Alabama A&M University is preparing a major upgrade to the student technology experience. Over the upcoming Christmas break, Information Technology Services (ITS) will begin transitioning students from Google G-Suite to Microsoft Office 365 – a move designed to improve academic collaboration, streamline file sharing, and significantly reduce software licensing costs.

According to Richard Arends, AAMU’s Cloud Infrastructure & Systems Manager, this change will immediately improve the way students interact with faculty and coursework. “First and foremost, this will allow better integration with faculty and staff. Students will be able to use the same Microsoft Office applications and formats that the faculty use for assignments,” he said.

Arends noted that the current system, with faculty on Microsoft and students on Google, often creates unnecessary barriers. “They'll also be able to share documents and data more easily via OneDrive (and not Google Drive trying to share to a Microsoft-using faculty member),” he added.

In addition to improved functionality, the switch will allow the University to make better use of resources it already invests in. “We already pay for our Microsoft Office licenses for faculty and staff. For each one Microsoft faculty license we purchase as an educational institution, Microsoft offers us up to 40 FREE student licenses,” Arends said. This means AAMU is already positioned to provide Office 365 access to every current and future student at no additional cost.

Arends noted that moving students onto the same platform simply makes sense moving forward. “We continue to pay on an entirely separate contract to use the Google G-Suite of products for students, but that cost could be cut by next year, and everyone would be working together on the same platform. I see it as a win/win.”

The University has used Google G-Suite for an estimated five to seven years. Arends' focus now is ensuring a smooth transition. “Honestly, my goal is to make this transition as easy as possible for all of our current students. All new students, beginning Fall 2026, will be brought onto the new platform automatically.”

Current and former students will see the first major change on February 2, when incoming email will begin flowing to Outlook instead of Gmail. Students will still be able to access their Google Drive files for more than a year after the transition, giving them time to migrate or download anything they want to keep. “We are recommending that they begin moving any data they'd like to keep out of these platforms and into OneDrive as soon as they have the ability to do so, or download backups of these items to their personal computers,” Arends said.

Students will know their accounts have been migrated when they receive a new Secret Double Octopus authentication invite at their personal email. Arends hopes to complete the bulk of migrations during the Christmas and New Year holiday break to avoid disruption. “They will temporarily lose access for 12–24 hours while the accounts are migrated. But after that, everything else should work as it usually does, except that they will log in to Outlook for their email with their same ‘@bulldogs.aamu.edu’ email addresses.”

Once the transition is complete, students will be using the same suite of tools already used by faculty and staff – including Outlook, OneDrive, Teams, and the full Office 365 applications. No other systems, such as Banner or Blackboard, will be affected. “Faculty and staff will not be affected at all, because we're already on the Office 365 platform,” he said.

This migration is independent of the recently announced email security upgrades and AAMU’s partnership with the University of Alabama System Regional Optical Network (UASRON). Arends noted that the transition will make collaboration easier for faculty and students while also delivering significant cost savings for the University.

Looking ahead, Arends is optimistic. “I'm really excited about the opportunity to make using technology a little easier for everyone on campus. My team and I have spent a lot of time preparing for this move to make it as easy as possible for the students. At the end of the day, supporting students is at the heart of everything we do.”