No. Your email address (as well as your log-in ID) will not be changed as part of this migration. The only difference will be in that when you check your email using a web browser (such as Internet Explorer, Safari, or Firefox), you will now type your entire email address (e.g., [email protected] instead of just the first part (i.e., jane.smith).

Each user will have a mailbox that is 50 gigabytes (or 50,000 megabytes) large. This is over 600 times larger than the standard inbox on the old system. You will no longer have to worry about cleaning out your inbox every week to make room for that PowerPoint presentation someone just sent you.

Yes. The migration only affects email messages and other data (such as calendar appointments, contacts, and tasks) that are synchronized with your online account. If you have archived items to save space (or another reason), they will not be affected by the migration. You will continue to be able to access them as you normally would.

No. For security reasons, the District does not allow LAUSD email to be forwarded to another account. Recall that LAUSD email is provided to employees to use for official District business, so it makes little sense to commingle LAUSD email messages with those from personal or other accounts. Additionally, the District provides employees with the tools they need to access their email, and since the new cloud-based solution is accessible from any internet connection and most modern mobile devices (i.e., smart phones and tablets), automatic forwarding does not really provide any benefit to the employee.

Although in the past it was possible to use either Post Office Protocol (POP) or Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP) to read emails using a third party tool, LAUSD did not recommend doing so as it does not really provide any benefit and—in fact—increases the potential for data loss (have you ever logged on to your calendar only to find that all of your appointments have mysteriously vanished?). Recently, these abilities were disabled due to heightened security risks. Although there is not yet an official District policy disallowing use of POP or IMAP, it is doubtful that the services will be made available again.

No. All of the email messages, appointments, contacts, and other data from your old account will be moved carefully and safely to your new account so that you can pick up right where you left off once the new account is available. The only exception is that any emails you might have with attachments larger than 25 megabytes won't be migrated. Make sure to save copies of those if you still need them.

No. What you’re hearing about is a 2012 policy regarding records retention and destruction, indicating how long official documents—including but not limited to email—are to be kept before they are purged. While the policy is currently under review by a committee appointed by the Board of Education, the IT Division is testing potential technical solutions to support any requirements the policy will ultimately set forth. This effort is independent of the migration of employee email accounts to the Office 365 solution.

The current email system has served us well for many years but is now living beyond its life expectancy. It needs to be updated to a more modern and cost-effective solution. Moving to a new “cloud-based” system will enable District employees to have a wider range of functionality (e.g., more mailbox and online file storage space) while reducing the burden on internal resources to operate and maintain.

Many software companies now provide their products to organizations using a new service-delivery system known as the cloud. Using a cloud means storing and accessing data and programs over the Internet instead of your computer’s hard drive. The advantage of this is that companies do not have to worry about maintaining servers, performing upgrades, or the operating costs of doing so.

No. The District does not do business with any organization that cannot guarantee that it will follow the same safety and security standards that the District follows with its own internal systems. Even though your information is on "the cloud" it still has to live on physical hardware...just outside of the District's premises. The company responsible for maintaining that equipment is held accountable by the District for ensuring that everything is safe, secure, and that data do not fall into the wrong hands.