The University has offered faculty, staff, and students two platforms for communication and collaboration – Google Workspace and Microsoft 365. Both service frameworks are available to everyone at UConn, with the exception of email and calendaring. Student email is hosted on Google (Gmail) and faculty and staff on Microsoft 365 (Outlook). Community preferences and certain security and management considerations have resulted in students primarily using Google apps to create and store files, while employees have been more strongly associated with Microsoft 365.
Having our community on two different platforms causes problems. Files and the technology are largely incompatible, which impedes file sharing, collaboration, and full use of features. People often switch back and forth between the two, disparate systems. We have continued to support both, despite the challenges, because of those preferences and because Google historically offered educational institutions free and unlimited storage. This changed in 2022 when Google unilaterally changed their terms and conditions. The institutional relationship is now effectively no better than a personal relationship. It is no longer free, and the expense scales with usage. For a large university with substantial storage needs, the cost is significant, and hard caps/quotas are necessary. Further, Google expenses are duplicative of the university’s existing and ongoing enterprise relationship with Microsoft.
After carefully considering cost, security, capabilities, and complexity, we have made the difficult decision to unify UConn onto a single feature rich platform by phasing out Google and transitioning students to Microsoft 365. All active students, incoming and returning, will have their email and calendaring on Google this academic year. ITS will begin to migrate data stored on Google to Microsoft 365 after the Spring 2024 Semester ends. Alumni will receive notifications this summer to move their files to personal storage solutions by April 2024.
For additional information and a detailed timeline for the transition, visit: its.uconn.edu/google-to-microsoft-365-transition/. Please contact us if you have comments, questions, or concerns by sending a message to GoogleMigrations@uconn.edu.