New hardware to increase mail quota

IU is installing new e-mail hardware this winter that will replace the aging Shakespeare system and provide increased reliability for students. \nThe new system costs $1.7 million and includes the addition of a backup server that will help prevent another lengthy outage like the one that crippled Ariel users for five days last week.\nRick Jackson, manager of messaging for University Information Technology Services, said the new hardware had been in development for 18 months and was ordered about three weeks ago, before Ariel crashed. \nThe upgrade will also increase the Webmail quotas from 12 to 100 MB, and the maximum attachment size per e-mail will grow from eight to 30 MB.\nSenior Jim Shin said, as a business major, he is always sending and receiving e-mails with large attachments. Although he deletes his e-mails regularly, he is usually worried about being over quota.\n"I've only got 20 e-mails, but they all have attachments, so I'm already near quota," Shin said. "If they were to boost attachments, it would really help."\nFunding for the project was drawn from IU's capital equipment replacement budget, which comes from state appropriations and campus assessments. The Bloomington campus will foot 45 percent of the cost. \nThe plan was approved by the Office of the Vice President for Information Technology. \nThe e-mail system is expected to be up and running no later than January. \nJackson said although Ariel's outage last week was sparked by a hardware failure, it was so prolonged because of a lack of backup servers. \nIn the case of another crash, the backup servers, to be located in Indianapolis, will shorten the outage time. \n"Should there be a failure of the system in Bloomington, we will be able to restore services by using the environment in Indianapolis," Jackson said. "\nA copy of the proposal provided by the Office of the Vice President for Information Technology shows the Shakespeare systems are nearing the end of their planned four-year life span and, without a replacement, would be in danger of even more frequent slow downs and instability. \nThe proposal details the introduction of Storage Area Network technology that separates mail storage from mail servers for the first time. The technology will potentially allow mail to keep functioning even if a server goes down. \n"Today the 20 MB limit is both an annoyance and impediment to mail users," the document states. A piece of e-mail with a sizable attachment can push users over their quota, shutting down e-mail until the message is deleted. \nThe pumped-up quotas will make that more difficult. \nExpanding the mailboxes to 100 MB will put Webmail on par with Yahoo!'s free mail service. Hotmail currently has a 2MB system, while Google's G-Mail is far ahead of the pack with a cozy 1 GB (1,000 MB) of storage space. Webmail will not change in appearance, said Jackson, and students will still access their mail at http://webmail.iu.edu.\nJackson said the transition to the new hardware will be done at night. During the previous switch, schedules of the moves were posted online, and he said he predicts the same procedures will be followed this time around. \n-- Contact staff writer Adam \nVanOsdol at avanosdo@indiana.edu.