University IT Services (UITS) is performing a major upgrade of the campus Internet connection the evening of Tuesday, July 8th, around 10 PM. This is a major upgrade that will more than double the capacity of the University's Internet connection and will change the architecture of the campus Internet connection to increase the reliability of this critical service. Users should expect intermittent Internet outages for about an hour following this upgrade.
The University currently has a single connection to the Internet, running at 75 megabits per second. After the upgrade, the campus will have two independent connections to the Internet, each running at 100 megabits per second. The connections will be configured so that the campus will continue to have Internet service in the event either connection is lost.
This is a major step in UITS's plan to ensure the University's core IT services are highly available. Later this summer, UITS will upgrade the network in the data center to enable redundant application servers for critical systems such as the campus Web site, Banner, and email. This fall UITS will continue this upgrade by creating redundant network paths between core campus buildings, ensuring that users will be able to access network services even if a campus server or network link is down.
Steve Landry, CIO