MeritMail: MTU's HuskyMail


Page Title: MeritMail: MTU's HuskyMail Page Address: http://www.merit.edu/services/meritmail/success_mtu2.php

MTU's HuskyMail

Michigan Technological University implements MeritMail suite for its new HuskyMail system.

By Brian Warkoczeski, February 2009

Michigan Technological University (MTU) developed a centrally accessible email system in the late 1990's that was very fast, very secure, and very scalable.

"It was also very expensive, both in dollars and staff focus," according to Dan DeBeaubien, director of distributed computing services for Michigan Technological University. "It constantly pushed the threshold of everything we did to a new standard of performance."

Around 2002, they added a web front-end for the email system by taking Squirrel Mail and re-branding it as HuskyMail. At the time, HuskyMail was considered an advanced web email client, but as time went on and Web 2.0 email applications became more popular, HuskyMail began to lose its appeal among the university's students and staff.

The email system was also becoming increasingly more expensive to operate. The complex system had 16 core email servers, and whenever faster storage or servers were acquired by the university, the email system received first priority for the new equipment. By 2008, costs for the email system rose to almost $250,000 a year.

"We came at this not as a way to make our email system really better. We wanted a collaboration suite, and we wanted a cheaper system," DeBeaubien said.

To accomplish their goals for a more dynamic email solution, MTU considered three different options: 1. resurface the email system and add a calendaring option to it; 2. redesign and rebuild the MTU email system; 3. use a hosted email solution, like Gmail or MeritMail.

The first two options were considered too pricey and would require too much staff time to complete. The third option seemed the most feasible, so they considered the differences between Gmail and MeritMail. Gmail was free, but the question of who owned the email data was a concern, as was the privacy and security of the service. MeritMail offered many features, like calendaring and document sharing, that MTU considered important for its new system. MeritMail also used the same anti-spam and anti-virus technology that MTU used for their in-house email system, so they were familiar with the effectiveness of MeritMail's filtering system.

To learn more about the MeritMail service, several IT staff members from MTU traveled to Ann Arbor to meet with Merit Network staff. The extensive meeting allowed the MTU visitors to discuss their technical concerns with the MeritMail development staff and gave them a backstage tour of Merit's data center. Merit also provided several test email accounts for testing and evaluation.

After additional discussions with university personnel, MeritMail was selected on April 23, 2008.

Implementation of the new system

Communication and project coordination were important for the success of the email transition. Merit's IT team and Member Relations team met weekly with MTU's email project team, and Michigan Tech's project implementation team met daily to discuss issues and coordinate next steps.

The migration of calendaring data from MTU's Meeting Maker system into MeritMail was a major hurdle for the project. MTU worked with a Meeting Maker specialist to repackage the data into a form compatible with MeritMail's calendaring suite and imported the calendar information.

To re-brand the email system, MTU created a customized black, gray, and gold color scheme and added Michigan Tech's logo to the email system, which was officially named HuskyMail.

Training of students and staff on how to use the email portion of HuskyMail was easy since MeritMail's interface resembled other email programs used on campus, according to DeBeaubien. The advanced features and calendaring required additional training for MTU staff. Merit provided MTU with MeritMail user guides and tutorials for using email and calendaring features of the webmail interface and how to set up stand-alone email applications, like Outlook Express and Thunderbird, to receive HuskyMail email.

The critical portion of the implementation was the IMAP synchronization between the legacy email system and the new HuskyMail system, especially for the final switchover. The university had approximately two terabytes of email and over 20,000 email accounts that needed to be moved to the new system. MTU wanted the transition to the new HuskyMail to appear seamless to the end user.

"MTU disabled access to their old system late on a Friday, and we kicked off a final synchronization pass," said Brad Robertson, information technology director at Merit Network. "After that process was complete, MTU's staff and our systems administrators did some last minute checking and verification, and then access to MeritMail was enabled Sunday evening."

The new HuskyMail system went live on September 29, 2008.

New HuskyMail

Once the new system was in place, MTU continued to use the same email policies that they had before. Students were not allowed to forward email from their HuskyMail account to an off-campus email account, and the university's 30-day backup system for email was also retained, which allowed users to recover accidentally deleted emails with minimal effort.

"We look at email as the center point to people on our campus," DeBeaubien said. "It's not just an email system. It's the most visited web page on campus. It's the place where our students go to store their files. We didn't want to treat it like a commodity service where we didn't care any more. We wanted it to be really good."

About Michigan Technological University

Michigan Technological University provides students with a basis for careers in engineering, the sciences, forest resources, computing, arts and human sciences, technology, and business. Approximately 6,500 students from around the United States and 70 nations attend the university while pursuing associate, bachelor's, master's, and Ph.D. degrees. MTU became a Governing Member of Merit Network in 1987.

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