Office 365 - Apps, Email, & More
Office 365 will come in a few specific flavors, here is a brief description of the functionality available to subscribers of the service:
- Office 365 is a cloud-based email solution. Your Test account will come with a first.last@tufts.edu format, but you will always need to authenticate to the cloud portal (portal.microsoftonline.com)
- Email will share calendaring and global contact lists, but things like calendar delegation and sharing will have special rules between mailboxes "On-Site" at tufts and those "In the Cloud." From an email address, and mail delivery perspective the average user will be unable to tell the difference between an on-site and cloud-based account.
- Configuration of accounts for sending and receiving email is the primary difference between on-premise and cloud-based email.
- If a cloud account tries to log in on-premise, or an on-premise email account tries to log on in the cloud, the login will fail.
Apps
- Office365 allows individuals to download office productivity apps to their mobile devices, tablets, as well as full office suites on up to five computers
- Members of the Tufts community, once activated and licensed, will be able to visit the microsoft online portal (portal.microsoftonline.com) and perform the following tasks
- Use a Microsoft cloud-based Sharepoint 2012 drive
- Download and install office productivity suites (depends on the device) on the mobile device
- Download and install office suite (windows/mac)
- Authentication for apps will be driven using your Tufts Username and Tufts Password
- Apps can be delivered to the phone via SMS (a link is sent) or device via email. They are also available in the major app stores (iTunes Appstore, Google Play Store, etc.)
Types of test accounts
We'll provide you one or two accounts for testing. See below for details:
- Your Tufts Username and Tufts Password is your primary account and it will give you access to any Apps desired or required.
- A Test o365 Email account will be provided only if you're also part of email testing. Apps are functionality separate from email and can be ignored if needed.
How to test
Apps
Once notified you have been licensed for o365 Apps
- Visit the Microsoft o365 Portal - portal.microsoftonline.com
- Enter your Tufts email address, i.e. lee.raymond@tufts.edu
- Before you enter in a password, you will be redirected to the Tufts ADFS authentication servers. These servers allow us to use our Tufts Username and Tufts Passwords without needing to use unique Microsoft credentials
- These are the same servers that allow for authentication through tufts.box.com
- Enter in your Tufts Username and Tufts Password
- You will be dropped into the Microsoft Skydrive which is where any online documents will be saved. You may be prompted to allow your account to upgrade to the newest sharepoint version, you can accept the upgrade prompt
- In the upper right hand corner, use the gear dropdown and select "Settings"
- From the settings menu, select and download software for your mobile phones, or desktops.
Email
Once notified you have been licensed for o365 Email
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- These are the same servers that allow for authentication through tufts.box.com
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About
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Office 365 (Plan A2) is the educational offering of Exchange Online and a number of other services. Tufts has entered into an agreement with Microsoft to host Student mail in their cloud hosted environment. Members |
Frequently Asked Questions
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Why a cloud hosted email solution?Cloud services is an area that Tufts continues to consider. From a strategic perspective there will always be some services that Tufts may prefer to host internally out of a desire to maintain control over the roadmap of the service. In some instances, it may be beneficial for the University to partner with industry leaders as a value addition to the Tufts portfolio, allowing our teams to focus more on services that are directly related to the core mission of the University. Some examples of existing successful cloud partnerships
Will everyone eventually join the cloud?EI is approaching this transition as an opportunity to evaluate the marketplace and quantify how Students utilize collaboration tools like o365 and mail services differently than Faculty, Staff, etc. At this juncture there is no plan to transition other constituents to the cloud. Who will be moved to the cloud?With the initial service offering TTS is only planning to transition students to the cloud. We are adopting an admissions-based migration path which means only students new to the university will have their accounts provisioned in the cloud as opposed to onsite. Students joining the university should be directed to https://tuftstools.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/student to create their Tufts Username and Tufts Password What about existing students, will they be migrated to the cloud?At this juncture TTS is only planning to onboard incoming students that are new to the university into Office 365. Seniors that are joining a graduate program, or staff that transition to students, etc. are not expected to make a switch. We're comfortable with the knowledge that both our On Premise Exchange 2010 and Cloud Hosted Office 365 environments offer a robust communication platform and we would prefer not to disrupt our supported students by migrating them at this time. What is included in Office 365 "Plan A2?"This licensing breakdown helps describe the available possibilities. http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/academic/office-365-academic-FX103045755.aspx It is important to note that although O365 includes Lync and Sharepoint Online solutions, ESS is still currently still evaluating them amongst other services and does not plan to make them immediately available with this service offering. How can I tell if my Tufts mailbox is in the cloud?Please visit https://exchange.tufts.edu and sign in using your Tufts Username and Tufts Password. Accounts that actually exist in the cloud will be prompted to move to the cloud to authenticate instead
Is Email in the cloud different?There are some differences between email hosted by Microsoft and email on premise through Tufts, but at the end of the day as an email service and a collaboration tool, the service is fairly similar. While possible to use your favorite modern mail application (Outlook, Mac Mail, etc.) we recommend students use the Outlook Web Access client as it includes some functionality that is not present even in modern mail applications:
For information on how to best use the Office 365 service once you receive your account, please visit https://it.tufts.edu/stu-email or view our public documentation https://go.tufts.edu/itkb |
