When students and faculty log into their Binghamton University e-mail accounts Monday morning, they may notice something different. Instead of being greeted by the familiar SquirrelMail, users will be introduced to a new interface hosted by Mirapoint, a company that specializes in electronic mail systems and boasts more than 800 customers world wide, including the University of Chicago, Volkswagen and Sonic America’s Drive-In.
Information Technology Services expects the transition to be finished by Sunday evening, when the old Cyrus server will be shut down completely.
ITS has been working on the switch for the last two and a half years. They have been testing the system since last year, when the Mirapoint contract was approved by the state in late Spring.
James Wolf, director of academic computing at ITS, said that Mirapoint will have a clear, advanced interface and a slew of new mail features.
‘Cyrus was out of date,’ he said of the free server that has been used by the school for the last 10 years.
The number of e-mails sent through the system has increased from thousands to approximately 1.6 million since the system’s inception, further necessitating the need for the switch.
Wolf said he expects the student response to the change to be positive, noting new features such as out-of-office/dorm away messages and a larger default mailbox of 50 megabytes.
‘We selected Mirapoint as a modern package able to handle the load of e-mail with very little intervention from our programming staff,’ Mark Reed, associate vice president of ITS, said. ‘Once we selected the preferred package, we wanted to switch as soon as we got approval from the state and could schedule all of the necessary steps.’
Reed explained that ITS chose to switch the servers during the Yom Kippur holiday weekend because he felt fewer students would be checking their inbox during that time.
‘We also wanted to schedule it during a time when students and faculty are on campus because in our plans it involved a password change and it would be easier for those groups to get support if problems occurred,’ he said.
A preview of Webmail, the new interface that is part of the Mirapoint system, was posted with an announcement on Blackboard Sept. 11.
Students who have tried out the new client appear impressed so far.
‘It looks more professional and organized,’ said Karen Yee, a junior psychobiology major. ‘I think it seems more high-tech and safer, too.’