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Choosing a Replacement Email System For a University?

Posted by timothy on from the did-I-leap-off-the-page dept.

SmarkWoW writes "The university I attend is currently looking to change the way in which is provides its students with an email service. In the past they used a legacy mail system which can no longer fit their needs. A committee has narrowed the possibilities down to three vendors: Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo. Representatives from these three vendors will be coming to our college and giving a presentation on the advantages of their systems. We're looking at other services these companies provide such as calendaring and integration with existing software that our university runs. What questions would Slashdot readers ask during these Q&A sessions? Which of these three companies would you recommend? Why? What advantages would each have that college-level students would take advantage of? What other aspects should we consider when making our decision?"

2 of 485 comments (clear)

  1. what happens if... by johnjones · · Score: 5, Informative

    Hi there

    first how do I backup the system ?
    ( what your really asking is if your software system fails and it will all systems fail (e.g. gmail outage for a day) how quickly can I recover?)

    we get attacked by a certain type of worm can I insert a rule into everyones policy to get rid of that ?
    (its been delivered the filters did not catch it I want to reach in and take it away)

    how do i get a log and bodies of the email sent out of the system for legal ?

    how do I control the sending policy ?
    (I dont want just anyone sending mail on behalf of my domain some people i want to restrict to only email inside the domain )

    how can I add all the address's before people arrive ?

    how does it work with mobiles ?

    there's a start

    regards

    john jones
    http://www.johnjones.me.uk

    disclaimer : I work in groupware but for a different vender my blog reflects this

  2. Re:Missing option: by Arramol · · Score: 5, Informative

    My university switched to Google last year, and it's been amazing. Each student's course schedule is automatically added to their course calendar, and profs can add due dates, special events, etc. in a few clicks. Your point about Google Apps is a good one as well - I've found it much easier to do group projects or test reviews when I can create a Google Doc and share it out to classmates. At my job with the university IT deparment, we use Google Sites to keep our information coordinated. The whole system has proven amazingly useful.