“There are two data centres on campus, which make sure that all our systems run smoothly. These centres are located in the Forum and the Gymnasion. In the context of information security and safety, these data centres had to be serviced”, Martijn Kandelaars explains. And that’s what happened on October 7th. Various updates were carried out, but users won’t have noticed much on the front-end of the systems, apart from that some matters can now be arranged more easily.
A little different
This time was a little different from other maintenance moments. “That is because both data centres had to be shut down at the same time. Usually, we keep one online, so that they can take over from each other and some functions remain active. But that wasn’t possible this time”, Edwin van Nieuwamerongen explains. The impact was therefore very considerable, and it also took a whole day instead of just a few hours. “The only thing still possible on campus was to read a book in the library or to join the sports tournament in the Gymnasion,” says Edwin.
Good preparation is half the job
“An enormous amount of effort went into the preparations, which paid off twofold on the day itself. We had previously extensively mapped out which department or system would be affected and in which way. Communication with and collaboration between colleagues from different departments also went very smoothly, so all the obstacles were overcome well”, Martijn explains. “In addition, we work with high-end tooling on the basis of artificial intelligence, which has become well acquainted with the RU network over the past few years. During maintenance, around 37 FTEs to manually switch on all sorts of systems could thus be saved!”