News

Offutt next in line for cloud-based email

  • Published
  • 55th Wing Public Affairs

Is your email box almost full? Well rest easy. Starting March 6, Offutt will begin migrating base email to a new system as part of the Collaboration Pathfinder project that will outsource collaborative services to the Microsoft Office 365 cloud-based platform.

One of the biggest improvements Offutt users will see is a vast increase email storage capacity. 

“You’re increasing your mailbox size by 1,000 percent,” said Brad Hill, 55th Communications Squadron chief of the client systems branch. “It’s all in the cloud.”

The cloud is a commercial data center where Offutt’s unclassified email will be stored and maintained going forward. Once migrated, the current size restriction of 90 MB will increase to 100 GB of mailbox storage with an additional 100 GB of online archive capacity.

In addition to email, the Air Force plans to migrate other collaborative services to the Microsoft Office 365 cloud platform, including instant messaging and SharePoint. The change will provide greater capability and flexibility when deploying or transferring to other bases.

“It gets the Air Force ready to be mobile,” Hill said. “As long as you transfer to a Collaboration Pathfinder base, your mail will go with you.”

The new system will also support mobile devices, virtual private networks and web-based email access.

The migration at Offutt is scheduled to take place from March 6-17, and users shouldn’t notice any difference in the email interface. Hill said he has heard nothing but positive feedback so far.

“They just did Malmstrom Air Force Base, Montana and migrated over 4,000 users with very few issues,” he said. “I’ve had it since September and love it. I don’t get the ‘my email box is full’ message and I currently have 97 GB of free space…and I don’t delete anything.”

Hill said there are some steps that users should take prior to the migration to make the transition a smooth one.

Detailed information on how to prepare can be found in the “Comm Corner” slides that pop-up when logging in as well as on the Collaboration Pathfinder SharePoint site. A link to the SharePoint site is included in the pop-up slides. Mobile device users should also be familiar with self-provisioning steps for accessing Good Mobile Messaging services.

If you encounter a problem during the migration, Hill said you should contact your Cybersecurity Liaison or the Communications Focal Point at 294-2666 for assistance.

Offutt is one of ten continental U. S. Air Force bases taking part in the initial migration. Other bases include Holloman, Malmstrom, Goodfellow, Whiteman, Fairchild, Patrick, Davis-Monthan, Shaw and Hanscom.

The Collaboration Pathways project is an Air Force Space Command-directed initiative to realign manpower towards more critical cyber operations.