Google Apps at WLU

Fazil RasheedFrasheed@wlu.ca

Andrew HarrisAharris@wlu.ca

• Why Cloud Services• Situational Analysis• Alternatives• Key Success factors• Implementation• What are Google Apps?• Current Status• Technical Consideration• Q and A

Agenda

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

Architecture On-Premise Email Hosted Email

Description All email services run on WLU servers

All email services are hosted by an external provider

Benefits •More control•Easier to integrate

•Minimal internal resources required•Always current•Cost saving

Challenges Expensive – staff and resources

•Exposure to external business failures•Privacy

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

Gmail Documents CalendarOver 7GB of storage Create documents online Customizable views

Easy search with Google Live collaboration Overlay multiple

Conversations and threads

Spreadsheets and forms Bi -Directional Sync with blackberry

Sync with Smartphone Notifications – pop ups, emails

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)

2010 | The Sky’s the Limit

Design (Provisioning)

2010 | The Sky’s the Limit

Design (Mail flow)• @wlu -> @mylaurier.ca

• GroupWise internal routing (rule injection)

• External mail routing

• Banner (internal systems, applications)

• Mailing lists

2010 | The Sky’s the Limit

Design (Login)

2010 | The Sky’s the Limit

(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

2010 | The Sky’s the Limit

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

2010 | The Sky’s the Limit

Post Mortem (Cons)• The word “Cloud”

• Account support

• Google Support

• Account management

• Google Roadmap (not Google exclusive – “cloudy”)

2010 | The Sky’s the Limit

Looking forward..• BEIS module (Banner Enterprise Identity Management System)

• Full IDM integration

• “Real” SSO

• Account management

• Aligning new features with what is needed / wanted

2010 | The Sky’s the Limit

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