Google Apps customers await email migration tool

Kari Barlow hasn't had any complaints about using Google Apps for Education, but is waiting for an email migration tool to finish her move out of the student email business.

Barlow, assistant vice president at the Arizona State University's technology office, was mentioned as one of Google's reference customers in an October Google Apps for Education case study. We called her to check in.

So far so good, but Barlow would like to decommission her old system. She's waiting for Google's email migration tool so she can migrate stored mail in her old system to Gmail. "Google is going to provide the tool and we're hoping to get it this quarter," says Barlow.

On the Google Apps page the email migration tool, listed under the Premier edition, is "coming soon." For Barlow, Google's email migration tool will start her return on investment clock. Once her old system is decommissioned she estimates Arizona State will save about $450,000 a year. Google Apps Education Edition is identical to the Premier Edition except for the price and email storage. Premier costs $50 per user and offers 10 GB in email storage. The Education Edition is free and offers 2 GB in email storage.

Other key points in Barlow's Google Apps migration: 

• 57,000 students out of a population of 65,000 have migrated to Gmail;
• Support thus far has been fine for Barlow;
• ASU launched Google's start page in November and added Google Docs and Spreadsheets in March. "As new applications are released for educational domain we'll evaluate them too," says Barlow.