Network Equipment Upgrade Summer 2020

The core network equipment that services the entire Manhattan College community will be upgraded Friday and Saturday, July 31st and August 1st, 2020.

What is changing?
Three major pieces of networking equipment are being upgraded to more modern and higher-performing equipment. From an end-user perspective, Internet and Intranet services will not change because of this upgrade. All changes will be made behind the scenes.

Why are these changes being made?
Manhattan College IT Services is committed to providing the best experience on both the wired and wireless networks across campus. We are also committed to keeping our technology secure, reliable, and up-to-date. The current equipment is nearing its End-of-Support (EOS) and End-of-Life (EOL) dates. Vendors have a set EOS and EOL schedule they use for all hardware. As hardware reaches its EOS and EOL dates, the reliability of the equipment begins to significantly diminish while the cost to own and operate can rise with respect to service costs, power consumption, and the lost hours of productivity we need in order to maintain aging hardware. Vendors will also no longer support the equipment nor will continue to provide upgraded and secured firmware patches.

When is this change occurring?
This upgrade is scheduled to commence Friday July 31st, 2020 at 3pm and will continue through August 1, 2020. Maintenance should be complete by Saturday, August 1, 2020.

This upgrade has been re-scheduled for Friday night, July 31, 2020 into the morning of Saturday, August 1, 2020. ITS will update the community once we get more specific information as to what time on July 31st that the maintenance will begin.

What will be affected during the maintenance period?
Internet, both wired and wireless, on campus will be completely down throughout the entire maintenance period. Services affected include the following:

  • Phones on campus (including voicemail services)
  • Emergency blue light phones
  • Self-Service
  • Banner
  • Door access control systems
  • Point-of-Sale (POS) Systems
  • Password resets and activations
  • VPN
Users off campus will still have access to the following during the maintenance period:
  • GMail
  • Moodle
Related Blog Posts