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Navigating the Challenges of UW's Office 365 Implementation: Lessons Learned

This detailed account chronicles the University of Washington’s complex journey toward migrating from Live@edu to Office 365 between 2011 and 2014. Under the leadership of Tom Lewis, the project faced numerous challenges, including equipment delays, insufficient tenant provisioning from Microsoft, and issues with data migration. Despite the setbacks, significant insights emerged regarding vendor management, change management, and communication strategies, ultimately shaping a more informed path forward. This case study serves as a valuable resource for institutions undertaking similar transitions.

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Navigating the Challenges of UW's Office 365 Implementation: Lessons Learned

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Presentation Transcript

  1. The Saga of UW’s Office365 Implementation • Tom Lewis, Director • Academic & Collaborative Applications • UW Information Technology

  2. July – August 2011Foolish Optimism • Live@edu migration/general availability O365 project kickoff meeting • Project end date of November 2011 • Equipment needs identified and orders placed • Decision to use F5 load balancers – new project spun up • Asked Microsoft for permanent test tenant • Senior UW-IT leadership emails senior Microsoft leadership about delay and lack of response to our request

  3. September – October 2011Uh-oh • All equipment delivered and built out • Dogfood tenant finally provisioned by Microsoft • A month after UW-IT leadership email • Not a true EDU tenant or XL size • Slippage of timeline • Start to realize how horrible the transition will be for Live@edu users

  4. November – December 2011Eyes Opening Widely • Deep dive with Microsoft on O365 and UW environment • Contracting with Microsoft Premier Deployment team • More discovery on how bad the migration for Live@edu users • First taste of how poor Microsoft’s support of O365 versus Live@edu • TAP & MSO based Strawman for migration

  5. January – February 2012Holding…. • Engaged with Microsoft on deep dive for TAP • Standard non-EDU and XL tenant fiasco • UW Medicine decides they want to move to O365

  6. March - May 2012: Holding… • In-place conversion versus “greenfield” approach • Decision to go with “greenfield” approach • Problems with DirSync limitations • Confirmed with Microsoft a migration path for Live@edu users • Move away from FIM and go back to DirSync

  7. June – August 2012More Holding… • Contract should be signed and ready to go by July 1st • Strawman for migrating Live@edu users finalized • Ask Microsoft if we can keep old Live@edu tenant and upgrade it to O365 • Microsoft responds two months later that they can upgrade our existing Live@edu tenant

  8. September – December 20121 of Many Stages of Grief • Microsoft does bait and switch on contract • Live@edu upgrade to Office 365 finally happens • Major outage of Live@edu • Contract and licensing for O365 finalized (signed) • Talks with Microsoft to confirm we have proper support for O365 • Changed the mail attribute value to <uwnetid>@uw.edu

  9. January – April 2013Grief Diminishes • Changed primary SMTP for mail enabled users • Followed the Google groups method of email address of <group name>@uw.edu for Exchange enabled groups • Mega GAL testing • Decided to scrap everything with WAVE 14 and go to WAVE 15 • Microsoft provisions WAVE 15 tenants

  10. May – August 2013Change of Direction • Decision to install Exchange 2013 for mailbox migrations • Setup DirSync in Dogfood environment (Wave 15) • Decided to deliver SkyDrive Pro (now One Drive for Business) and Lync Online to campus before Exchange Online • Decided to migrate Exchange Local users to Exchange Online before general availability (manual process) • Receive quote from Microsoft for Exchange Online migration (~$1,000,000) • Production SkyDrive Pro and Lync Online environment setup • Early adopters given accounts (~1000)

  11. September – December 2013Progress Finally • Contract with Cloudbearing to help with Live@edu migrations established • SkyDrive Pro and Lync Online released to campus (~140,000 accounts provisioned) • Lowered UW Exchange Local message size limit from 60 MB to 25 MB (to match Exchange Online) • Production Exchange Online (hybrid) successfully setup • First UW Exchange Local mailbox successfully migrated to Exchange Online

  12. January – April 2014Towards a Happy Ending? • Large mail message report sent out to UW Exchange Local support groups • Exchange Online pilot begins (migrated a couple hundred selected users) • Mass migrations from UW Exchange Local to Exchange Online begins • ~2400 migrated as of today

  13. Lessons LearnedVendor Management • Microsoft O365 technologies and support are not mature, so continual engagement required • Teams still working at cross purposes • Ask not, do • Many things are not so enterprise with licensing and otherwise • Beware the HIPAA-busting updates • Verify and then trust with Microsoft and their partners • NET+ helps

  14. Lessons LearnedCampus Change Management • Email costs will not diminish for awhile (if ever) • Will still need lots of hardware too • Communicate the timelines, communicate the details • Lots of community meetings • Public product backlog • Talk up the value • Work closely in pilot mode with department IT, early adopters • Pilot early, and pilot for a loooooong time • Create a public and open communication channel

  15. Lessons LearnedPolicy Implications • Account life-cycle management comes to the fore • Whither Alumni? • Separation business processes often Lots of community meetings • Public product backlog • HIPAA means lots of discussion on e-discovery • Engage early and often with your counsel • I am not a lawyer, but I play one at work…

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