I have listed the arguments made by the
ITO of Arizona State University below:
1) ASU decided that they needed a higher level of interactive
technology to adequately meet the needs of its students. (I think that is
probably true, although it is strange that it only applies to students and not
faculty or staff).
2) The IT people at ASU were spending too much time providing direct
service to students. (i.e. Google is cheaper).
3) The IT at ASU was unable to keep up with the exponential growth in
email demands. (This is also true but the argument that a larger company
can keep up better is fallacious. Large or small, exponential growth
costs grow somewhere near exponentially).
4) Google is able to put a lot of research into developing high level
tools for collaboration. (This is true both for Google and a number of
other companies).
5) Google is the only company that will be able to sustain the rate of
development of Internet Applications. (This is probably false).
6) The decision to change to Google email was so easy that is was made
in two weeks. (i.e. Google is cheaper).
7) Student email was previously a source of a lot of support calls.
(i.e. Google is cheaper).
8) IT at ASU now has the time to focus on how the students use
technology. (i.e. Google is cheaper).
9) ASU plans to save $400,000 per year in making the change.
(i.e. Google is cheaper).
10) Even organizations the size of large universities
cannot compete with industrial sized giants when it comes to email provision
and security. (This is true).
My conclusion is that MSU does need an
industry supported email system. Google is cheap in the short term but
the real costs are unknown. The concept that you can have an unlimited
supply of something for nothing is clearly erroneous unless you believe in
pyramid schemes.
From: Samone E. Jones
[mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Friday, May 25, 2007 12:45
PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [MSUNAG] Google wants
msu.edu? What can they do that we can't...
Sorry
if this is redundant, but doing my own research on this Google issue I ran
across a YouTube video of Arizona States' head Information Technology Officer.
He's
definitely singing Google's praises (the video is posted by
Google) but he makes some solid points.
Here's
the link if anyone is interested - I found it informative - it's a summary
of how
how
they feel they benefited- It's only 4 minutes long:
Samone E. Jones
Information Technologists
Family & Consumer Sciences
Voice: 517.432.4552
Fax: 517.353.4846
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