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Sept. 5, 2003
You’ve Got New Mail
Information Systems and Services Launches New Web-based
E-mail
By Jonathan
Turner
Information Systems and Services (ISS) recently launched a new “Colonial
Mail” system, providing users with a new look and functionality to
Web-based E-mail while enhancing the stability of GW’s server.
Colonial Mail, based on the popular Sun 1 server technology commonly found
in offices and colleges, has been designed to allow for faster service
and more secure file saving techniques.
David Swartz, chief information officer, ISS, expressed excitement and
satisfaction with the new program. The improved E-mail client is the result
of considerable research, Swartz said.
“We spent a year surveying system users, so they really helped design
and helped test the new system,” he said.
The previous Web-based service, GWMail, will continue to operate for the
next two months, after which it will be shut down. Netscape Mail, Microsoft
Outlook and other services are not affected by this change in accessing
E-mail from the Internet.
E-mail is quickly beginning to replace more traditional tools, such as
telephones and fax machines, as the favored medium for communication at
GW and for collegiate life in general.
According to Swartz, the average rate of E-mail volume has been exploding
to “almost doubling each year for the last three to four years.”
He added that GW already produces about seven to eight million E-mails
a month.
To wade through all of these messages, the new Colonial Mail solution
will include several new options not available on the GWMail server, such
as account size information and message and folder sorting.
In addition to the growing volume of E-traffic sent using GW systems,
many of these messages increasingly come with various file attachments
such as documents and picture downloads that take up more data space than
E-mails containing only text.
As a result of its growing importance to the GW community, ISS made a
safe and efficient E-mail server a high priority. The events of Sept.
11, 2001, and a hardware failure last spring which resulted in the shutdown
of the GWMail server displayed the need for a safe, multi-base server
that was not reliant on only one source, which could be disrupted by technology
failure or a power outage.
Colonial Mail instantly writes all messages to two systems, each segregated
from the other so in case of disruption to one power source, the other
can operate at almost-full capacity and still have its memory intact.
Send feedback to: bygeorge@gwu.edu
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