Faculty and Staff Email is Moving to the Cloud

Faculty and Staff Email is Moving to the Cloud

By Kelly SouthUniversity Information Technology Services
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UAConnect365 will offer more storage, online versions of Microsoft Office applications and a secure cloud environment. (Photo courtesy of UITS)
UAConnect365 will offer more storage, online versions of Microsoft Office applications and a secure cloud environment. (Photo courtesy of UITS)

The University of Arizona is moving faculty and staff email and calendar services to the cloud, a change that will save money and bring enhanced features, such as more storage and online versions of Microsoft Office applications.

In adopting Microsoft Office 365, the UA joins many other higher education institutions that have done the same, including Stanford University and Duke University.

"A dependable and robust email system is key to successful daily academic and business functions," said Derek Masseth, deputy chief information officer and chief technology officer at the UA. "The number of campus email account holders and mailbox sizes have risen and would require a $2.8 million expense to update our existing email system. Having our email system housed in Microsoft's cloud means we can continue to grow without incurring additional hardware and infrastructure costs, and enjoy greater reliability and functionality."

Beginning in January, faculty and staff email and calendar services – which had been known as UAConnect – will move to Microsoft Office 365 and be renamed UAConnect365. The move is expected to be completed in summer 2017. Retiree, student worker and departmental accounts also will be moved. The project will be conducted in phases, with account holders notified via email in advance of their transition date.

The benefits for faculty and staff include:

  • Mailbox storage capacity of 50 gigabytes, the equivalent of about 100,000 PowerPoint slides or 25,000 photos.
  • 1 terabyte of online storage in OneDrive – enough space to store 1,000 copies of the Encyclopaedia Britannica.
  • Web and downloadable versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and other Office applications.
  • A secure cloud environment.

"A committee of IT professionals from academic and administrative departments evaluated and tested multiple options before ultimately selecting Microsoft Office 365. This solution met our functional and technical requirements and will have the least impact on faculty and staff since it is a Microsoft Exchange based system," said Dane Velasquez, senior systems administrator in the College of Fine Arts. The Office 365 recommendation also was approved by senior UA leadership.

Visit uits.arizona.edu/content/uaconnect365 for more details, resources and answers to frequently asked questions.

To share specific questions, concerns or suggestions, contact the UAConnect365 Project Team at uaconnect365-support@list.arizona.edu.

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