[dundee] Microsoft tactics - Universities

[Jason Cormie]

For the last year we have been on the brink of deploying "Windows Live @ EDU", 
whereby student email will be hosted by Microsoft, giving much bigger mail 
quotas than we could ever afford along with fancy bling features.

   http://get.live.com/edu

As one of the Uni email admins I have to look at it with an unbiased view 
solely on business reasoning.  By doing this we lose a helluva lot of control 
but gain an amazing amount of capacity and reduced management, all for "free". 
  This deal is aimed mainly at Unis with large,disparate, problematic mail 
systems, as we have been an exchange shop for the last 10 years we don't 
really fit that category, but the cost savings even for us are tantalising.

Personally I'm about 50/50 on the whole issue and won't voice opinion for or 
against (yes, M$ is the devil incarnate turning people into factory moulded 
consumers, etc, etc, but I have to be practical)  The upper echelons of 
university management are still arguing for/against this sytem and thats 
pretty much the only reason it has not be activated already.

This is quite a fundamental stab in the direction of Gordons previous 
statement.  Its the same as banks offering student accounts, get them at Uni 
and they will probably be with you for life...

--
Jason Cormie
Senior Information Specialist
Central Server Group
Information Services
University of Abertay Dundee