• Data loading...
+ Post New Thread
Page 1 of 2 12 LastLast
Results 1 to 15 of 17
Cloud Services Thread, Microsoft Office 365 - Getting up to speed with the cloud in Technical; ...
  1. #1

    Join Date
    Jun 2012
    Posts
    3
    Thank Post
    0
    Thanked 3 Times in 1 Post
    Rep Power
    0

    Microsoft Office 365 - Getting up to speed with the cloud



    This post aims to arm you will information and case studies covering the use of Office 365 in your school environment. We have selection of threads from EduGeek users and case studies as well as a useful overview for those who are migrating from an existing Live@Edu setup.

    Live@Edu to Office 365 migration overview:

    PDF

    Case Studies:

    Kimarnock College


    Office 365 Transforms College's Email System, Provides Competitive Edge

    In 2009, Kilmarnock College subscribed to the Live@edu cloud service for its student email and collaboration services, a solution that has proven to be a resounding success. Learning that Live@edu is being upgraded to Microsoft® Office 365, the college recognized the opportunity to replace the aging and restrictive on-premises email infrastructure used by both curriculum and service areas. As a result of the migration, the college has reduced hardware costs, greatly reduced support calls and the need to conduct nightly backups, and freed its ICT (information and communication technology) staff to start thinking about how it can use Office 365 for more strategic initiatives. As part of a phased approach, students and staff alike will ultimately be using the same online service—and Kilmarnock College email provision will be operating completely in the cloud.

    Situation

    Located in East Ayrshire, a local authority area of Scotland in the United Kingdom, Kilmarnock College serves approximately 5,500 full and part-time students annually. Founded more than 50 years ago, the college’s mission is to play a lead role in the development of skills, the economy and community life. To that end, it offers a wide range of career-oriented programs, including the arts, social sciences, beauty, business, hospitality, tourism, computing, ICT, administration, early education and childcare, engineering, health and social care, motor vehicle, science, and sports. In addition to offering certification through full, part-time, and evening classes, Kilmarnock also partners with several universities should its students wish to move to a full degree program.
    Read the full white paper study

    University of West London

    Using the Cloud to Start a Life-Long Connection

    The University of West London (UWL) needed to meet its students’ expectation for modern, high-quality IT services, that equipped them with the industry-standard tools to help them study and collaborate (not only with the university but with each other and also with prospective employers). Investment in IT infrastructure had not kept pace with user demand particularly over the past few years. Rather than attempt to improve what it had, UWL decided to play “leap frog” and provide its students with the best possible environment for learning. A task force at UWL examined the options for a more modern messaging and collaboration environment and a product that was sufficiently flexible to provide a gateway to all the information students need. As a result, the University chose to adopt Microsoft® Office 365 for education. Not only has UWL gained a collaboration environment of greater sophistication than any it has had before, but it has also gained a tool for engaging with students that goes far beyond what it had initially anticipated.


    Situation
    Its faculty, staff, and students relied on Microsoft Outlook® for an email client, Microsoft Word for word processing, as well as other applications in the Microsoft Office suite. Additionally, the university relied on a number of other applications that it integrated with these core Microsoft applications on an ad hoc basis. But the University’s IT team was having to spend so much time maintaining this environment that it was preventing the team from get-ting ahead on projects that were of higher value both to students and administrators.
    Read the full white paper study

    The Schools Network

    Gaining Greater Messaging Resiliency and Flexibility at a Lower Cost

    When The Schools Network was looking for opportunities to streamline operations and lower costs, its aging email infrastructure was a natural candidate for change. IT personnel were routinely spending two or more days each month managing, maintaining, or repairing the infrastructure. Users were often unable to connect to the infrastructure while traveling. The hardware sometimes failed, cutting off hundreds of email users in locations as far afield as Abu Dhabi and China. To overcome all these shortcomings, The Schools Network turned to Microsoft® and Microsoft Gold Partner Perspicuity. Perspicuity showed The Schools Network how the cloud-based Microsoft Office 365 for education service could help it reduce IT costs and ensure easy access from anywhere, all the while providing an email infrastructure with greater availability and resilience than it had before.
    Situation


    The Schools Network—formerly known as the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust—is in the business of transforming education around the world. Over the past 25 years, this London-based, not-for-profit organization has built a world-class network of innovative, high-performing schools and academies in partnership with business and the wider community. It works with a long list of academies in the United Kingdom and nearly 80 percent of state-funded schools. It also works with international schools in China and Abu Dhabi. The outcome? Better teachers, better student achievement scores, and students better prepared to make a difference in the future.
    Read the full white paper study

    University of Dundee

    University Eases IT, Broadens Communications with Hosted Solution

    As a leading university in the United Kingdom, the University of Dundee in Scotland enjoys a global reputation as a center for teaching and research. With approximately 22,000 students and 3,000 staff, it graduates more students into professions than any other Scottish university. Previously, it used a Novell GroupWise email system for messaging. When significant downtime and mobile limitations caused frustration for its students and staff, it evaluated hosted solutions from Google and Microsoft. The university selected Microsoft Office 365 to help improve the reliability of its messaging system and reduce IT administration and costs. By using the Office 365 online services, the university also sees an opportunity to broaden the communications and collaboration capabilities it offers to its staff and students, including students in the distance-learning program.

