Heads up, University of Cincinnati students and staff: your late-night cramming or grading session might hit a snag next Thursday. As reported by the university, select IT services at the University of Cincinnati will be taking a brief nap during a planned maintenance window on July 24. Exactly at 11 p.m., when the clock strikes the hour, services are expected to go dark for about 60 seconds times sixty—a simple hour.
While some might be preparing to tuck themselves into bed at that time, others may find themselves in the throes of late-night productivity. It's during the stillness of that late hour, starting at 11 p.m. Thursday, when the gears of the University’s business continuity will be greased up for enhancements. Not to worry, though—if you're knee-deep in cloud-hosted services like the rest of us, those should stay up and running. The Digital Technology Solutions team at the university will be steering the maintenance ship, looking to keep the digital seas calm and navigable during this brief intermission.
For those whose digital demands are less cloud-based, however, it might be wise to plan ahead. The university didn't list the specific systems taking the dive into maintenance mode, but they did mention it's only a select few. That could mean anything from the campus virtual learning environment to the faculty's grading systems. To stay in the know, you could reach out to your IT department or keep a tab on the university’s updates.
The good news is that this disruption is planned for when most are dreaming in REM sleep, not midday when digital traffic is at its peak. Timing is everything, and the DTS team has chosen the witching hour for a reason. Yet even as the clock hands join at midnight, ending the maintenance period, one can only hope that all goes as smoothly as it's intended—because hiccups in these operations, though rare when the watchful eyes of IT pros are doing their thing, could extend beyond the best-laid plans of mice and IT men.
Remember, mark your calendars, set a reminder, and maybe save your work a little more obsessively as July 24 approaches. And for those who ride the cloud, enjoy your unfettered access. For additional details regarding this short offline detour, the University of Cincinnati has more information on its website.
