iSpartan Information
In January of 2007, ITS completed a feasibility study that identified Google's "Apps for Education" (GAFE) as a potential solution to improve email services while simultaneously reducing or containing costs. In August 2008, ITS completed a project to move all students into GAFE for student email services while also provisioning all faculty and staff accounts into GAFE without the capability of receiving email. UNCG branded this service as iSpartan. In February 2009, ITS began an internal pilot of GAFE and Google Message Discovery (GMD) archiving services for approximately 15 ITS staff. Based on the successful outsourcing of student email to GAFE, the successful pilot of GAFE and GMD services for ITS staff, and the potential for increased service offerings beyond the services offered in UNCG's Lotus Notes environment today, UNCG has made the decision to:
- Outsource Faculty and Staff email to GAFE, beginning with an "opt in" initiative in Fall 2009. ITS plans to begin the "opt in" initiative by working with several departments who have identified themselves as potential "early adopters." This will allow interested faculty and staff departments to begin using GAFE as their email and calendaring solution, while also accommodating the current resource constraints in ITS due to other project work currently underway. Once these departments have been migrated successfully, the option to "opt in" will be opened to all UNCG faculty and staff. ITS plans to continue the "opt in" initiative until spring/summer of 2010, at which time it will begin contacting users remaining in the Lotus system to begin scheduling migration. A migration schedule is currently under development and will be posted here once it is ready.
- Implement Google Message Discovery archiving services with a default retention period of 5 years for all faculty and staff accounts in order to comply with NC Records Retention Requirements.
ITS plans to begin the "opt in" initiative by working with several departments who have identified themselves as potential "early adopters." Once these departments have been migrated successfully, the "opt in" will be opened to all UNCG faculty and staff. A migration schedule is currently under development and will be posted to this site once it is ready.
Visit the iSpartan Landing Page to access your iSpartan account.
NOTE to Faculty & Staff: UNCG Faculty and Staff are able to login to iSpartan to use all the features except email. Your email services will not be available in iSpartan until after you have been migrated from Lotus Notes.