IT failure – 2 March

March 5, 2018

We operate our IT services from a number of locations including a data centre in Sandwell. This is a purpose built room with air conditioning, fire and flood protection. The air conditioning is required as computers generate a lot of heat. On Friday 2 March, two of the three air conditioning units failed resulting in temperatures climbing in the data centre. As planned, our computers automatically shut down when the temperature reached 45 degrees in the room in order to protect them from damage. This meant that a large number of IT systems stopped being available.

Estates and informatics worked together to cool the room and restart the computers, with services restored over the course of Friday afternoon. No data was lost and full services were established by 5pm. The data centre cooling is now working and increased monitoring has been put in place.

We are investigating the root cause of the issue however the likely cause is a failure of the air conditioning units due to the very low temperatures experienced last week. If you have any IT issues please contact the service desk on extension 4050 and they will happy to resolve.