BassTech Posted October 23, 2013 Posted October 23, 2013 As our Exchange 2007 server grows older, and our user drives are running out of space - I am thinking of migrating all users to Google Mail & Google Drive, but still using outlook as a front-end for email. I've been experimenting/dipping my toe in the water and it almost seems too good to be true - all the space, all the services, for free! Basically, are there any things that I should look out for? Is it really as easy as Google say it is to switch? If you've done it, how did the users react? Any features from Exchange that were noticeably missed? Is it better than Microsoft office 365? The thing I like with Google is that you get everything together - all your eggs in one basket if you will. Thanks Lee
CyberNerd Posted October 23, 2013 Posted October 23, 2013 We did it and ditched outlook. Never looked back!.
BassTech Posted October 23, 2013 Author Posted October 23, 2013 How did staff find it? Did they pick it up easily, did you provide any training? My main concern is the staff here don't take to change too well, especially ICT systems.. So I want to ensure it will go as smooth as possible!
nicholab Posted October 23, 2013 Posted October 23, 2013 You lose most of the benefits of Google apps if you still use outlook.
BassTech Posted October 23, 2013 Author Posted October 23, 2013 You lose most of the benefits of Google apps if you still use outlook. Ah ok, I'm willing to ditch outlook if that is the case! What about SSO - Do your users have to login to windows, then their mail separately? I can't see that going down well!
CyberNerd Posted October 23, 2013 Posted October 23, 2013 How did staff find it? Did they pick it up easily, did you provide any training? My main concern is the staff here don't take to change too well, especially ICT systems.. So I want to ensure it will go as smooth as possible! They picked up the mail pretty quickly. We offered a bunch of training time and utilized the training video resources provided by Google. Some still go stuck on things like filters, but that's no different than exchange. Drive was a little harder concept, but most of them now see that it is easier to find work in google drive than on mapped networked drives.
CyberNerd Posted October 23, 2013 Posted October 23, 2013 We use this for single sign on: SAML 2.0 and SAML 1.1 SSO Products - SSO Easy but there are a bunch of other ways to do it,.
BassTech Posted October 23, 2013 Author Posted October 23, 2013 They picked up the mail pretty quickly. We offered a bunch of training time and utilized the training video resources provided by Google. Some still go stuck on things like filters, but that's no different than exchange. Drive was a little harder concept, but most of them now see that it is easier to find work in google drive than on mapped networked drives. Nice, they do have a good selection of videos on there so that will defiantly help us with regards to training. Drive looks very interesting, with 25gb space per user!
plexer Posted October 23, 2013 Posted October 23, 2013 The thing I like with Google is that you get everything together - all your eggs in one basket if you will. Not quite sure what you mean by that? Ben
CyberNerd Posted October 23, 2013 Posted October 23, 2013 Not quite sure what you mean by that? Ben check out the integration options for education. https://www.google.com/enterprise/marketplace/?pli=1
hudzen76 Posted October 23, 2013 Posted October 23, 2013 Rolled it out a couple of years back; ran a trial for some staff from Easter to summer break, then migrated everyone over during the summer break. Minimum training, couple of questions popped up more than once ('how do I mark an email as important?' and 'how do I sort by sender?') but easy as anything. Ditched Outlook except in a couple of cases (finance system needs MAPI connection so use Google Sync for Outlook to connect to a 'finance' email). Didn't go down SSO as didn't want logins to be reliant on our internet connection; really need to use Google Password Sync to change Google passwords when domain one does, but haven't tested/deployed yet. Device Management and Two Factor Authentication available and implemented for key users, using Drive to share markbooks, school policies etc. from central point so no regrets here!
BassTech Posted October 23, 2013 Author Posted October 23, 2013 Not quite sure what you mean by that? Ben I meant, if we go with Google we would go with all of their services - Mail, Drive, Calendar etc so most of our 'services' would be in one place.
