A Virginia Tech Personal Access for Collaborative Email (VT PACE) account is a public-facing @vt.edu address backed by (forwarding to) an Exchange Resource Account or a Google Group.
A VT PACE address is useful for situations when:
With a VT PACE address, a department or workgroup gets:
There are two different types of VT PACE accounts:
Google Business option: The back end of the PACE account is a Google Group that the email will be forwarded to. You can change membership through the Google Group management page, for more information see the KB on group management. These PACE accounts are student friendly since anyone can be a group member.
Pros:
Exchange: The back end of your PACE account is a resource Exchange account. This type of PACE is useful if you must have a single location for the mail or need calendar features for the address. Your group must have an OU in the Hokies domain and an OU administrator to qualify for an Exchange PACE account. Only users who have Hokies accounts can be members of the Exchange account. Hokies accounts are limited to university faculty and staff, therefore students and non-VT individuals cannot be included. A Google Business Option PACE is recommended if you intend for students or non-VT individuals to receive mail from the PACE address.
Pros:
Cons:
For a comparison of other types of accounts that may provide a better fit for your use case, please see the GAE and PACE accounts KB to help decide which option would best fit your use case.
Frequently asked questions about VT PACE accounts.
Q: How do I get a VT PACE account?
A: Complete the online service catalog form.
Q: What exactly do I get with my PACE account?
A: You will get a forwarding email of [your-pace-choice]@vt.edu and a Google Group with “[your-pace-choice]-g@vt.edu”. Or for Exchange PACE accounts you will get a forwarding email of [your-pace-choice]@vt.edu and an Exchange resource account in your OU of “[your-pace-choice]-resc@exchange.vt.edu”.
Q: How do I add members to my PACE account?
A: If the account is Google-based see the online KB here.
If your PACE is Exchange-based access can be granted by an OU admin by having them add you to the account's security group. See the Exchange FAQ for more information on managing resource accounts.
Q: Can I use special characters in my PACE address?
A: Yes, and No. The actual PACE account forwarders do not support special characters. However we can create an alias for your forward address which can use dashes “-“, dots “.” and underscores “_”.
Example: if you request “our-department@vt.edu”, you will get “ourdepartment@vt.edu” with a PACE alias of “our-department@vt.edu”. Your Google Group will be “ourdepartment-g@vt.edu” or your Exchange account will be ourdepartment-resc@exchange.vt.edu.
It doesn’t matter which address the email is sent to; both will forward into your backend and you can send as the address with the special character.
Q: Are there other options besides VT PACE?
A: Yes, if you have a large volume of e-mail and enough complexity in your needs you might want to consider a ticketing system which can offer more functionality than VT PACE accounts can. Or if you have only one person acting as a receiver for mail (such as a secretary) then you should use an email alias instead. You may also consider a Google Auxiliary Account (GAE). Please refer to the Comparison of GAE and PACE accounts KB to help decide which option would be best for your use case.