Managing Service Outages
When an unexpected service issue, degradation or outage causes a widespread or major impact to university business, Information and Technology Services responds by implementing its Major Incidents protocol. A 24/7 on-call team of ITS representatives is notified and promptly joins a fast-paced videoconference discussion with the goal of restoring the impacted service as soon as possible.
Keeping the University Informed
The Major Incidents team initially focuses on diagnosing whether the issue is vendor-related or localized and then determines how best to resolve the issue, all while keeping university leaders and impacted service users informed. While the Service Status website is where the latest updates are made available, ITS posts information on Wolverine Access and social media, and uses other means when broader communications are warranted. The ITS Communications Team leads this part of the process, making certain that the broader community has the most up-to-date information about the issue.
Additionally, ITS coordinates with individual unit representatives and unit IT partners to provide necessary outage details. ITS Customer Relations is primarily responsible for working with units to identify those individuals to participate in specific Major Incident conversations, which ensures their time is optimized and allows unit teams to focus on managing impacted services and processes in their school, college or department. Unit IT partners and representatives can contact [email protected] and request to join the ITS Major Incidents Google Chat room where they can ask questions, provide input, and monitor discussions.
Resolving a Major Incident
Depending on the duration of the service outage or problem, a series of Major Incident meetings continues through the day and potentially into the evening. Team members will work, if needed, all night and over the weekend until service is restored, the Major Incident is officially closed, and the university is able to resume business as usual. Questions about the Major Incidents process should be directed to ITS Service Support.
Reporting a Service Issue
University community members who suspect the institution may be experiencing a service outage or issue should contact the ITS Service Center. To report a possible IT security incident, visit Safe Computing.