BaylorITS Launches New Online System Status Dashboard

Baylor ITS announced the launch of a new System Status dashboard that provides 24/7 real-time information about the status of technology systems across the university. The new resource, available at systemstatus.baylor.edu, touts a highly-intuitive, graphics-driven environment that allows users to quickly identify systems that are offline or experiencing issues.

The university contracted with StatusHub, a cloud-based service that provides similar support to other higher educational institutions and corporations. Through a collaboration between Baylor ITS and the Libraries, software platforms and critical components of the university's technology infrastructure were ported into StatusHub and tested this past summer and fall.

Implementing System Status will provide more convenient access to operational information for Baylor's user community and for technology professionals at Baylor ITS and across the institution.

"Currently if there are issues with Baylor's technology infrastructure or a widely-used software platform like Canvas, we have to manually update a voicemail message, websites, and social media platforms," said Brent Harris, assistant vice president for client services. "With the new System System status dashboard, outages will be immediately visible and, in many cases, explained in a notification provided by the vendor in real-time. Having this resource immediately available to everyone won't fix the issues that arise, but will allow everyone to remain informed."

With the implementation of systemstatus.baylor.edu, the telephone-based DOWN line and the @BaylorITS_Alert Twitter account will no longer be employed to announce outages. The DOWN line recording will direct callers to check systemstatus.baylor.edu or to monitor the Baylor ITS Facebook or Twitter accounts.

"Implementing System Status brings our technology operations into alignment with those of many other educational institutions and companies that maintain a status page for immediate uptime information," said Jon Allen, chief information office and chief information security officer. "We are confident that this information resource will quickly become the primary source for information about our systems."

For those interested in up-to-the-minute updates, the new System Status dashboard allows anyone to subscribe to receive email messages whenever a system goes experiences issues or goes offline. For questions regarding, the new systemstatus.baylor.edu resource, visit HelpDesk+ on the garden level of Moody Memorial Library, call (254) 710-4357, or email helpdesk@baylor.edu.