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Penn Live: A Case Study in Updating the Student Email System
Penn Live: A Case Study in Updating the Student Email System
Ira Winston
John MacDermott
Chris Mustazza
University of Pennsylvania
Ira Winston
John MacDermott
Chris Mustazza
University of Pennsylvania
The Decision to Outsource&
The Selection Process
The Decision to Outsource&
The Selection Process
School of Arts & Sciences (SAS)School of Arts & Sciences (SAS)
Penn (est. 1740) is an Ivy League university in Philadelphia ranked #5 by US News and World Reports
SAS is the largest of the four undergraduate schools at Penn
500 standing faculty in 26 academic departments
6500 undergraduates in 52 majors
Penn (est. 1740) is an Ivy League university in Philadelphia ranked #5 by US News and World Reports
SAS is the largest of the four undergraduate schools at Penn
500 standing faculty in 26 academic departments
6500 undergraduates in 52 majors
The Decision to OutsourceThe Decision to Outsource
Spring 2007 email environment
IMAP/POP/Webmail (IMP) 75mb quotas 5 year old Sun hardware – end of life-cycle heavy webmail usage 30% of students forwarding email to ISP’s
Spring 2007 email environment
IMAP/POP/Webmail (IMP) 75mb quotas 5 year old Sun hardware – end of life-cycle heavy webmail usage 30% of students forwarding email to ISP’s
The Decision to Outsource The Decision to Outsource
Prevalence of good free services
Outsourcing email and other communications functions is an acknowledgement that the outsourced providers have a better product than most universities offer.
Prevalence of good free services
Outsourcing email and other communications functions is an acknowledgement that the outsourced providers have a better product than most universities offer.
The Decision to Outsource The Decision to Outsource
Many students already forwarding
Given that most incoming students (90% in our case) are already using Gmail, Windows Live/Hotmail/MSN, Yahoo or AOL they are quite comfortable with these systems and anything we provide would have to better
Many students already forwarding
Given that most incoming students (90% in our case) are already using Gmail, Windows Live/Hotmail/MSN, Yahoo or AOL they are quite comfortable with these systems and anything we provide would have to better
The Decision to Outsource The Decision to Outsource
Freeing Resources
The resources freed up can be used to provide services that can uniquely be provided by universities.
Freeing Resources
The resources freed up can be used to provide services that can uniquely be provided by universities.
The Decision to Outsource The Decision to Outsource
The student perspective
Students’ main interest is having a .EDU email address, which can be provided without providing an actual account.
.EDU nameplate valued because: School address may look more official when writing to potential
employers
Social networking sites use students’ email domain to determine which university a student attends – Facebook
The student perspective
Students’ main interest is having a .EDU email address, which can be provided without providing an actual account.
.EDU nameplate valued because: School address may look more official when writing to potential
employers
Social networking sites use students’ email domain to determine which university a student attends – Facebook
The Selection ProcessThe Selection Process
Consultation with students
Coordination with Wharton and other schools at Penn
Legal issues
Consultation with students
Coordination with Wharton and other schools at Penn
Legal issues
ImplementationImplementation
Mail FlowMail Flow
Once the decision was made to outsource email, the first significant implementation detail was how to manage mail flow:
Creating a new mail domain with the MX record pointing to your provider’s servers
- or -
Bifurcating your existing domain**our choice
Once the decision was made to outsource email, the first significant implementation detail was how to manage mail flow:
Creating a new mail domain with the MX record pointing to your provider’s servers
- or -
Bifurcating your existing domain**our choice
Hotmail Servers(MX for students.sas.upenn.edu
would point here)
Mail to other SAS accountsOther providers
(forwarding)
Local legacy mail system
Faculty/Staff Server
SAS Email Gateways(MX for sas.upenn.edu points here)
Mail to Penn Live accounts
