OIT Exchange Email Questions and Answers

Mike McNeil, executive director of OIT's Computing System Services (May 27, 2005)

Q.) I need your insight as if or not we will be able to use Pine to maintain our current email habit? Will Webmail be terminated?

A.) To answer your second question first, the current Webmail solution will go away within 18 months. It will be replaced by OWA which is the Microsoft web interface and has more features and functionality.

As for Pine, all I can say is that we will offer an alternate service that I feel will improve on Pine. However, I do not have the authority to tell anyone they cannot use a tool. That decision should come from your department head, dean, or someone else in your hierarchy That decision should happen after they see what the alternative is.

OIT's goals for the project the chancellor mentions is to provide a set of common tools that everyone can use. There is more than e-mail involved, but I understand e-mail will attract the most questions.

Q.) I was very surprised to learn that the campus is unifying with Microsoft products, considering that these are the most common victims of virus, worm, and trojan attacks, and that Outlook is commonly a vehicle for "harvesting" of innocent email contacts who then become spoofed "senders" of other viruses.

That said, I hope very much that you will allow those who have chosen to use other products, such as Mozilla/Thunderbird, to continue to do so. In fact, I would find a prohibition of such use extremely intrusive and very troubling as a general policy, and perhaps there is no intent for such a move. Perhaps it only affects users of Lotus Notes. I urge you to allow those who seek non-microsoft solutions to continue to do so.

A.) I understand your concerns and our intent is to do what we can to protect our environment as much as possible. There is a lot of history that Microsoft has to overcome and we considered those issues, but we also believe that there are techniques that will allow us to better secure our resources. We also believe Microsoft is taking security seriously. However, there is also many features and functions that are desirable to pursue.

As for your second point, we will not be in the business of allowing or not allowing people to use other services. Our purpose is to develop a service that is sound, secure, and that people will want to use. We anticipate that you, your department head, dean or someone else in the hierarchy will decide what tools you will use. I hope that you will withhold your judgement until our service is ready for use.

Q.) I have been using Eudora for about 5 years, and it has served my needs well.

A.) Most people are very happy with their current e-mail solution. I expect some resistance to a new solution. However, please keep in mind that we will be developing a solution that goes beyond simple e-mail. Our goal will be to provide a communications and collaboration solution that will offer benefits to you and others in the university community.

Q.) PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE make sure we unix/linux users will still be able to access email via mozilla (netscape or Thunderbird mailers).

A.) Thanks for your comments. We have some people on this project that also use these web browsers, so we do intend to try to address these issues.

Q.) Does the shift in email systems to Microsoft products mean that faculty will no longer be able to use WebMail? The one thing I like about Webmail is that it is web-based and I can access it from any where in the world. When I was on faculty at Texas A&M we had an email system that could only be accessed locally - which ment that I needed to have a 2nd email program (yahoo mail) for use when I traveled this was less than preferable.

A.) Good question. We do have as one of our requirements that e-mail and calendars can be accessed from around the world using a variety of devices.

One of our goals is to provide a Web based e-mail interface as well as the normal client option - Outlook. We intend to phase out the existing Webmail interface within 18 months. We will have OWA - Microsoft's web based interface - available for about a year for parallel testing. We have also been asked to make sure we offer a solution that works with web browsers other than Microsoft IE. We will be investigating this issue.

Q.) How does Chancellor Crabtree's announcement about the new "e-mail solutions" affect me? I'm a retired professor with an ERA account.

A.) Good question. We intend to continue support for our retirees. If you are currently using a tool that uses imap as a connection protocol, then you should be able to continue with only a few changes to your mail box addressing. If you use the Web to access e-mail, we will provide a new Web client - OWA. We will need to review all the retiree connections as we go through our transition period.

Q.) It would probably be a good idea to send out (at least to Dept. Heads and unit directors, who can then forward it to their staff if they wish) a clarification of exactly what it means to "unify campuswide e-mail and calendaring communications". For those of us who manage large collections of non-Microsoft OS machines, this is particularly important.

A.) Good point. From what I understand, the Chancellor wanted to get the word out that this project is underway. I believe there will be several additional e-mails to follow-up and clarify this project. I will suggest to the PR office (the people who wrote the announcement e-mail) that they consider more targeted audiences as we understand the issues and find answers.

