First week at work - here's what happened

Well, the first week's over now and it's been a week of meeting lots of new faces and trying to remember lots of names to go with them.

I've also been given my first assignment, dealing with the replacement of the student email system and have been spending time comparing the various educational solutions from Google (Google Apps for education), Windows Live Hotmail (http://get.live.com/edu) and Yahoo (Yahoo Mail).

First impressions are that Google provides the best overall solution, offering 2.8Gb mailbox storage per user, POP in and out, and only minimal advertising on the page (with the option to turn it off !). Next week I'll be meeting the student president to get an initial idea of the types of things students use email for, along with an opportunity to ask questions about how to gather data from students about their current usage and how they'd like to see it improved (possibly using a web form ??).

I've also had a quick look at the HP Blade solution being considered and was impressed by their Virtual Connect innovation. Looks like it will reduce a lot of the hassle involved in adding new equipment onto fibre channels.

So all in all, it's been a busy week but I'm looking forward to getting stuck into various projects in the coming weeks.