Spring break is good opportunity for outage, official says.
By Isacc Tavares
sac-ranger@alamo.edu
The district’s information technology services will have a Banner system outage that will result in a blackout for ACES, Canvas and self-services during spring break March 11-17.
The outage will be active March 12-14 at different times.
The times are 5 a.m.-5 p.m. March 12, 5 a.m.-1 p.m. March 13 and 4.-8 a.m. March 14.
Roger Castro, district IT director said, ” It’s maintenance to the Banner service. It needs to be upgraded and to enhance security and the current software.”
The outage will be districtwide.
“The outage is for all of the Alamo Colleges. It’s all centralized and impacts the district and the colleges,” Castro said. “We want to make sure that the system is still running and everything is going smoothly.
Students may wonder why the outage is taking place during spring break, instead of a weekend or student holiday.
“We are becoming a 24/7, 365-day service. Every time we need an outage, the semester is always going on. Spring break is the perfect opportunity for us to do this outage,” Castro said.
“Students go to their ACES in the beginning and at the end of spring break, but we noticed that there’s a lull in the middle of the week,” Castro said. “That’s why were starting on Tuesday.”
Students may find it inconvenient to do this during spring break. Castro knows this as well.
“I am aware it’s not popular with a lot of students and faculty because most professors will have things due during that week and students must work around it,” Castro said. “Students will have to schedule turning in their assignments after the times, and online classes will have to be canceled.”
Castro said he hopes students understand that this outage will help the system stay up to date and not crash when students need it.
