Today’s colleges and universities are working hard to groom the leading IT pros, data scientists and network engineers of tomorrow, preparing them for a connected world and tech scene that’s already vastly different than it was only a half decade ago. But despite emphasizing the importance of following the scientific method, not all schools are practicing what they teach when it comes to managing the networks that increasingly support all facets of campus life.
Case in point: The recent network outage at Amherst College in Massachusetts that grounded pretty much the entire campus to a halt for an entire week back in February.
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According to the student newspaper, a “perfect storm” of issues came together that impacted everything from laundry and student ID cards, to wi-fi and email access. After first going offline on a Monday, campus IT still didn’t have a clear answer or resolution for what had actually impacted the network by the following Friday.
Alec Pinkham is director of product marketing for AppNeta.
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