Why Keep Exchange?

If we are outsourcing student e-mail to Google and Google is more than willing to support staff and faculty e-mail, why are we still spending money on Exchange?

First and foremost, staff and faculty data will be maintained on university-controlled e-mail systems in order to protect certain types of data. While Google as a corporation provides some basic protection for the data stored in its data centers, it is still subject to local laws and regulations. In order to provide Business Continuance, Google employs multiple data centers all over the world and replicates data to multiple data centers. We could not ensure that our data would always remain on servers that reside in the United States. 

Even though we are a public institution, there are many types of data that the University of Cincinnati is required to keep confidential and other types of data that the university wants to keep confidential, at least for a certain period of time. Such data might include staff and faculty information (e.g., evaluations, addresses, phone numbers, research notes and reports, donor information, financial, contractual, physical plant details).

UCMAIL runs on the Microsoft Exchange platform. Exchange stores the data inside a proprietary database in an encrypted format. The storage devices are located in secure, University-owned data centers. The e-mail administrators can verify the chain of custody of data that is contained in the Exchange e-mail system. (This is why we do not allow the automatic forwarding of all e-mail from one mailbox to an external e-mail address.)

We are planning an upgrade to Exchange 2007 to be completed by Labor day. This upgrade will include an inbox quota increase (more space!) as well as a improved backup system. We plan to increase the retention of deleted items from 3 days to 30 days.  (Inside the Deleted items folder, select tools, recover deleted items).

When you use Outlook 2007 in MAPI mode, the connection between the client and the Exchange server is automatically encrypted. We are also enabling Secure IMAP and Secure POP3 access. Outlook Anywhere is a new protocol in Exchange 2007 that will allow a laptop user with a configured Outlook client to utilize any Internet provider to access his or her e-mail without having to create a VPN (Virtual Private Network) connection.

The UCMAIL Exchange system is configured to allow connection from a wide-range of e-mail clients, including UCMobile Blackberries and Active Sync with a Windows Mobile device or a smart phone.

Other functions provided by Exchange that are not found on the UC Google deployment include the sharing of calendar functions and access to the global address list.
 
The final reason for maintaining an in-house Exchange system for staff and faculty is to limit the risk that Google might someday decide to change their business model and begin charging educational institutions for e-mail.

Gartner predicts that students will abandon e-mail as a primary means of communication and instead use Instant messaging and social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace. As they expect businesses to continue to use e-mail as a means of communication for many years to come, we expect to be in a better position by maintaining our own in-house e-mail system.