Global at-risk period

Global IS often need to undertake routine and regular updates to our global systems and these come with a risk of downtime. Rather than negotiate and advertise every period of potential outage, we utilise a global at-risk period within which we strive to undertake as many changes as possible.

Global at-risk periods:

  • Malaysia: Thursdays, 0200-0500
  • Dubai: Wednesdays, 2200-0100
  • UK: Wednesdays, 1800-2100

Work that potentially affects more than one campus is in scope. Critical University work should be avoided during these times wherever possible, but if it is not then staff must contact IS when planning an activity during this slot so that we can defer any planned updates for that week.

Local at-risk periods

There are some services provided and consumed locally. Work on these systems will usually happen within the local time-zone equivalent to the Wednesday 1800-2100 time slot. These will also be advised on the service status page.

Pause periods

Work during the at-risk periods would be paused during our usual change freeze period that match our times of critical University business, such as; clearing, exams and the start of academic years.

Communications

In addition to information contained here, we will also advertise any planned downtime during these periods on the status page only. We will not seek to advertise planned downtime in any other way and as such, colleagues should seek to avoid undertaking critical work during these times.

Reporting issues experienced during at-risk periods

Service disruptions may occur during the at-risk periods outlined above. If you experience a technology issue on either morning, please wait until after the at-risk period to contact the IS Help as the problem will likely resolve itself.

Changes made outside at-risk periods

Although we make every effort to apply changes in the at-risk period, we do make exceptions if, for example:

  • an immediate risk arises (a critical security patch needs to be applied, for example)
  • either work window isn't a feasible option (due to third party resourcing, for example)
  • a system upgrade is significant (may take longer than two hours, for example).

Global IS will determine if an exception is warranted and are committed to ensuring works undertaken outside at-risk periods are communicated on our system status page (as a minimum) when they carry significant risk.