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So what is Microsoft Live@edu and Exchange Labs exactly?

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Just a quick note that I am changing my role into a pure Unified Communcations Technology Solution Professional in U.S. Education starting this week. I will also be helping customers with Live@edu and Exchange labs implementations, etc. 

 

Schools are asking me what is Live@edu, who is it geared towards, and what is Exchange labs?. Below is my 10,000 foot answer:

What is Microsoft Live@edu ?:

Live@edu is a free Microsoft cloud services offering to K12 and higher education students, alumni, and parents (except Exchange labs) with the following features:

  • Leverage existing school email domain by adding a subdomain such as "my" (e.g. student@my.school.edu) 
  • Hosted e-mail: Either Hotmail 5GB quota or Exchange labs 10 GB quota (see below)
  • Office Live Workspace - collaboration on documents, etc.
  • Windows SkyDrive - this is a 5GB per user storage in the cloud for files, photos, etc.
  • SharedView beta - think of this as hosted LiveMeeting lite for 15 users
  • Windows Live Spaces - place for group project, campus clubs, personal pages
  • Windows Live Messenger - #1 IM client
  • Windows Live Alerts - SMS notifcation for news, events, etc.
  • Mobile - mobile email, IM client, or ActiveSync -push email

Are faculty and staff free as well?

They can get on a waitlist to participate for a Faculty and Staff beta program which is free during the beta but they may be subject to licensing costs when the program goes full production.

What is Exchange Labs?

Exchange labs give students and alumni a more professional e-mail experience with use of the full Outlook client, Outlook Web Access, and ActiveSync (push email to mobile phones such as Windows Mobile and iPhone), similar to what they may use in the workplace. It also provides enterprise-class management tools, like archiving and distribution lists, as well as GAL and calendar integration for users  (e.g. faculty and staff) on Exchange hosted on-premise.

What is a feature break down between Exchange Labs and Hotmail?:

 

How do I integrate with my on-premise email?

There are a few options to synchronize with on-premise directories with Option 3 providing real time sychronization:

Option 1: Eduexpress

One at a time creation or bulk upload

Option 2: Command line application

Batch scripts that export users with the Live@edu offering

Option 3: Microsoft Identify and Lifecycle Management

A server hosted on-premise at your school that auto-provisions users, groups, etc on the Live@edu offering

Click here for more on account creation/deployment scenarios.

 

What additional features are included with the newly released (June) Exchange Labs Release2?:

  • Remote PowerShell
  • Web services
  • Dynamic Distribution Lists
  • ILM support
  • Single Sign On Support
  • Rules for Bad Word Filtering
  • Lock down email to a domain
  • OWA Premium Logo and Branding
  • Proxy Addresses
  • 24 OWA Languages
  • Account Aggregation
  • Improved Options Page navigation

Conclusion

I hope this provides your school with some high level insight into what Microsoft Live@edu offers as well as Exchange Labs. Thus far, there certainly is a huge amount of interest and adoption rate of Live@edu by both K-12 school districts and universities. The most attractive part about this Microsoft cloud service is it requires no funding, no on-prem servers (other than an ILM server potentially) and minimal administration. 

I will be posting more information around Live@edu integration scenarios, common customer questions and lessons learned.

For more information on Live@edu click here and for Exchange labs click here.