Customer Spotlight: Kentucky Department of Education Chooses Microsoft Live@edu
he Kentucky Department of Education has selected Microsoft Live@edu to bring 21st century communications and collaboration tools to more than 700,000 students, faculty and staff statewide. The cloud-based service has already been rolled out to more than half a million people in one of the largest cloud deployments and fastest migrations of all time. The state expects to avoid $6.3 million in operational costs over four years by moving to the cloud with Live@edu.
Live@edu is a no-cost suite of easy-to-use online services, based on the familiar Microsoft technologies many people use today. With Live@edu, people can access information in the cloud virtually anytime, anywhere, through popular Web browsers and from any Internet-connected PC or mobile phone. Live@edu fosters improved productivity, better learning and skills development to help students prepare for their futures.
“With Live@edu, all school districts in Kentucky have access to the same powerful Microsoft applications and Web 2.0 technologies. That means we can close the technology gap between rich and poor districts and level the playing field for students regardless of where they live,” said Dr. Terry Holliday, commissioner of education for Kentucky. “Because they are ‘in the cloud,’ Kentucky schools will always stay up-to-date with the latest innovations. And the features are far greater than anything we could have afforded to offer to every school in Kentucky.”
The deployment is not only one of the largest in the world, but it also is one of the fastest. The commonwealth moved more than half a million people from approximately 180 distributed Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 on-premise servers to Live@edu during a single weekend. The quick migration helped minimize disruption and speed access to new technologies, such as Microsoft Exchange Server 2010, which powers Live@edu’s cloud-based e-mail.
“Historically, it would have required months and potentially years to migrate hundreds of thousands of people to a new solution,” said Chuck Austin, Office of Education Technology for the Kentucky Department of Education. “With Microsoft’s cloud technology and a collaborative focus between Microsoft and the Kentucky Department of Education on the planning aspects, we were able to dramatically reduce the implementation cycle and migrate everyone in a single weekend.”
“Kentucky is getting a world-class communications and collaboration infrastructure that is dependable and highly secure,” said Sig Behrens, general manager for U.S. Education at Microsoft. “With single sign-on, Live@edu integrates with existing school systems, including school portals, allowing people to access all content with one identity that makes it easier to accomplish their work. More important, Live@edu will help transform the learning environment by extending education opportunities beyond the traditional classroom walls and help students master the technology they will use in their future careers.”