Reflections & Migration to Google went Well

I’m at MSP waiting for my flight back to Portland and had time to reflect on the week. Last weekend we migrated all of our University (faculty, staff & students) to Google gmail. All indications are that the migration went really well. An excellent value proposition, we essentially get Unified Communications with serious email resources and Google gets target marketing data and an excellent chance for lifetime customers.

The reason for the trip to Minnesota was our annual CCCU Technology Conference, that is the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities, which is a very good cross section of small to medium size institutions of Higher Education. I gave a presentation entitled “Will the iPad Change Higher Education?”. The key message was how GFU was going to support the iPads that some of our freshman would choose from our “Connected Across Campus” program. Unfortunately my presentation was mostly about how we would deal with the deficiencies of the iPad, but we did get to a more open discussion. E-Textbooks are not happening, and cloud collaboration should be a key to the future of iPad type devices.

General networking discussions leaned toward frustration and disappointment with Microsoft’s product strategy. How Microsoft’s arrogance prevents them from being innovative, but also how Apple’s arrogance is starting to look a lot more like Microsoft. Hmmm, history always seems to repeat itself. Interesting observations about the leadership of these 2 companies. Microsoft’s hope is that Ballmer will leave. Apple’s fear is that Jobs will leave.