchange 2013 for mailbox migrations • Setup DirSync in Dogfood environment (Wave 15) • Decided to deliver SkyDrive Pro (now One Drive for Business) and Lync Online to campus before Exchange Online • Decided to migrate Exchange Local users to Exchange Online before general availability (manual process) • Receive quote from Microsoft for Exchange Online migration (~$1,000,000) • Production SkyDrive Pro and Lync Online environment setup • Early adopters given accounts (~1000)

  11. September – December 2013Progress Finally • Contract with Cloudbearing to help with Live@edu migrations established • SkyDrive Pro and Lync Online released to campus (~140,000 accounts provisioned) • Lowered UW Exchange Local message size limit from 60 MB to 25 MB (to match Exchange Online) • Production Exchange Online (hybrid) successfully setup • First UW Exchange Local mailbox successfully migrated to Exchange Online

  12. January – April 2014Towards a Happy Ending? • Large mail message report sent out to UW Exchange Local support groups • Exchange Online pilot begins (migrated a couple hundred selected users) • Mass migrations from UW Exchange Local to Exchange Online begins • ~2400 migrated as of today

  13. Lessons LearnedVendor Management • Microsoft O365 technologies and support are not mature, so continual engagement required • Teams still working at cross purposes • Ask not, do • Many things are not so enterprise with licensing and otherwise • Beware the HIPAA-busting updates • Verify and then trust with Microsoft and their partners • NET+ helps

  14. Lessons LearnedCampus Change Management • Email costs will not diminish for awhile (if ever) • Will still need lots of hardware too • Communicate the timelines, communicate the details • Lots of community meetings • Public product backlog • Talk up the value • Work closely in pilot mode with department IT, early adopters • Pilot early, and pilot for a loooooong time • Create a public and open communication channel

  15. Lessons LearnedPolicy Implications • Account life-cycle management comes to the fore • Whither Alumni? • Separation business processes often Lots of community meetings • Public product backlog • HIPAA means lots of discussion on e-discovery • Engage early and often with your counsel • I am not a lawyer, but I play one at work…

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