CIT is moving Cornell's staff/ faculty email and calendar services off-campus (to "the cloud", or to Microsoft's "Office 365") February 2013.

Memo sent by CRCF

Chemistry staff, faculty and researchers,

CIT is moving Cornell's staff/ faculty email and calendar services off-campus (to "the cloud", or to Microsoft's "Office 365"). This is a very large, complex migration, mostly managed by CIT.

I would like to address two important questions you may have about this migration, along with important actions you may need to take.

1) WHEN is your move?

    The moves for Arts and Sciences, including Chemistry, are being staged over the first three Tuesdays in February (Feb. 5, Feb. 12, and Feb 19).

    CIT has, or shortly will, email  you with your specific move date. You should receive this CIT email about 3 weeks before your move.

Action required by you, please:

  • Note the date of your move. If it's a bad date (such as if you will be out of town), contact CRCF immediately <crcf> so we can work out alternative arrangements with you.

    Related info:

  • For each migration date, the moves will occur sometime in the early morning, presumably before ~6am.
  • To learn how you and your peers in Chemistry were grouped and assigned a migration date, see CRCF’s “Office 365 migration” web page, <https://confluence.cornell.edu/x/2gQ0D>.
  • The few exceptions to our migration groupings have either already moved, or will be contacted shortly about the timing of their moves.
  • Graduate students are not on the system being moved so they only need to be aware of this potential disruption to others in the department.
2) WHAT must you pay attention to?

On the day of your migration, email will not work until your email software is reconfigured, which many of you may want to do yourselves. (Same for calendar.) This includes your computers (work and home) and mobile devices.

CRCF staff <crcf> will be available to help anyone make their software changes on their migration day.

CRCF staff <crcf> can most effectively help you with any unusual email clients (such as Eudora) well before your migration day.

Action required by you, please:

  • On the day of your migration, those of you willing and able to follow CIT's instructions to change your email (and calendar) clients are encouraged to do so. If you are successful, please notify CRCF <crcf@cornell.edu> so we can continue concentrating on helping others.
  • If you use unusual or non-standard email clients (as noted under section (2), below), contact CRCF immediately <crcf@cornell.edu> so we can work with you well before your migration date to reduce surprises and problems on the day of the migration.

     See below, under section (2), to learn what we mean by “unusual or non-standard email clients”.

Worst case scenario: In the short-term, you can use a web browser to do your email and calendar tasks until your client is properly re-connected, <http://www.it.cornell.edu/services/guides/facstaff_email/office365/migrate/post-client-owa.cfm>.

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Awareness requested, please:

  • CRCF staff will be very busy on the migration dates (Feb. 5, Feb. 12, and Feb 19) helping you and your colleagues reconnect email (and calendar) clients to the new, off-campus servers.

Much of the information in this email is specific to the Chemistry department, and is designed to complement the information CIT continues to send you. CIT is responsible for provisioning our email and calendar services so continue to pay attention to their emails. If you have ANY questions or concerns about CIT's instructions, please contact CRCF <crcf> so we may assist you. Thank you.

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(2) WHAT needs to change on your email (and calendar) client?

CIT's emails to you discuss the software changes needed, breaking down the tasks into pre-migration steps, and post-migration steps. Make sure you either understand CIT's instructions, or contact CRCF <crcf> so we can help you.

CRCF staff don't anticipate much difficulty migrating the following contemporary clients, following CIT’s instructions:

  • Windows: Outlook 2010.
  • Mac: Outlook 2011
  • Mac: Apple Mail.
  • Mobile: iOS's Mail (Apple iPhone, etc)
  • Mobile: Android's Mail
  • Mobile: Windows's Mail

And if you use web mail (called Outlook Web App, or OWA), you will use a different web address after your migration:

           http://www.it.cornell.edu/services/guides/facstaff_email/office365/migrate/post-client-owa.cfm

IMPORTANT:

Please contact CRCF <crcf> if you use Eudora, Thunderbird, or any other email client not listed above. On the migration days themselves, we'll triage so that "tough" client connection problems, especially if you use a more unusual email client, may have to wait until the following day for us to concentrate on resolving them. Thank you for understanding.

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Working through this "one time" migration can be very confusing, intimidating, and in some circumstances, very complex. Don't hesitate to contact CRCF <crcf> if you have any questions or conerns.

The above information, along with links to CIT's documentation and CRCF's updated information on this project, is available at CRCF's wiki:

https://confluence.cornell.edu/x/2gQ0D

      Chemistry IT (CRCF) > Projects > Office 365 migration

Please let us know how we may assist you. And thank you for your support and understanding as we all work through this migration project together.

-Oliver, and the rest of the CRCF team

 <crcf>

255-6278

Expanded details related the above truncated information

As you know by now from CIT's communications via postcard and emails, the university is moving Cornell's on-campus Exchange services (email, calendar) to an off-campus (cloud) hosting service by Microsoft. Campus-wide, this is being staged over three months (Dec-Feb). For Arts and Sciences, including Chemistry, our moves will be in February. Additional timing details below.

This change goes by several names including, "moving to Office 365", "migrating Exchange to the cloud", and "transitioning our email to Microsoft", and similar permutations.

IMPORTANT: After the move, your email (and calendar) clients will need to be changed so they can continue getting email (and calendar info).

We'll need to work together to reduce surprises to you and to CRCF staff trying to assist you. CRCF staff are ready to assist you, including answering your questions and helping to make the necessary changes.

For the first two (of three) migration dates (Feb. 5 and Feb. 12), CRCF will coincidentally be one staff person short those days. And for the last, largest, and most complex migration day (Feb 19), we expect to be at full capacity.

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