A critical, campuswide information technology outage has been scheduled for Saturday, June 1. From midnight until noon, all campus wired and wireless data networks, phone and voicemail services, IT services and cable TV will be unavailable.
Campuswide electrical power will not be disrupted during this IT outage. An electrical power outage will occur only in the Industrial Agriculture and Communications Center data centers.
The outage is prompted by the need to replace and upgrade existing electrical infrastructure in the Industrial Agriculture and Communications Center building, which was put in place in 1992. Changes to the electrical equipment will include replacing the uninterruptible power supply, which provides standby battery backup in the case of power failure. In addition, two static transfer switches capable of transferring electrical loads from one power source to another in a fraction of a single electrical cycle and four power distribution units that provide power diversity and enhanced equipment protection will be installed.
The electrical improvements will have immediate critical benefits for NDSU in providing reliable IT systems and services. “Updating our electrical infrastructure is necessary to ensure our data centers will continue to serve campus needs in the future as we deploy the next generation of IT services,” said Marc Wallman, interim vice president for information technology at NDSU.
Work on the electrical project began in October 2012, and completion of construction requires a full transfer of all new electrical power to centralized data, voice and video systems. To accommodate this work, the approximate 12-hour IT outage is necessary. During this time, University Police and Safety will continue to operate 24/7 using backup procedures and systems.
In conjunction with the annual exercise requirement of the federal regulation known as the Clery Act, NDSU will hold a tabletop exercise May 22 depicting an event that will simulate the conditions of the June 1 outage. This exercise will provide the university an opportunity to walk through each part of the outage and to identify and answer any questions or concerns that may arise in advance of the actual outage.
Police and Safety, Facilities Management and Information Technology staff continue to assess the life-safety, academic and event impacts of this outage in collaboration with partners across campus. If you have questions, please contact the IT Help Desk at 701-231-8685 or ndsu.helpdesk@ndsu.edu.
NDSU is recognized as one of the nation's top 108 public and private universities by the Carnegie Commission on Higher Education.