Google to Microsoft 365 Transition
Tiffin University is moving FROM Google Workspace services, which includes student email, file storage and digital collaboration, to Microsoft 365 during the summer 2024. The articles in this section provide guidance on how to transition files and other services.
Timeline
- April 2024 – Plan to migrate to M365 announced to Campus.
- May to June 2024 – Technical testing and discovery will take place. Group and individual trainings will take place.
- July to August 2024 – Faculty and staff email and calendar migrations occur. Faculty and staff Google Drive and Shared drive migrations begin. Individual communications will occur with users during the migration process.
- Mid to Late August 2024 – Microsoft 365 established as the email system of record for Tiffin University. All emails and shared files will exist in Microsoft 365. Access to Google Apps will be available for legacy forms and other content that could not be automatically migrated.
- September 2024 – Tiffin University Google Tenant will retire on September 30, 2024
Why is TU Making this Change?
Until this past year, Google offered free and unlimited storage to educational institutions, and we could extend this benefit to all active students, employees and alumni. However, Google unilaterally updated their terms and conditions and moved to a fee model, where the cost is determined by the total amount of storage consumed. TU, like many large universities, stores a substantial amount of data, and this means that the cost to accommodate our storage needs is significant. In addition, there are many other benefits to TU and our faculty, staff and students for this change. This change will allow the institution to achieve several additional items that are a part of our overall strategic plan, such as establishing single sign-on (SSO) and additional security measures.
Where we are heading: Migration to Microsoft 365
After carefully considering cost, security, capabilities and complexity, we decided to unify our community on one platform. Microsoft 365 is essential for university operations and provides better IT security and more features to our community. Therefore, we are transitioning accounts for active students and employees to Microsoft 365 and phasing out Google services at TU.
Benefits
- Through the University’s Microsoft 365 agreement, everyone has access to Microsoft Office products (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc.) and the communication, collaboration and storage apps in Microsoft 365, such as Teams and OneDrive. The software will unify our community on one, feature-rich platform. Everyone at TU will create, communicate and collaborate with the apps in Microsoft 365.
- Students will gain experience with the applications they will most likely use after graduation. Businesses and other organizations primarily use Microsoft 365.
FAQs
What is “Microsoft 365”?
“Microsoft 365” or simply “365” is the umbrella term for Microsoft’s software suite. This suite was formerly known as “Office”, such as “Office 2016” or “Office 2019” and then “Office 365”. Microsoft then created “Microsoft 365” to include the Windows operating system (OS) itself.
Microsoft 365 includes, but is not limited to, the following programs and services: Windows, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneDrive, SharePoint, Outlook, Delve, Stream, etc.
Where will I find my email?
All University accounts will be in Outlook, which will be accessible by desktop or at myapps.microsoft.com by clicking on Outlook.
Will my data be migrated for me?
All faculty and staff emails and files will be moved to Microsoft 365 in the summer of 2024. Student emails and files can be migrated by submitting a request to ITS. OneDrive, which is similar to Google Drive, will be your new storage location for personal files. Shared files will be migrated to Microsoft Teams. Some file extensions will change when migrated from Google Drive to Microsoft 365.
Files that are stored in services outside of your Drive storage, like Google Photos, will not migrate and some features, such as links and sharing permissions, will not persist. You may want to create a record of the files that have been shared with you in Google.
In addition, if you have files on your Google Drive that you no longer need it is highly recommended that you take some time now to clean these files up to make this process easier.
Can data from a Shared Drive in Google be migrated?
Yes. Shared Drive contents will be moved to a Microsoft Team. Permissions for Teams will need to be reconfigured after being migrated from a Shared Drive.
How do I access my data moving forward?
TU will use OneDrive for personal/private storage and Teams/SharePoint for shared/departmental storage.
To access your personal storage, visit myapps.microsoft.com and click on OneDrive.
To access your shared, departmental storage, visit myapps.microsoft.com and click on Teams.
What about files that have been shared with me, or files I have shared?
Files that have been shared with you through Google will need to be reshared with you. The same is true for files that you have shared with others. It may prove useful to create a record of the files shared with you. Be sure to request access once again to these files once they have moved into 365.
What happens if I lose access to a shared account or email in Google?
Due to the number of unused accounts in Google, we are moving shared accounts on request only. If you lost access to an account, or did not notify IT before being migrated, contact the IT helpdesk to have the shared account moved and delegated to your Microsoft 365 account.
What do I do if others are not receiving my emails?
Since this is a phased rollout, where we are operating in both Google and Microsoft as we go through the migration, some email traffic may get stuck on the Microsoft side, or improperly routed from Google. Please contact the IT helpdesk if you believe your emails are not being delivered to other users.
Why did you lose access to an application after migrating (i.e., Slate, Sage, Dragon360, etc.)?
As we move through the migration, we are moving from Google Single-Sign On (SSO) to Microsoft 365 SSO. Since most Google accounts are disabled after they are migrated, you may temporarily lose access to an application until SSO is migrated. If you have lost access and need access to the account ahead of the SSO changeover, contact the IT helpdesk and we can restore your access manually.
I migrated, but am missing some of my files/data from Google, what should I do?
Please review the “What Won’t Migrate” page to see if any of those items are included in what is missing first, but there are some tools IT can use to identify missing items and move them manually if the automated migration missed something. Please reach out to the IT helpdesk if you find you are missing files/data.
I have been migrated, and I get a “Delivery Status Notification (Failure) email when I send mail to some users, are they receiving my emails?
Since some users are operating in Google, and some have already been migrated to Microsoft, there can be some email notifications that make it seem that your emails are not sending. Since everyone exists as a user in Microsoft already, but may not have their email migrated, the Microsoft platform will “think” that their Microsoft email is valid, when it in fact has not been fully set up yet. This results in the email being delivered, but a message will sometimes bounce back stating that the email was not delivered. This behavior will lessen as more users migrate to Microsoft, but you may see this if you have already migrated. Please contact the IT helpdesk if you believe your emails are not being delivered to other users.