I appreciate feedback from those who do not fall into the "norm" for computing use. The university has many pockets of people with unique situations. I don't know that we will be able to reasonably address everyone's issues, but we need to know them so we can try.

Q.) I noticed that having the ability to manage other people's calendar didn't seem to be a high priority in the survey. For those of us who work for administrators it is extremely important to be able to manage their calendars. Is the new software capable of that function?

A.) Calendar coordination is an important aspect to this project. This was one of the issues we considered as we looked for solutions. We believe the product we have chosen has the flexibility the university wants to support calendar management and scheduling. We also think there is sufficient "rights" available to restrict access as needed.

Q.) I'm puzzled why OIT would pick the software that is the most vulnerable to viruses and other attacks. What virus and filter protections will be employed? Will more people need to be hired to combat attacks on service? Can you reassure us that we won't be vulnerable to additional attacks?

A.) We are concerned about security and much of our effort will be directed toward protection of our resources. We do this for our systems today. We believe that we can reasonably secure this new environment, but we also know that no environment can be completely secured by a single security solution. We will employee several security options just as we do today and we think we can do this with the current staff.

I can tell you that security was a concern as we investigated options. We had heard about Microsoft vulnerabilities and other short-comings. However, we discovered that many Microsoft problems had been addressed and solutions were available to protect resources. Microsoft recognizes that they have had a black-eye from a security perspective and are actively taking steps to reverse that concept.

This may not totally reassure you, but be reassured that we will continue to consider security a high priority. We have representatives from the IT Security Office participating on the project for just this reason.

Q.) Does this mean that even if I want to keep using Pine (via SSH) I will not be able to?

A.) I can't answer your question other than to say that we are not the e-mail police. Our goal is to develop a solution for communication and collaboration (not just e-mail) that everyone will want to use and from which they will benefit. The decision on what service you use will be made by you, your department head, dean, or other administrator in the hierarchy.

I do find it interesting that you are the third Pine user to ask similar questions. Apparently some people really like Pine.

Q.) Great. My main concern is being able to access my email from any location and have little concern with being integrated or standardized with the rest of campus - why is the latter issue such a concern?

A.) There are a couple reasons for the concern. One is that the President and Exec. VP have both expressed a desire to have all university people in a single address book and to allow meetings to be schedued easier through a common calendar. Another is the result of our interviews and surveys last year that suggested people would like to use more collaboration tools. Finally, we have some similar tools in place such as Web meeting tools that some in the administration see as saving time and money (I agree with them).

All these are good reasons, but this project started with much less fanfare. The original goal was for OIT to reduce the number products we support. We supported four e-mail systems, three calendar systems, and many e-mail clients. Our goal was to simplify and improve our services. This idea caught on with several people and it grew to what it is today - a statewide initiative to improve communication and collaboration. Frankly I can visualize that this will bring a lot of attention to the university if we are successful. I believe the attention will be positive - at least I hope it is.

Additional Questions that have come in . bhd . (August,19 2005)

Q.) I read with interest the university's plan to standardize email programs to a Microsoft program. Is the intent of the university to change all desktops on campus to the microsoft program? If that is so, I do not want to participate. I am a Mac user and am unwilling to cease using the Mac's mail program in favor microsoft's. Or is the program a server program that can work with Mac's mail program? Please let me know what the intent of the plan is.

A.) There is no plan to remove Macs from campus as far as I know. Our charge was to standardize on an e-mail and collaboration package. We have been looking at options to use this package from a Mac and the two that are most promising are Entourage and OWA (Outlook Web Access). We believe these will provide the functionality you will need, but our research is not finished yet.

Q.) I am a retired professor. My only connection with OIT is that I still use my UTK e-mail address. I use Entourage on a Mac at home via my cable internet connection. Will the e-mail exchange affect me?

A.) You are ahead of the game! Entourage is what many folks will use ... At some point there will be a little change to point from the old server to the new server ... it will be a while ...

P.S. I've added you to a good source about the Mac in general and todays discussion on the new email ... see the archives at:
http://listserv.utk.edu/archives/macguru.html click on 2005 and your good to go ...

