Microsoft, DoIT address student Webmail issues
Student Webmail crashed several times throughout the week.
Published April 9, 2010
MU's student Webmail system, Microsoft Outlook Live, faced several problems after crashing Monday afternoon and going offline twice later in the week.
The crash resulted from a Microsoft server error that affected schools across the U.S., in the United Kingdom and Australia, Division of Information Technology Director Terry Robb said. The system has experienced delays and other issues this semester, sometimes leaving students unable to send or receive e-mail.
At approximately 2 p.m. Monday, students' Outlook Live service became unavailable and remained down until about 5 p.m. Service returned for students for several hours, but problems were reported throughout Tuesday morning.
"Microsoft strives to provide exceptional service for all of our customers, and we hold ourselves to the very highest standard," Microsoft General Manager Kevin Allison said in an official statement. "Earlier this week, we didn't meet it."
In the statement, the problem was identified as a domain name address resolution problem in which domain name connections were resolved incorrectly. Microsoft reported that by approximately 5 p.m., the root issues had been fixed but additional changes to the system were made Monday evening and Tuesday morning to address a DNS update issue.
Allison said Microsoft is taking steps to solve the issue permanently.
"To help avoid incidents like this from happening again, we've taken multiple steps," Allison said. "We have implemented additional operations monitoring tasks and have adjusted our internal operations, so a reoccurrence can be dealt with before customers are affected."
Among the schools affected by Monday's server crash were The Ohio State University and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, in addition to universities overseas, Robb said.
DoIT implemented a mandatory switch in fall 2009 for faculty and students from Microsoft Office Outlook to Outlook Live. Despite many upgrades in storage and features from the old e-mail system, there have been several student-reported problems regarding the performance of the new system.
In February, students faced a slowdown in e-mail delivery, which delayed messages to student Webmail accounts and Webmail forwarding to outside accounts, as well as issues that affected students' ability to log into their student accounts.
Following Monday's crash, a Facebook page was created to collect stories of frustration regarding the system as well as suggestions for improving the way student Webmail accounts are handled. Consisting of more than 420 members, the group is intended to create an awareness of the system's flaws, according to its Web page.
One common suggestion posted by students on the group's page is the use of Google's Gmail as the university's primary e-mail provider. Google offers a platform for business and education use, Google Apps, which is in use by institutions including Northwestern University, Arizona State University, University of Notre Dame and more than 45 other universities or colleges, according to the Google Apps Web site.
DoIT will continue to work directly with Microsoft technical teams on a regular basis to keep any issues to a minimum, Robb said. DoIT Director of Customer Service Kevin Bailey and DoIT Chief Information Officer Gary Allen held a conference call Tuesday afternoon with Microsoft executives about ongoing technical support.
"In this meeting, they expressed their dismay at the prolonged outage as well as the previous outages we have experienced and relayed the facts on the ground here," Robb said. "That our students, faculty and staff are extremely frustrated with the service and require a fully available, robust environment for their e-mail."
Robb said DoIT is outlining a contingency plan in case Microsoft is unable to stand by its statements, but Microsoft has committed to responding more proactively in the case of future Webmail issues.
"We are very pleased (Microsoft) stepped up to take responsibility for the outage," he said. "Based upon our discussions with Microsoft, we believe they understand that their credibility and ours is on the line and that service interruptions must be minimized."