IT services outages to disrupt Easter revision

IT services will not be available on 27th March and 10th April as essential maintenance to the ITS databases are performed. The dates announced are both Saturdays within the Easter break and outages are expected to last up to eight hours on both days.

The maintenance work is part 1A of a five-phase development plan to modernise the structure of IT services throughout campus known as the Network Replacement Project (NRP).

The work is designed to advance Warwick’s IT system and ensure “the University has a solid IT framework to take it into the future.”

Students should be aware that services such as their Warwick email account, access to the library website and services that require an ITS login will all be affected within the period and should take this into consideration when scheduling their workload. Internet access will be unavailable on campus during the outage times. IT equipment that does not require network access will be unaffected.

The NRP website elaborates on why the developments are taking place. “The University recognises that services required both now and in the future demand a resilient and reliable network which delivers the additional capacity required for future applications.

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“The current networks are now ageing, and there is a need to both redesign and rebuild the physical infrastructure to ensure that it is highly available, scalable in order to meet future needs, and minimises restrictions to services. The network replacement project also supports the University strategic goals.”

IT Services have issued an advanced warning, “On each day, for a period up to eight hours, there will be no IT services available. PCs and laptops can still be used in local/stand alone mode for projecting slides. Presentations will need to be stored on a memory device as the network will not be available.”

The NRP is operating under a piecemeal progression and is scheduled to be completed this July.