Some time this week NC State University will make an official announcement that a new email and calendaring system has been chosen that will unite the two different email and calendaring systems used on campus. In a 4 to 3 vote Novell GroupWise will be recommended as our one communications tool to rule them all. NCSU will transition to the new systems over the summer in what will cost upwards of 1 million dollars.

Its amazing that an “Open Source University” that has been charged with reducing IT budgets and pressed strongly to be more efficient with resources will not even consider an Open Source solution for email and calendaring. Our Open Source, Cyrus based email system for most staff and all students has been a strong model for the success of Open Source, its scalability, and cost effectiveness in both man hours and cost. Its a sad time at NCSU.