plexer Posted October 23, 2013 Posted October 23, 2013 I meant, if we go with Google we would go with all of their services - Mail, Drive, Calendar etc so most of our 'services' would be in one place. All of which are also provided by O365? Ben
caffrey Posted October 24, 2013 Posted October 24, 2013 (edited) We moved over recently, again from an aging exchange 2007 server. Once everything is set up it's pretty much fit and forget (Password sync and directory sync) I do directory syncs manually thought as there's never really many changes through the year. No outlook here either except for a few departments (admin, and finance) that won't change the way they do things (mail merge etc.) There were a few whiners when I launched it, I got a lot of flak from some users but they seem to have settled down now (well the whining has gone at least). They love the calendars and are really starting to see the benefits of Drive. Only things I wish that the admin panel could do was actually admin, at the moment it's just a way to manage users and apps. I would like the panel (in the interests of safeguarding) to have the ability to browse student drives and mailboxes when SLT request it - we've had a few instances of bullying by email that I couldn't really do anything about. It's pretty easy to switch once you get your head around directory sync and get that set up correctly, I set up our domain and just played around before I went live. Google documentation and technical support are really good too. Other wishes I'd like, google drive integration, make users home folders their google drive for instance. Edit, I tried O365 in the early days and just didn't like it as much, maybe that's changed - too late now. Edited October 24, 2013 by caffrey
BassTech Posted October 24, 2013 Author Posted October 24, 2013 (edited) All of which are also provided by O365? Ben I thought you had to pay for the full office suite, feel free to elaborate though! @caffrey - Pretty much what I am expecting here, a few whiners etc but ultimately it's the best thing to do for the school. I am concerned about the lack of control over it, so like you mentioned if bullying etc goes on then we can't really do anything . I'm in the same boat with 365, heard of a lot people having technical issues with it, which is why I'm more attracted to google's services at the moment. Plus I don't trust MS to not start charging for various things after they've roped you in. I also don't like the direction they're going with Windows 8/8.1 and am concerned 365 will end up in a similar mess. Edited October 24, 2013 by BassTech
jamesbmarshall Posted October 24, 2013 Posted October 24, 2013 I thought you had to pay for the full office suite, feel free to elaborate though! Exchange Online, Lync Online and SharePoint Online including the Office Web Apps are free for staff and students. Qualifying institutions can also licence students for the full Office 365 ProPlus component. I'm in the same boat with 365, heard of a lot people having technical issues with it, which is why I'm more attracted to google's services at the moment. Plus I don't trust MS to not start charging for various things after they've roped you in. I also don't like the direction they're going with Windows 8/8.1 and am concerned 365 will end up in a similar mess. Happy to talk about your concerns if you want. I think Microsoft's pretty transparent about its model for Office 365 in terms of what's free and what's not. In various states Live@edu and Office 365 have been around about 8 years now, free to education. I recently posted up about how it just got more powerful with the Student Advantage announcement as well. If you have any questions, like I say, happy to chat.
rdk Posted October 25, 2013 Posted October 25, 2013 We went google a while ago and the last switch was turning off the old email and going to google mail. Praise and thanks very much outweighed the complaints. If SLT wish you to look at kids mail, couldn't you simply change their password and log in? The kid would know somethings happened, but maybe nothing would click (especially if they're innocent) and just come and see you and you could reset their password. Alternatively, there is a product Hapara Teacher Dashboard that we use (Hapara | Powering Google Apps for Educators) that will let you look in email, although we don't use that aspect of the product. What else it can do is fantastic, though.
CyberNerd Posted October 25, 2013 Posted October 25, 2013 We went google a while ago and the last switch was turning off the old email and going to google mail. Praise and thanks very much outweighed the complaints. If SLT wish you to look at kids mail, couldn't you simply change their password and log in? The kid would know somethings happened, but maybe nothing would click (especially if they're innocent) and just come and see you and you could reset their password. There are actually a few ways to access staff/student mail or documents: Email archiving such as Vault ( $10 for each teacher, students are free) Download their inbox using Google_apps-manager (free) SSO through active directory and reset their google account password while they login through AD Third party tools like Cloud Management Tool for Google Apps | FlashPanel (discount for edu) Install the SSO for moodle, sign in as moodle admin then switch account.
ShorehamGeek Posted October 25, 2013 Posted October 25, 2013 You can also configure all email to be copied to an archive account - so you can see what has been sent without any password changing. We've been with google apps for a couple of years now. The only downside is the slight unreliability of the syncing software for use with Outlook. Overall - I would say it has been excellent.
jmak Posted October 25, 2013 Posted October 25, 2013 (edited) You can also configure all email to be copied to an archive account - so you can see what has been sent without any password changing. Is that one account set up as archive? Is it stored locally or on Google's storage? Does this impact on free data usage limits? I'm considering it for child to child emails (in an infant school), but one of our pre-requisites is that we want to be able to go back to emails even if the child has deleted it to be able to deal with bullying / CP issues. Edit: We'll continue using the LA provided MS exchange service for teachers "work" email, so kids only at this point. I guess the teachers would have a gmail account set up too configured for use only within our domain for contacting pupils in school. Edited October 25, 2013 by jmak
edutech4schools Posted October 25, 2013 Posted October 25, 2013 I noticed the other day that I got an option in the admin panel to reveal a users password but the next day it had gone. Might be something google are going to add but pulled for some reason. This would be very handy.
jamesbmarshall Posted October 25, 2013 Posted October 25, 2013 I noticed the other day that I got an option in the admin panel to reveal a users password but the next day it had gone .... This would be very handy. Surely you're not serious? Regardless of the technology, you should never be able to know the password of a user, or be able to reveal it to them.
plexer Posted October 25, 2013 Posted October 25, 2013 I noticed the other day that I got an option in the admin panel to reveal a users password but the next day it had gone. Might be something google are going to add but pulled for some reason. This would be very handy. If passwords are stored in a reversible format in such a global provider such as Google I would remove it immediately. Ben
Edu-IT Posted November 6, 2013 Posted November 6, 2013 Any concerns about the stuff in the news at the moment about Google scanning contents of email to display ads?
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