Dare to Change: Gmail and Why it Matters to You

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Dare to ChangeGmail and Why it Matters to You

• Jonathan Schaeffer
• Vice Provost and Associate Vice President (IT)
• jonathan_at_ualberta.ca

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IT at WestVAC?

• Why should you care about IT?
• under the covers
• should just happen
• out of sight, out of mind
• someone elses problem
• Wrong!
• IT, more than ever, requires your attention!

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IT World is Changing

• Fast network connections
• Social networking
• Cloud computing
• Ubiquitous wireless access
• Software as a service
• Fundamental paradigm shifts that will
  dramatically impact how a modern university
  deploys IT

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Where Are We Today?

• My generation
• Desktop computers
• Wired connections
• Telephones
• Local computing infrastructure
• New generation
• Laptops
• Wireless connections
• Cell phones
• Non-local computing infrastructure

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Where Do We Want To Be?

• IT world is changing rapidly but universities are
  usually slow to change
• We run the risk of offering an antiquated IT
  environment to our faculty, staff and students
• Universities are all about change we should
  embrace it, not fear it
• Can we change the way we think about IT, so that
  we can free up resources to change IT?

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Todays Student

• is very different from the student of even five
  years ago
• is comfortable with and quick to adopt new IT
  technology
• There is a significant (and growing) generation
  gap

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The Gap
Students Faculty/Staff
Mobile computing Desktop computing
Texting twittering Memos email
Social networking Face-to-face meetings
Google apps Microsoft Office
Real-time All in good time
Open source/freeware Proprietary/commercial
Digital media Print media
Open Private
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Philosophy

• Core mandate of a university is research and
  teaching
• IT is an enabler
• Some IT components have become utility computing
• Where appropriate, you should consider getting
  out of the utility computing business

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Typical Situation

• Decentralized fragmented community
• One large central IT department
• Numerous mini IT groups on campus
• Duplication of many services
• Uneven quality of service
• Non-uniform (even non-existent) policies

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Dare to Change?

• Are we prepared to challenge the status quo?
• Can we think about doing things differently?
• Can we move towards deploying modern IT
  technology across the entire campus?
• If not, we run the risk of providing core IT that
  is seen as irrelevant

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Case Study ASU (1)

• Outsourced student email
• Outsourced learning management systems
• Outsourced all computer networks
• Outsourced help desk
• Outsourced desktop support
• Outsourced PeopleSoft infrastructure
• Consolidating server rooms and then outsource

If a service is core, then it should be
out-sourced. Adrian Sannier (CIO, ASU)
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Case Study ASU (2)

• 15M in IT savings/year reinvested back into IT
• Mobile computing
• Application development
• Using IT to improve student engagement
• IT support for teaching
• IT support for research
• Brave new model that ASU claims reaps dividends

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University of Alberta

• Our mantra dont waste a good crisis
• Over 30 independent IT groups on campus
• Institutional cost of IT as a percent of the
  operating budget is disproportionately large
• In general, student dissatisfaction with our IT
  offerings
• We cant make incremental changes we need to
  leapfrog forward

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Email at the UofA

• At least 47 independent email systems on campus
• Each has their own hardware, software, and people
  resources
• No central calendaring
• At least 37 Blackberry servers on campus
• Does this make sense?

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Centralize Email Because

• Simplifies IT infrastructure
• Enables university-wide calendaring
• Addresses user concerns
• Addresses auditors concerns
• Improves security
• Frees up valuable IT personnel time
• Simplifies emergency response
• Supports green computing
• Enables cost savings by removing duplication

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People

• Centralization of email is NOT an excuse to
  eliminate jobs
• IT personnel are generally overworked
• Lets get out of the mundane task of email
• Free up precious people resources to further our
  research, teaching, and administration agenda

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Solutions?

• In-house?
• Too expensive
• Local provider?
• Too expensive
• Get out of the email business entirely

Google!
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The Google Solution

• Gmail Email provided by Google
• Large default email box (7.4 GB)
• Email integrated with calendaring
• Google apps (including docs and tools)
• Backups and disaster recovery
• Cost is 0 for Googles service, but there is a
  cost for increased network access
• We will leapfrog forward in the quality of our
  service and the richness of our offerings

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Education Edition

• Education Gmail is not Public Gmail
• We own the ualberta domain CCID_at_ualberta.ca
• We control CCIDs and passwords on campus
• We own the data
• No advertising
• No data mining
• All this is guaranteed in a contract with Google

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Privacy

• Gmail is hosted on servers around the world
  including the U.S.
• The Patriot Act applies
• COIPC and AOIPC have ruled that it is acceptable
  to have email housed in the US

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Status

• Gmail deployed for 250 pilot users
• High user satisfaction
• Legal contract with Google not complete
• 99.9 compliance with Alberta privacy laws, but
  nothing less than 100 is acceptable
• Nine Canadian institutions have indicated that if
  we jump, they will jump as soon as practical

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Dare to Change?

• These are difficult times for the university
• The Google project is not about email
• It is all about
• Opening the dialogue for centralization where it
  makes sense
• Providing leading edge tools to faculty, staff
  and especially students
• Changing the way people think about IT

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Want to Know More?

• www.vpit.ualberta.ca/email