Webmail's gone. There are no more server crashes. And another company is handling e-mail at no charge.
It's the saga of Penn e-mail, but it's now the story of hundreds of other schools across the country.
Penn made the decision to outsource its e-mail to Microsoft last year. At the time, it was one of the first universities to hand over its e-mail to another company.
In the ensuing months, universities across the country are increasingly making the same choice: Unreliable university-maintained servers with little storage space are out; e-mail run by tech giants like Google and Microsoft is in.
According to Microsoft officials, the company's e-mail, Windows Live, now provides service to over 400 schools in 35 countries around the world, and Google Apps is used at many other universities.
Penn has generally been happy with the service Microsoft has provided thus far. Thirty-two percent of students in the School of Arts and Sciences use Penn Live, storage space is up considerably, and, arguably most importantly, the constant server crashes of the last few years are a thing of the past.
Arizona State University, which outsourced to Google last fall, saved about $500,000 per year by switching and has 50,000 students accessing the service on any given week.
Officials there are similarly content: It's "the best decision we've made for our students," ASU technology officer Adrian Sannier said.
It's the success of Penn, ASU and other large schools that has sparked the interest from other schools, said SAS Vice Dean of Finance and Administration Ramin Sedehi.
"People are very excited about doing this on their campus," he said.
The benefits of outsourcing make it easy to see why. Universities pay nothing for putting their e-mail systems in the hands of experts, and increased storage and new features are an added bonus.
As Sannier put it, using university-based e-mail is like "storing money in your matress instead of in the bank."
Both Bruce Gabrielle, senior product manager for Microsoft, and Jeff Keltner, bussiness developer for Google Apps, say the two companies aren't worried about providing free services at a loss if it means gaining market share in the form of life-long users of their e-mail systems.
Still, most schools are continuing to use university-maintained e-mail servers. The University of Tampa is considering outsourcing its e-mail, but officials there say privacy concerns that are making them hesitate.
Steve Magriby, director of instructional technology at Tampa, explained that by outsourcing, there's no way to ensure companies will not abuse user information.
"You are at the mercy of the companies to protect" students' privacy, he said.
But Sedehi predicted that by next fall, many more schools will decide to follow Penn's lead.
Demand from "the student population is driving this," he said.