    Situation

    The University of Dundee is based in the city of Dundee on the east coast of Scotland. It ranked 140 among the world’s top 200 universities in the Times Higher Education 2010-2011 World University Rankings and rated number one in the United Kingdom in the Times Higher Education student experience survey for 2011-2012. The university is made up of four colleges: Art, Science, and Engineering; Arts and Social Sciences; Life Sciences; and Medicine, Dentistry, and Nursing, and it graduates more students into professions, including law, accountancy, architecture, dentistry, education, social work, and nursing than any other Scottish university.
    Read the full white paper study

    Microsoft Office 365 Preview - Coming soon:

    Office Next - Office Preview

    Microsoft Office 365 Enterprise Preview - Official Site

    Office Next - Apps for the new Office and SharePoint IT admin guide

    Office Next - The new Outlook Web App extends to tablets and phones

    Office Next - Office and the Cloud


    Discussions and questions on EduGeek

    http://www.edugeek.net/forums/cloud-...365-ebook.html

    http://www.edugeek.net/forums/how-do...x-changes.html

    http://www.edugeek.net/forums/cloud-...questions.html

    http://www.edugeek.net/forums/cloud-...office365.html

    http://www.edugeek.net/forums/cloud-...-question.html

    http://www.edugeek.net/forums/cloud-...addresses.html

    http://www.edugeek.net/forums/cloud-...calendars.html


    Other Resources

    Microsoft Office 365 Deployment Guide

    Microsoft Exchange Deployment Assistant

    Plan for and deploy AD FS 2.0 for use with single sign-on

    Single sign-on roadmap

    AD FS with Office 365 Step by Step Install Guide

    Office 365 for Enterprise Service Descriptions (This should explain what each plan has, its poorly named)

    Compare Office 365 Plans for Education here
    Attached Images Attached Images
    Attached Files Attached Files
    Last edited 4th October 2012 at 01:17 PM.

  2. 3 Thanks to Office365:

    flyinghaggis (28th September 2012), GrumbleDook (28th June 2012), speckytecky (6th July 2012)

  3. #2
    zag
    zag is offline

    zag's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2007
    Posts
    4,960
    Thank Post
    1,576
    Thanked 689 Times in 563 Posts
    Blog Entries
    12
    Rep Power
    153
    An excellent product indeed.

    No reason to have onsite Exchange servers at all these days.

    Cloud Email and Office Apps is the future....

  4. #3

    Edu-IT's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2007
    Posts
    9,572
    Thank Post
    509
    Thanked 1,118 Times in 994 Posts
    Rep Power
    299
    Am I being stupid? Do you have to sign up for the trial then downgrade to the free plan or something?

  5. #4
    jamesbmarshall's Avatar
    Join Date
    Feb 2010
    Location
    Reading, UK
    Posts
    561
    Thank Post
    27
    Thanked 241 Times in 167 Posts
    Rep Power
    107
    Quote Originally Posted by Edu-IT View Post
    Do you have to sign up for the trial then downgrade to the free plan or something?
    You sign up for the trial which gives you access to the A3 plan (which is paid for) while you verify that you're an eligible institution. Once verified you can "purchase" the free A2 plan, or pay for the A3 and A4 plans if you want.

  6. #5

    Edu-IT's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2007
    Posts
    9,572
    Thank Post
    509
    Thanked 1,118 Times in 994 Posts
    Rep Power
    299
    I see! Cheers. :-)

  7. #6
    zag
    zag is offline

    zag's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2007
    Posts
    4,960
    Thank Post
    1,576
    Thanked 689 Times in 563 Posts
    Blog Entries
    12
    Rep Power
    153
    Good video introduction here


  8. #7
    has
    has is offline

    Join Date
    Jul 2011
    Location
    UK
    Posts
    125
    Thank Post
    35
    Thanked 14 Times in 13 Posts
    Rep Power
    28
    Office 365 is also replacing Glow Scotland as VLE. All primary and secondary schools in Scotland will be using this from next year.

  9. #8

    SYNACK's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2007
    Posts
    11,213
    Thank Post
    894
    Thanked 2,765 Times in 2,333 Posts
    Blog Entries
    12
    Rep Power
    807
    Interesting regarding the SSL certs, do we all need to buy external VeriSign or Thwart certs, no options for private signed or MS provided?

  10. #9

    Join Date
    Jun 2012
    Posts
    3
    Thank Post
    0
    Thanked 3 Times in 1 Post
    Rep Power
    0
    <--- BUMP --->
    This thread has been updated to including some information about the next version of Office 365 as well as some more resource links.

