Dare to Change: Gmail and Why it Matters to You Jonathan Schaeffer Vice Provost and Associate Vice...

Dare to Change:Gmail and Why it

Matters to YouJonathan Schaeffer

Vice Provost and Associate Vice President (IT)jonathan@ualberta.ca

IT at WestVAC?

• Why should you care about IT?• …under the covers• …should just happen• …out of sight, out of mind• …someone else’s problem

• Wrong!

• IT, more than ever, requires your attention!

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

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

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?

Today’s 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

The GapStudents 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

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

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

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

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)

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

University of Alberta

• Our mantra: don’t 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 can’t make incremental changes; we need to leapfrog forward

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?

Centralize Email Because:

• Simplifies IT infrastructure

• Enables university-wide calendaring

• Addresses user concerns

• Addresses auditor’s concerns

• Improves security

• Frees up valuable IT personnel time

• Simplifies emergency response

• Supports green computing

• Enables cost savings by removing duplication

People

• Centralization of email is NOT an excuse to eliminate jobs

• IT personnel are generally overworked

• Let’s get out of the mundane task of email

• Free up precious people resources to further our research, teaching, and administration agenda

Solutions?

• In-house?• Too expensive

• Local provider?• Too expensive

• Get out of the email business entirely

Google!

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 Google’s 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

Education Edition

• Education Gmail is not Public Gmail

• We own the ualberta domain: CCID@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

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

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

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

Want to Know More?

www.vpit.ualberta.ca/email