This article:
*PACE stands for Personal Access for Collaborative Email
A user @vt.edu mailbox and calendar provided by Google. Each mailbox is linked to a specific user's Virginia Tech Username (PID) and accessed via the user's credentials.
Use Cases | Who can request it? | How to request it? | Management | Renewals |
Individual email and calendaring |
Gmail mailboxes are generally provisioned/maintained automatically for faculty, staff, students, alumni, and retirees. |
Automatically provisioned/maintained for most use cases. Sponsored Virginia Tech Usernames (PIDs) can be requested. |
Individually owned and managed. Deprovisioned based on loss of affiliation or sponsorship. |
Affiliation changes are actively monitored to trigger provisioning and de-provisioning workflows. |
A user @vt.edu mailbox and calendar provided by Microsoft. Each mailbox is linked to a specific user's Hokies ID and accessed via the user's credentials.
Use Cases | Who can request it? | How to request it? | Management | Renewals |
Individual email and calendaring |
EO mailboxes are generally provisioned automatically for active faculty and staff. |
Automatically provisioned/maintained for most faculty and staff use cases. Students may also optionally create one using MyCAT. Sponsored Hokies IDs can be requested. |
Individually owned and managed |
Affiliation changes are actively monitored to trigger provisioning and de-provisioning workflows. Sponsored Hokies must be renewed based on a set expiration date up to one year. Department heads and OU Admins may request renewals. |
GAE accounts are Virginia Tech Google Workspace for Education @vt.edu accounts that are linked to a specific user’s Virginia Tech Username (PID) and are accessed via that user’s credentials. They have access to the full collection of Google apps, and the account’s Gmail mailbox can be delegated to other vt.edu Google users. Delegated users only have access to Inbox and Calendar. Owners have access to the full collection of Google apps.
For a comparison of this object with PACE accounts (see below), please see Comparison of GAE and PACE accounts.
Use Cases | Who can request it? | How to request it? | Management | Renewals |
Virginia Tech Student organization (University Chartered Student Organizations (UCSO) or University Student Life Programs (USLP)) Service account requiring IMAP or OAuth 2 email access Conference, event or program registration and calendar |
Active Virginia Tech Employees |
Refer to GAE Service Catalog entry |
Individually owned and managed. |
GAEs do not have a set expiration date. If the owner is deprovisioned, the GAE will be deprovisioned as well unless the owner or the department seeks the reassignment of the GAE prior to deprovisioning. |
This PACE account is a @vt.edu address backed by an Exchange Resource Account. Access to the account is provided by membership to the corresponding OU. PACE accounts are provisioned with a 50GB mailbox. If additional storage is needed, departments can purchase an A3 license for it at https://software.vt.edu/help.
For a comparison of this object with GAE accounts (see above), please see Comparison of GAE and PACE accounts.
Use Cases | Who can request it? | How to request it? | Management | Renewals |
Departmental email address with collaborative Inbox accessed by multiple members Research group, Center, or working group needing a long-term stable address |
Active Virginia Tech Employees |
Refer to the Virginia Tech PACE Accounts Request |
Membership is managed by security groups controlled by OU Admins. Members can manage the mailbox. To modify or remove an existing account, submit an incident through 4Help to Identity Management Customer Support (IMCS). |
These accounts do not have set expiration or renewal dates. |
This PACE account is a @vt.edu address backed by a Google Group. Access to the account is provided by membership to the corresponding Google Group. Requesting a PACE account does not automatically create the corresponding Google group.
For a comparison of this object with GAE accounts (see above), please see Comparison of GAE and PACE accounts.
Use Cases | Who can request it? | How to request it? | Management | Renewals |
Departmental email address allowing email or posting to the group's members Research group, Center, or working group needing a long-term stable address |
Active Virginia Tech Employees |
Refer to the Virginia Tech PACE Accounts Request. Requesting a PACE account does not automatically create the corresponding Google group. |
Managed by Owners and Managers identified within the memberships of the Google Groups To modify or remove an existing account, submit a 4Help incident to IMCS. |
These accounts do not have set expiration or renewal dates. |
A FE is a Google Group designed to support the sending of all received emails to a PACE account. The requestor of the FE is assigned to the related Google Group as the owner. Learn more about FE accounts using our Forwarding Email Accounts Knowledgebase (KB) Article. Requesting an FE account does not automatically create the corresponding Google group.
Use Cases | Who can request it? | How to request it? | Management | Renewals |
Provide a friendly user-facing @vt.edu email address to send emails to another less friendly email address representing a PACE account. |
Active Virginia Tech Employees |
Typically requested as part of a PACE account request (see above). Requesters may also send a 4Help incident to IMCS. |
Individually owned. To make any changes, the department must submit a 4Help incident to IMCS. |
These accounts do not have set expiration or renewal dates. |
A Google Group is member-based email object with a -g@vt.edu email address. Access to the account is provided by membership to the Google Group.
Use Cases | Who can request it? | How to request it? | Management | Renewals |
Member-based email list |
Google Groups can be self-provisioned by faculty, staff, students, alumni, and sponsored accounts with Gmail accounts. |
Create one using our Virginia Tech Google Groups KB. |
Managed by Owners and Managers identified within the memberships of the Google Groups |
These accounts do not have set expiration or renewal dates. |
A Microsoft 365 object that includes a mailbox, calendar, and SPO site for file storage and sharing.
Use Cases | Who can request it? | How to request it? | Management | Renewals |
Team-based collaboration space with email, calendar, file storage and file sharing. It can be converted to a Microsoft Team if online meeting and chat capability are needed later. |
Microsoft 365 Groups can be self-provisioned by faculty, staff, students and sponsored EO accounts. |
The Outlook app provides users the ability to create Microsoft 365 groups |
Managed by owners identified within the memberships of the Microsoft 365 Groups |
These accounts do not have set expiration or renewal dates. |
A special EO account for the purpose of supporting a room or identified equipment for communication and scheduling purposes.
Users do not directly log in to the account. A security group is assigned full access and send as permissions to the EO resource account. Users are assigned as members of the security group.
Use Cases | Who can request it? | How to request it? | Management | Renewals |
Room Calendar Equipment Calendar |
Faculty and Staff |
Refer to the instructions given on the Requesting, Using, and Accessing Virginia Tech Resource Accounts. |
Membership is managed by security groups controlled by OU Admins. Members can manage the mailbox. To modify or remove an existing account, submit a 4help incident to IMCS. |
These accounts do not have set expiration or renewal dates. |