  11. #10

    gshaw's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2007
    Location
    Essex
    Posts
    3,822
    Thank Post
    467
    Thanked 373 Times in 333 Posts
    Rep Power
    217
    Is there a guide for students on how to access their "My Files" area and will the next release allow customisation of the landing page you see on login?

    What I want is simple access to a cloud based file store for students working from home. Moving files around needs an easy drag and drop interface like Windows rather than lists and multiple click menus. Is this something we might see in the not too distant future?
    Last edited 28th September 2012 at 03:07 PM.

  12. #11


    Join Date
    Jan 2006
    Posts
    9,040
    Thank Post
    501
    Thanked 1,220 Times in 960 Posts
    Rep Power
    422
    Quote Originally Posted by gshaw View Post
    What I want is simple access to a cloud based file store for students working from home. Moving files around needs an easy drag and drop interface like Windows rather than lists and multiple click menus. Is this something we might see in the not too distant future?
    You need Google apps then. Google Apps vs Office 365 is like a Galaxy3 vs iPhone - You choose the Galaxy 3 if you want more features at a lower cost. You only choose the the iphone if your a sucker for marketing.

  13. #12

    ZeroHour's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2005
    Location
    Edinburgh, Scotland
    Posts
    7,988
    Thank Post
    2,576
    Thanked 2,580 Times in 1,522 Posts
    Blog Entries
    1
    Rep Power
    1004
    Quote Originally Posted by gshaw View Post
    Is there a guide for students on how to access their "My Files" area and will the next release allow customisation of the landing page you see on login?

    What I want is simple access to a cloud based file store for students working from home. Moving files around needs an easy drag and drop interface like Windows rather than lists and multiple click menus. Is this something we might see in the not too distant future?
    The o365 preview integrated skydrive I believe unlike now so I *think* those accounts would get skydrive for work when it comes out of preview.

  14. #13

    gshaw's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2007
    Location
    Essex
    Posts
    3,822
    Thank Post
    467
    Thanked 373 Times in 333 Posts
    Rep Power
    217
    Interesting, will have to keep an eye on that. Ironically after being the weak link for so long Skydrive is now one of the biggest draws for MS in terms of its integration with Windows and Office. The interface is better as well now, certainly a lot better than Sharepoint as it stands.

    As for the Google Apps argument it's the consistent Office interface that keeps us on a pure MS platform but the over complexity of 365 isn't doing it any favours at the moment imo.

  15. #14

    ZeroHour's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2005
    Location
    Edinburgh, Scotland
    Posts
    7,988
    Thank Post
    2,576
    Thanked 2,580 Times in 1,522 Posts
    Blog Entries
    1
    Rep Power
    1004
    Quote Originally Posted by gshaw View Post
    Interesting, will have to keep an eye on that. Ironically after being the weak link for so long Skydrive is now one of the biggest draws for MS in terms of its integration with Windows and Office. The interface is better as well now, certainly a lot better than Sharepoint as it stands.

    As for the Google Apps argument it's the consistent Office interface that keeps us on a pure MS platform but the over complexity of 365 isn't doing it any favours at the moment imo.
    Its possibly worth having a play with the preview using a subdomain to see the changes, nothing in the preview will get migrated though as a heads up.
    There are a lot of changes to sharepoint too which should make it much easier. It looks much more like outlook.com does.

  16. #15

    vikpaw's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2006
    Location
    Riyadh, Bahrain, Qatar, Dubai...UK de temps en temps
    Posts
    7,639
    Thank Post
    1,984
    Thanked 2,104 Times in 1,648 Posts
    Rep Power
    725
    Some advice please.
    Migrated to office 365 and now on exchange plan 1 for students. there are numerous free plans i can subscribe too, can i opt for them all, are some old and defunct. which is better? can't find any decent comparisons for education. Online chat told me to bog off and resellers here are useless!
    I can see Exchange plan 1 for students , faculty, staff. Are all these superceded by Office 365 plans A2.?
    I can also add "Sharepoint online plan 1" and "office webapps with sharepoint online plan 1". Do i need both, what's the difference.?
    Will any of these affect the current setup / users.?



SHARE:
+ Post New Thread
Page 1 of 2 12 LastLast

Similar Threads

  1. desktop vm's for students (clients) -- im not up to speed with this
    By amfony in forum Thin Client and Virtual Machines
    Replies: 3
    Last Post: 29th May 2011, 09:56 AM
  2. Need to get up to speed with CMIS
    By gemmal in forum How do you do....it?
    Replies: 9
    Last Post: 2nd April 2011, 02:41 PM
  3. Broadband rates 'not up to speed'
    By elsiegee40 in forum IT News
    Replies: 5
    Last Post: 28th July 2009, 12:51 PM
  4. HP - Get up to date for out of date PC trade-in
    By WStore_Dan in forum Our Advertisers
    Replies: 0
    Last Post: 19th May 2009, 10:46 AM

LinkBacks (?)

Thread Information

Users Browsing this Thread

There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •  

L