Creating a new domainCreating a new domain
Creating a new domain - considerations
Creating a new domain - considerations
Pros - Little to no maintenance work (admin time)
No hardware requirement
Cons - Unless all students use your new provider, you will have students
with dissimilar domains
Not scalable - if you decide to partner with multiple providers later, you would have to bifurcate this new domain or create yet another one
Pros - Little to no maintenance work (admin time)
No hardware requirement
Cons - Unless all students use your new provider, you will have students
with dissimilar domains
Not scalable - if you decide to partner with multiple providers later, you would have to bifurcate this new domain or create yet another one
Hotmail Servers(Penn Live accounts)
Mail to all SAS accountsOther providers
(forwarding)
Local legacy mail system
Faculty/Staff Server
SAS Email Gateways(MX for sas.upenn.edu points here)
Bifurcating a domainBifurcating a domain
Bifurcating a domain - considerations
Bifurcating a domain - considerations
Pros - All students receive mail at the same domain
Mail relays can be dual-purpose: relaying mail to your provider and also managing forwarding to any other address a student chooses to use
Cons - Need mail admin staff to create and maintain routing rules
Need redundant mail relays
Complicates whitelisting and SPAM filtering
Pros - All students receive mail at the same domain
Mail relays can be dual-purpose: relaying mail to your provider and also managing forwarding to any other address a student chooses to use
Cons - Need mail admin staff to create and maintain routing rules
Need redundant mail relays
Complicates whitelisting and SPAM filtering
Penn Live Account CreationPenn Live Account Creation
Creating a Penn Live account is really a 2-step process:
Provisioning the account on Microsoft’s servers
Setting up a forwarder so that students’ school mail is forwarded to the Hotmail servers
Creating a Penn Live account is really a 2-step process:
Provisioning the account on Microsoft’s servers
Setting up a forwarder so that students’ school mail is forwarded to the Hotmail servers
Penn Live Account CreationPenn Live Account Creation
Step 1 – User logs into a custom web front-end to create an account
Front-end interfaces with an MIIS server, server used for creating Windows Live accounts
Step 1 – User logs into a custom web front-end to create an account
Front-end interfaces with an MIIS server, server used for creating Windows Live accounts
Windows Live ID Servers
1. User logs onto web front-end
2. Front-end passes username to MIIS
MIIS connectsto Live serversand provisions
student’s account
Penn Live Account CreationPenn Live Account Creation
Step 2 – we set the student’s mail to forward to the Hotmail servers
Step 2 – we set the student’s mail to forward to the Hotmail servers
SAS Mail Gateways
Mail.SAS
Hotmail Servers
Mail was being deliveredto our legacy mail system
Mail is set to forward to Penn Live (Hotmail)
Mail sent to [email protected]
goes to our mail gateways
Choices for Managing MailChoices for Managing Mail
Students have several choices for managing their SAS email:
1. Using Penn Live
2. Forwarding to an account of their choosing
3. Students with existing legacy accounts may continue to use them
Students have several choices for managing their SAS email:
1. Using Penn Live
2. Forwarding to an account of their choosing
3. Students with existing legacy accounts may continue to use them
Forwarding to a non-Penn Live Account
Forwarding to a non-Penn Live Account
We give our students the ability to forward to any account of their choosing, using the same technology we use to forward to Penn Live
Students can log into a custom web interface that allows them to change the location where their school mail is delivered at any time
We give our students the ability to forward to any account of their choosing, using the same technology we use to forward to Penn Live
Students can log into a custom web interface that allows them to change the location where their school mail is delivered at any time
SAS Mail Gateways
Yahoo! Mail Servers
Gmail Servers
Mail was being delivered to [email protected]
Mail is now deliveredto [email protected]
Mail sent to [email protected]
goes to our mail gateways
User changes forwarding addressfrom [email protected]
