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IT Alerts

This page lists all official IT service alerts shared with the KAUST community. Alerts are also delivered directly to your KAUST email.

Standard Weekly Maintenance Window

Thursday at 5:00 PM to Saturday at 8:00 PM. During this window, some services may experience temporary slowdowns, intermittent issues, or brief outages while essential maintenance is performed.

Vendor-Scheduled Maintenance

Some KAUST systems hosted on the KAUST Portal (portal.kaust.edu.sa) are maintained directly by our cloud vendor. These activities are scheduled quarterly and are independent of KAUST IT's regular maintenance windows. They may temporarily affect the availability or performance of several online services.

View Planned Vendor Maintenance

 

Recent Alerts

The most recent IT service alerts are shown below. For the full history, see the archive further down this page.

 

30 September, 2026

Scheduled Maintenance: KAUST Sign-In Services, IT Website, and Network Switches

Planned IT maintenance includes a 30-minute KAUST sign-in maintenance window, IT Website maintenance, and ongoing network switch upgrades. Review the schedule and any action you may need to take.

Read more

27 September, 2026

IT Maintenance Notice: IT Website Maintenance

The KAUST IT Website will undergo maintenance on Tuesday, 6 October, from 9:00 AM to 12:00 PM. No downtime is expected, but the website may be slower than usual during this time.

Read more

 

About IT Alerts and the Change Advisory Board

The Change Advisory Board (CAB) is a cross-functional group within KAUST IT that reviews and approves proposed IT changes to maintain service reliability and reduce risk. The CAB Chair is appointed by the Chief Information Officer (CIO).

For urgent or high-impact situations, the Emergency Change Advisory Board (ECAB) may be activated to ensure timely decisions while protecting service stability.

Learn more about the CAB

When Are Alerts Issued?

All IT changes are reviewed under the Change Management process. When communication is needed, an IT Alert is published and shared with the KAUST community. This includes:

  • Scheduled or planned service changes
  • Changes affecting specific groups or areas (such as faculty, students, or building residents)
  • Unplanned outages or urgent service issues

 

Alerts Archive

All past IT service alerts are listed below, including scheduled maintenance notices, unplanned outages, and service restoration updates.

 

Scheduled Maintenance: Microsoft Office Upgrade in Parallels (2X)

12 February, 2026

KAUST Community,

The following planned maintenance activity is scheduled to help keep KAUST IT services reliable and performing well. Please review the details below and note any expected impacts.

Microsoft Office Upgrade in Parallels (2X)

When

Thursday, 12 February 2026
From 6:00 PM onwards

Impact

KAUST IT will upgrade Microsoft Office within the Parallels (2X) environment. As part of this change:

  • Office 2016 will be upgraded to Office 2019
  • Project 2013 will be upgraded to Project 2019
  • SharePoint Designer 2013 will be removed

During the upgrade window:

  • Office and Project applications in Parallels (2X) will be temporarily unavailable
  • Any active Office sessions running after 6:00 PM may be terminated once the upgrade begins

Once the upgrade is completed, Office and Project applications will be available as normal.

Action Required

Please save your work and log out of Parallels (2X) Office applications before 6:00 PM.

Kindly avoid using Office or Project applications in Parallels (2X) during the upgrade window.

Thank you for your understanding as we carry out routine maintenance to help prevent service disruptions and keep systems running smoothly.

View all current and previous IT Alerts on the KAUST IT website.

KAUST IT