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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.

 

IT Alert: Telephone System Maintenance (KAUST 911 and 959 Back-Up Numbers) today, Sunday, July 5

05 July, 2026

KAUST Community,
KAUST IT will perform maintenance on the KAUST telephone system today, Sunday, July 5, 2026, from 5:00 PM to 9:00 PM, to address recently reported voice service issues.
Maintenance Window
Sunday, July 5, 2026
5:00 PM to 9:00 PM

What you can expect

  • Internal calls within the KAUST telephone network, including calls between office desk phones and home phones, are not expected to be affected.
  • Incoming and outgoing calls between KAUST phones and external telephone numbers may experience brief interruptions. This includes office desk phones and home phones in the KAUST residential neighborhoods.

Emergency and important contact numbers

From a KAUST office or home phone
You can reach these services as usual throughout the maintenance window:
KAUST 911 (Emergency): dial 911
Campus & Community Helpdesk: dial 959
Mobile back-up numbers
Calls to 911 and 959 from a mobile phone should work as normal. In the unlikely event that you cannot reach them, please use the direct numbers below:
KAUST 911 (Emergency): +966 54 470 1449
Campus & Community Helpdesk: +966 54 470 0742
We apologize for the short notice and appreciate your patience and understanding as we complete this maintenance to improve the reliability of our telephone services.
If you continue to experience any issues after the maintenance window has ended, please contact the IT Service Desk.