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Migrating Existing MIT Employee-owned Slack Workspaces to the MIT Slack Enterprise Grid

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Overview

If your workspace is migrated to the MIT Enterprise Slack Grid you will retain ownership and administration of your workspace and all of your data will be preserved. IS&T will assume your contractual obligation with Slack and you will have no costs going forward. Benefits of moving to the grid include:

  • SSO integration with MIT Touchstone
  • 1 TB of storage space per user (that’s across all workspaces)
  • Dropbox, OneDrive, Google Drive, Webex, Zoom integration
  • Unlimited, interconnected Slack workspaces to enable new collaboration opportunities
  • A centralized user directory, so you can message any Slack user at MIT
  • A directory of all open MIT workspaces
  • Shared Channels across MIT workspaces, for announcements and more
  • Ability to collaborate with non-MIT partners as Guests and/or Shared Channels via Slack Connect
  • 24/7 support with 4-hour first response time
  • Costs covered under the MIT Enterprise License
  • IS&T Service Desk Support

For more information, see Slack's What is Slack Enterprise Grid?

Migration Considerations

The MIT Slack Enterprise Grid uses SSO with Touchstone Authentication, which means that access for Members is only granted by means of their Kerberos credentials. MIT users will want to ensure they update their Slack account to their MIT email address before their workspace is migrated to avoid being locked out of their account. 

Users without SSO access can still participate in your workspace as either a Single-channel or Multi-channel Guest but not as full workspace Members. If a workspace has MIT users on it using an external email address like Gmail or Yahoo, that will need to be addressed before that workspaces can be migrated to the MIT Enterprise Slack Grid.

Migration FAQs

  • How can I request a workspace migration? Please reach out to slack-migrations@mit.edu to request a migration for your workspace. Be sure to include the following: workspace URL, workspace name, whether or not it's a free or paid workspace, workspace primary owner's email address. 
  • Will all my data be retained after migration? All messages and files will be migrated to the MIT Slack Enterprise Grid and access to them will not change. No data will be deleted except as it routinely would be per administrative data retention and deletion policies.
  • How will the migration affect my account preferences?
    • Notifications: Your notification preferences will be reset. Update your workspace and channel notification preferences after migration is complete.
    • Profile: During the migration process, members' profile details - display name, photo, "what I do," and phone number - are merged based on a matching email address. If you had previously logged into the MIT Slack Enterprise Grid, mit.slack.com, the user profile fields you set there will take precedence over migrated the migrated workspace(s). If more than one workspace was moved, profile details from the first workspace will be applied by default. You can update your profile after migrating.
  • How will logins work for workspaces migrated to the MIT Enterprise Slack grid? MIT Kerberos ID (email) accounts will be using SSO (Single Sign-on Touchstone Authenticaion) for login to the Slack workspace. Guests will login using their username/password.
  • How long does a migration take? Migrations are conducted on average of once every few months in batches. They occur after hours to avoid impacting ongoing work. Your workspace will be inaccessible for 20-30 minutes when the migration occurs and you will be logged out of your workspace on all devices. 
  • My workspace has multiple owners. Will they continue to all be owners after my workspace is migrated? Yes, workspaces with multiple owners will retain the same ownership configuration after migration.
  • Will my workspace maintain its current data retention/deletion policies after migration? Yes, administrative settings and customizations will not change when your workspace is migrated to the MIT Enterprise Grid. However, some personalization by users like direct message retention times may revert to administrative set defaults.
  • Will my workspace bots and integrations be migrated with my workspace to the MIT Enterprise grid? Yes.
  • I've granted guest access to my workspace for non-MIT users. Will they continue to have access? Will I be able to add more guests in the future as needed? Yes*, your guests will continue to have the access you granted them to your workspace and you will be able to grant access to additional guests once your workspace is part of the MIT Enterprise Grid.
    • *While collaboration with guests is encouraged, a workspace with over 40% of its membership as Guest users will not be eligible for migration. Please contact slack-migrations@mit.edu for more information. 
  • Will I be able to continue to use existing shared channels with non-MIT workspaces and create new ones? Yes.
  • If students graduate and their MIT Kerberos Account is deactivated, can they still access MIT Enterprise Grid workspaces? Yes, a workspace administrator can update their email address and convert them to a Guest in the workspace.
  • Will IS&T access the content of my workspace? No. IS&T will not be accessing the contents of Slack workspaces. IS&T will follow the Institute’s policy on Privacy.

Have Questions or Still Need Help?

IS&T Contributions

Documentation and information provided by IS&T staff members


Last Modified:

June 15, 2023

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