|
Latest News
IMPORTANT: CENTRAL HOSTED - Schools Remote Access Service – Performance Issues
Schools Remote Access Service: Notification of Downtime 10.00 - 17.00 Friday 15th January 2010
Following on from the notification schools received last week of issues with the Schools Remote Access Solution, the new equipment has now been delivered and will be installed on Friday 15th January. The work will be undertaken during the day when the fewest users will be affected and is expected to take from 10am to 5pm to complete.
Central Hosting Performance Issues
Schools Remote Access Service
The secure remote access for staff and pupils the ICT service has provided for over 2 years has deteriorated over the last month. This has been caused by failure of equipment and software provided by Barracuda Networks. In the short term we are implementing new equipment from the supplier and improving monitoring systems which should have the effect of restoring the previous good levels of service. The process of commissioning this will take a day and will take place during the working day (when remote access is least used). Due to problems with the weather, this equipment will not be delivered until next week at the earliest. We will advise schools when we have a definite delivery date and when the equipment will be commissioned.
The ICT Service apologises that the standard of the remote access service has fallen below acceptable levels and we are working hard to restore service levels and improve on the current system. With that in mind and looking to the future, we are exploring alternative solutions which will be more robust and more flexible.
BSF decision
After a lengthy procurement process, Cambridgeshire has finally chosen a partner for its Building Schools for the Future programme. The Equitix consortium have been recommended as preferred bidder, which means that Dell will be responsible for providing a managed ICT service to all the secondary and special schools in Fenland initially, with further groups of schools joining the programme in later years.
The consortium will also provide a replacement for the current Portal which after more than 6 years will be recreated as a SharePoint solution in time for the next academic year.
Switched On Newsletter Launched
The first newsletter from the Computing at School group has just been published. It can be downloaded at
http://www.computingatschool.org.uk/files/newsletter/SwitchedOnIssue01.pdf
"Computing at School is an informal group that aims to promote teaching computing at school. It was born out of our excitement with our discipline, combined with a serious concern that students are being turned off computing by a combination of factors.
Our goal is to put the fun back into computing at school."
|