Support & FindingsSupport & Findings
DocumentationDocumentation
Re-organized help documents Explain choices Extensive FAQ Client configurations Mail Migration Techniques Other decision support information
Re-organized help documents Explain choices Extensive FAQ Client configurations Mail Migration Techniques Other decision support information
DocumentationDocumentation
Penn Live Blog Informal tone Announcements Bugs and workarounds Others ephemeral issues Provides a forum for comments
Penn Live Blog Informal tone Announcements Bugs and workarounds Others ephemeral issues Provides a forum for comments
Support ServicesSupport Services
Created new position, “Project Manager for Student Technology”
Revised support model for email services Reorganized Help Desk with new focus on
support for students Extended hours of coverage
Created new position, “Project Manager for Student Technology”
Revised support model for email services Reorganized Help Desk with new focus on
support for students Extended hours of coverage
Support ServicesSupport Services
Help issues Relatively few questions about features Lots of questions about forwarding Client and mobile device configuration Turned up some bugs, several related to Mac users
Help issues Relatively few questions about features Lots of questions about forwarding Client and mobile device configuration Turned up some bugs, several related to Mac users
Support ServicesSupport Services
Targeted communications for specific populations
Gmail users Hotmail users
Targeted communications for specific populations
Gmail users Hotmail users
Support ServicesSupport Services
Penn Live user survey Identified areas of common concern (IMAP,
SPAM filtering) Learned more about usage patterns
Platform and browser preferences Clients and mobile devices
Identified & addressed lots of individual issues
Penn Live user survey Identified areas of common concern (IMAP,
SPAM filtering) Learned more about usage patterns
Platform and browser preferences Clients and mobile devices
Identified & addressed lots of individual issues
How well does Penn Live meet your needs?How well does Penn Live meet your needs?n=287
17%
49%
27%
4% 3%
completely
very well
adequate
barely meets needs
totally inadequate
Mail Delivery Choices:College Undergraduates
(6500 students)
Mail Delivery Choices:College Undergraduates
(6500 students)
0
500
1000
1500
2000
2500
8/26
/2007
9/2/
2007
9/9/
2007
9/16
/2007
9/23
/2007
9/30
/2007
10/7/
2007
10/14
/200
7
10/21
/200
7
10/28
/200
7
11/4/
2007
11/11
/200
7
11/18
/200
7
11/25
/200
7
12/2/
2007
12/9/
2007
12/16
/200
7
12/23
/200
7
12/30
/200
7
1/6/
2008
Penn Live
Mail.SAS
Gmail
Other ISP
0
500
1000
1500
2000
2500
8/26
/2007
9/2/
2007
9/9/
2007
9/16
/2007
9/23
/2007
9/30
/2007
10/7/
2007
10/14
/200
7
10/21
/200
7
10/28
/200
7
11/4/
2007
11/11
/200
7
11/18
/200
7
11/25
/200
7
12/2/
2007
12/9/
2007
12/16
/200
7
12/23
/200
7
12/30
/200
7
1/6/
2008
Penn Live
Mail.SAS
Gmail
Other ISP
Mail Delivery Choices:College UndergraduatesMail Delivery Choices:College Undergraduates
as of 1/1/08 FR SO JR SR Total %
Penn Live 663 548 511 348 2070 31.9%
Mail.SAS 12 398 330 320 1060 16.3%
Gmail 333 315 517 748 1913 29.4%
Other ISP 497 291 355 311 1454 22.4%
Total 1505 1552 1713 1727 6497 100.0%
FindingsFindings
Choice is good
but… Choice can lead to confusion
“How do I forward Penn Live to my GMail account?”
Choice is good
but… Choice can lead to confusion
“How do I forward Penn Live to my GMail account?”
FindingsFindings
Hazards of forwarding to other ISPs Setting the “from” address SPAM filtering
IMAP matters
Hazards of forwarding to other ISPs Setting the “from” address SPAM filtering
IMAP matters
FindingsFindings
A non-story at Penn A non-story at Penn
Next StepsNext Steps
Roll-out to ~2400 graduate students Continued analysis of usage data & help
requests Continued refinement of help docs Calendar services Collaboration tools
Roll-out to ~2400 graduate students Continued analysis of usage data & help
requests Continued refinement of help docs Calendar services Collaboration tools
Next StepsNext Steps
The end of mail.sas Moving resources to other priorities
Investing more in wireless networking Information security Media systems
The end of mail.sas Moving resources to other priorities
Investing more in wireless networking Information security Media systems
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