Christer Rindebratt, head of unit and crisis manager at University IT Services, explains that increased use of IT systems at the beginning of the semester is no surprise and a margin is always allowed for this in planning.
“However, the load on the systems was higher than usual because many people are working at home and the University’s teaching and examinations are being delivered remotely because of the pandemic. Zoom is provided through joint national arrangements so the increased use at other higher education institutions and workplaces around the world affected total capacity and had consequences for us at Uppsala University.”
Online education and large numbers of new students led to heavy pressure on the Student Portal. The VPN service, which provides remote access to IT services, also experienced disruptions.
As many people are working from home and several of the systems used for salary payments, financial reporting and annual accounts require VPN for remote access, this also contributed to overloads.
“Capacity was quickly boosted in the Student Portal and the VPN service and the Zoom supplier was also able to increase capacity relatively promptly. Unfortunately, problems persisted in the VPN service and we are aware that this caused disruptions in many people’s work at the University.”
Intense efforts
The IT Service Desk, which receives questions and reports of problems, also came under heavy pressure. Despite extra staff and special communication efforts, many people unfortunately had to wait longer than usual for a response and assistance.
“Staff at University IT Services worked intensively at troubleshooting, capacity boosting and other measures to limit the negative impact of the disruptions. All services are now fully operational again and we are analysing the causes of the problems to enable us to guarantee services in the future and minimise the risk of similar problems happening again.”