Naval Academy Adopts Google Apps
The United States Naval Academy (USNA) has adopted Google Apps for Government in an effort to lower costs, streamline management, and improve collaboration.
With thousands of students, dubbed midshipmen, enrolling and graduating each year, USNA faced "a significant challenge of ensuring old email accounts are properly deleted and new accounts created quickly," according to information released by the academy.
The institution also faced mounting costs associated with its appliance-based solution as more midshipmen began accessing their accounts via mobile devices, each one of which incurred a "hefty license fee."
After discovering that most of its 4,400 midshipmen were already using Gmail accounts, the academy launched a 100-user pilot of Google Apps for Government that included "testing much needed capabilities like using Calendar to schedule resources like rooms and equipment, and sharing documents for collaborative efforts," according to a news release about the move.
After completion of the pilot, the academy rolled the Web-based Apps suite to approximately 7,200 users, maintaining about four terabytes of mail and creating an average of 5,000 Google Docs each day.
"The mobile access alone makes Google Apps a worthwhile investment at $50 per person," according to an academy release. "It lets us make better use of the taxpayer’s dollars. The greatest value is the ease of creating and sharing information between midshipmen, faculty, and other institutions making Google Apps a core collaborative asset in the educational process."
More information about the United States Naval Academy is available at usna.edu. Learn more about Google Apps at google.com/apps.
About the Author
Joshua Bolkan is contributing editor for Campus Technology, THE Journal and STEAM Universe. He can be reached at [email protected].