Q.) How will the access through a web enhanced phone such as sprint PCS be affected? Will I be able to access email in this way?

A.) Mobile access is an important element in this project.

Exchange Server 2003 supports mobile devices such as Pocket PC and Smartphones and enables you to synchronize your Inbox, Calendar, and Contacts and Tasks lists so you can remotely check your appointments and other important information. Mobile device browsers are also supported through Exchange Outlook Mobile Access, which enables HTML, compressed HTML (CHTML), and Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) browser.based devices to access Exchange Server.
http://www.microsoft.com/exchange/evaluation/whatis.mspx

Q.) Just saw this new e-mail system which is proposed for fall. I am a county agent in Chattanooga. I spend most of the early morning answering e-mail. Over a period of time I could accumulate a nice list of contacts via e-mail. I could add addresses and other details over time. I would like to be able to sort and printout a list or lists of these contacts so i can have a printed directory of these names as a handy reference in the field, the little black book of the county agent. This information I assume will also be on a PDA but it would be nice also to get a printout occasionally. This way I can keep a paper address book up-to-date also. Sounds simple but I haven't seen this done before.

A.) I just did a quick check in Outlook contacts and under FILE>Page setup I see you can print your contact book in card style; small booklet style; medium booklet style; memo style; phone directory style ; or you can define your own style .

Q.) I expressed concern about the transition to Microsoft products for a wide variety of units on campus who have invested considerable amounts of resources in non-Microsoft operating systems, you said there will be several additional e-mails to follow-up and clarify this project. There has been no additional information provided to me. As the President has now stated that "all faculty, staff, administrators and students will be converted to the new e-mail system no later than Fall 2006" please inform me as to how OIT intends to carry this out for those of us who are UNIX-based. I assume of course that a transition plan has been developed prior to the President's announcement. I could not find anything on the web site for this project that provides enlightenment on this matter. I have no resources at all to commit to a transition such as this.

A.) I believe the timing of the recent e-mail was to coincide with the start of the semester and intended to prepare everyone for change rather than imply we have a "final" plan in place. We have researched many aspects of Active Directory and Exchange, but I do not believe we have final answers to all questions yet. We know there are some methods to support LINUX, UNIX, and Macintosh use of this system such as OWA and Entourage, but we do not intend to close the book on that research yet. We also intend to research SharePoint, Live Communications Server, and Live Meeting Server in much greater detail as we look to move from a calendaring and e-mail solution to a communications and collaboration solution.

We do have a basic approach in mind. Our plan is to start with the easy transitions first. We want to set up the Active Directory environment that will allow us to proceed. Our driving issues for Active Directory are to allow an implementation that is logically centralized, but physically distributed administration across the state. We are comfortable with that design and will be implementing and working out details over the next few weeks. We also have a high-level Exchange plan and will be implementing that plan in a phased approach focusing on those that want to migrate first. Sometime this fall we will identify the groups who should migrate together, work with each group to work out migration details, and layout a migration order. I expect this planning process may last into next semester. I also believe the 80-20 rule will apply to this migration. Most of the people we migrate will be relatively easy while a few will prove difficult. We expect to spend more time with the difficult migrations.

The reason you have not heard anything on this project since May is because we have spent most of the summer working on foundational tasks. Considerable effort has gone into licensing and contracts. We finally have a contract in place to allow us to bring in a consultant to review our plans. He first visited on August 9. After his review and some adjustments to our plans, we were able to agree on a design with the other entities across the state on August 17. We plan to order hardware and refine implementation details for Active Directory and Exchange starting this week.

Your point on not hearing anything since May is a good one for another reason as well. We have talked internally about how to communication on this project. People will want to know how this will impact themselves or the people for whom they are responsible. The best solution is to speak with everyone individually, but that can't happen. However, anything short of a personal dialog will result in assumptions that may not be accurate or us missing some critical detail we need to make the migration easier. We have some ideas, but Brice, I and the rest of the team are open to any ideas you or others may have to communicate effectively.

I hope you and the many others around campus for whom this project raises questions will work with us. I believe the President's staff has a vision that improved communications and collaboration will benefit the university as a whole. This will take most of us out of our comfort zone (including IT), but I am convinced that more good can come from this project than bad.

Thanks for your patience and interest.