All these changes, in addition to speeding up the system, create "redundancy," which will prevent the entire system from crashing when one machine has troubles.

"In the event of a catastrophe, things can now be shuffled around pretty quickly," Osterberg said.

Earlier, in August, HASCS made a major set of changes to the e-mail system, adding new, more powerful FAS and HUSC machines. But these changes were still incapable of handling Harvard's massive e-mail load.

"Back in August we thought that would really, really help and that was an enormous step in the right direction," Osterberg said. "But as time quickly told, we were right back in the same position needing a lot more horsepower."

The machines HASCS added in August are no longer serving their original purpose, but they have been incorporated into the new system design.

"Not a penny was lost," Osterberg said.

HASCS has been planning major system design changes since last spring, but the turnover of several critical staff members made implementation impossible until now, Steen said.

Funding for the most recent improvements was set aside in HASCS's $4.8 million budget earlier in the year. Special funding was not necessary, Martin said