IS&T is planning to conduct a business continuity test agreed with UEG. This is to ensure the University’s IT resilience measures are robust and effective. During the test there will be no access to IT services from inside or outside the University.
We have identified the weekend of the 3 and 4 January 2015 (during the Christmas closure of the University) as the best opportunity for such a test based on known events and requirements. Teams of staff will be working over this weekend so that IT services will be available and working normally by 8am on Monday 5th January.
We will make every effort to keep disruption to a minimum but we need to discover the impact of the interruption to services before we agree to go ahead. In order to do this we have contacted Faculty Heads of Professional Services and Heads of Directorates to gather information about events or activities that may be affected by the test. If you are aware of anything that may be affected over that weekend, please can you ensure it is passed to the appropriate person in your area by 21 November.
What will this affect?
The tests require us to disable all University IT Services over that weekend. This means students and staff will not be able to access networked drives, blackboard, email, calendars and timetables and services such as Turn-it in, Core Portal, E5, SI and the Library Management system. There will need to be alternative arrangements made for entry and security systems as it will affect building management systems, Millennium and access control. The external website will also be unavailable as will the staff intranet.
Why is this necessary?
The University is increasingly dependent on IT for its day-to-day effective running. A critical incident which interrupted IT Services might damage the reputation of the University and compromise its ability to recruit. It could also affect the student experience. We need to test how we could support the University through such an incident and assess how to minimise any data loss and have the most business critical systems back up and running as soon as possible.