Henry, This is not a silent announcement - my understanding is that ICTAP was informed of the fact that ICT were investigating Office 365. ICT has also communicated with Heads of Departments about moving students to Office 365 and that we are also going to then consider what we do for PGs and staff. There are a number of concerns around moving email to a cloud based provider and one of the key things that we have put in place is the use of the JANET amendments to the standard Office 365 contract - this ensures data integrity and hosting location commitments. There are a number of other relatively minor but none the less important amendments that these JANET changes also include. All data stored on the servers remains the property of the individual or institution concerned and there is no presumption by Microsoft of ownership. Interestingly, Microsoft are contesting a court order in the US about revealing email data currently held in the Dublin data centre and have appealed the current ruling. This is of interest to a huge number of people who are either already using or who are considering using Microsoft's cloud services. Support for the service is provided by ICT and ICT will act as the intermediary between an individual and the service provider should that be necessary - the users will not be expected to deal with Microsoft directly. Regards Adrian -----Original Message----- From: Rzepa, Henry S Sent: 04 September 2014 14:42 To: Mannall, Adrian B Cc: Rzepa, Henry S; physics-departmental-computing; Craster, Richard V; Haigh, Joanna D; Hankin, Chris; Hoskins, Brian J; Makuch, Zen A; Rose, Steven J; Selkirk, Murray E; Welton, Tom; Adams, Niall M; Colling, David J; Conway, John; Dunbar, James L; Head, Martin K; Islam, Suhail A; Moore, Dan R; Robb, Mike A; Rzepa, Henry S; Sarsfield, Moira E; Albrecht, Tim; Cohen, Lesley; Curry, Stephen; Duncombe, Bridgette J; Forsyth, Robert J; Gibbons, John; Gounaris, Kleoniki; Mestel, Jonathan; Physics Director of Undergraduate Studies; Tennant, Mike; Tristem, Michael; a.wastnidge; Anderson, Diana R; Boyce, Eileen S; Evans, Pat M; Fitzgerald, Anthony J; Gayer, Gosia; Jones, Linda D; Jones, Richard L; Lyle, Karen R; Mulholland, Ciara; Nurboja, Sandrine A C; Mussard, Mike J; Parkins, Kat; Khanna, Taru Subject: Re: Office 365 I notice the phrase "Planning is underway for the migration postgraduate and staff accounts, expected to commence during 2015. Further updates will follow" This is what in the trade is called a "silent announcement". I presume no-one has any choice in whether their email will be hosted by Microsoft or not? There have been numerous concerns about "off shore" hosting, and I would be grateful if the document circulated to both students AND staff spell out the differences that might accrue from a move from "on short hosting" at Imperial College to an "off shore" hosting by Microsoft. My other concern is "support". With an additional third party involved (Microsoft), will there be any changes to the support provided? For example, would there be ANY circumstance where a user might be advised to "contact the Microsoft help desk" for an issue that is regarded as "not ICT's"? Microsoft also infamously "lost" email for about 150,000 users a few years back. Were that to happen again, how would support be provided? Finally, I would appreciate some mention in the document to be sent out (to students in the first instance) that ABSOLUTELY no "metadata" regarding individual identity will EVER be sent or possessed by Microsoft (which is what I understand the case to be). It should not be implicit in the document, but should be spelt out in absolutely water-tight terms. Thanks! On 4 Sep 2014, at 12:57, Mannall, Adrian B <a.mannall@imperial.ac.uk> wrote:
Planning is underway for the migration postgraduate and staff accounts, expected to commence during 2015. Further updates will follow.