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There is now a CONTENT FREEZE for Mercury while we switch to a new platform. It began on Friday, March 10 at 6pm and will end on Wednesday, March 15 at noon. No new content can be created during this time, but all material in the system as of the beginning of the freeze will be migrated to the new platform, including users and groups. Functionally the new site is identical to the old one. webteam@gatech.edu
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Atlanta, GA | Posted: August 25, 2014
Beginning this fall, the Georgia Tech community will be able to migrate its Zimbra email, calendar, and contacts services to a new Outlook-based solution as part of the Microsoft Office 365 implementation. This user-friendly service will deliver better integration with Microsoft Office products, provide larger email storage capacity, and enable secure sharing capabilities.
This service will be delivered through a secure hybrid solution consisting of the Microsoft Office 365 cloud-based solution and a locally hosted Microsoft Exchange server. Tech’s current Zimbra service will continue to be available to departments as well but will no longer receive service upgrades.
The plan to provide a more robust and collaborative email service was approved by the Strategic Technology Investment Committee (www.epmo.gatech.edu/stic), which consists of faculty and administrators from across campus. The committee’s goal is to champion technology that supports one of Georgia Tech’s strategic goals: the relentless pursuit of institutional effectiveness.
As stated by Jim O’Connor, Georgia Tech’s chief information officer and vice president of Information Technology, “We have simply outgrown the current Zimbra offering. This new service will not only support the continuously evolving needs of our students, faculty, and staff, but it truly aligns a critical component of how we communicate to the Institute’s 25-year Strategic Plan and the IT Master Plan.”
In addition, a new service-level email data protection policy has been developed to govern the responsible use of email, calendar, and contacts within the new solution. This policy, which is currently open for campuswide comment, will ensure that all Georgia Tech data is protected throughout the transition and will guide usage going forward.
Representatives from the implementation project team, led by the Office of Information Technology (OIT), are meeting with interested campus departments to identify a transition window and strategy to best address departmental needs. These representatives will also assist departments that currently run their own email servers in transitioning to the new service.
Visit www.emailtransition.gatech.edu for more information about the new Outlook service.
