On December 26th, 2019, Blackboard Learn will undergo a 3 day migration to a new infrastructure. We expect the system to be down from 10AM on December 26th to mid-day on December 29th.<\/p>\n
What is happening?<\/strong> <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Why is this migration happening?<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n Since 2014 we\u2019ve been hosted by Blackboard\u2019s \u201cManaged Hosting\u201d dedicated hosting environment which has provided reliable and consistent service.\u00a0 However, it requires constant maintenance and regular updates to make sure the environment is up to date with the latest features, bug fixes, and updates.\u00a0 With BU\u2019s multiple campuses and busy academic calendar, the opportunity to bring the system down for maintenance is rare, which causes us to fall behind in the release and update schedule.\u00a0 By moving to this new SaaS model, we expect much less downtime, since updates and bug fixes are pushed out in a rolling fashion without interruptions.<\/span><\/p>\n How reliable is SaaS?<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n Many of the services we use today utilize the SaaS delivery model.\u00a0 Google apps, Microsoft Office 365, Dropbox, Kaltura, Echo360, and more are all on SaaS infrastructure.\u00a0 With SaaS, resources are dynamically assigned during periods of high usage, providing us with a more consistent experience throughout.<\/span><\/p>\n Why now?<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n Intersession is the only time during BU\u2019s busy academic calendar where we can schedule significant windows for maintenance and updates.\u00a0 By moving to this new infrastructure, our environment will be more flexible, reducing the need for extended outages and providing continuous updates.<\/span><\/p>\n What will change for me?<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n For now, not much will change.\u00a0 Your Blackboard courses will still be available and look the same.\u00a0 The benefits to the BU community come in the form of better performance and the continuous delivery model which brings updates, feature, and fixes without waiting or requiring significant downtime.<\/span><\/p>\n What about the tools I use that aren\u2019t built by Blackboard?<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n We are undergoing extensive tests to make sure compatibility with all our tools and vendors.\u00a0 If there is something you rely on that we can help you test, please <\/span>let us know<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n What is Blackboard \u201cUltra\u201d?<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n Blackboard Ultra is a completely redesigned user interface for Blackboard.\u00a0 The current interface, known as Learn, was developed almost a decade ago and appears outdated compared to modern applications.\u00a0 Moving to SaaS will allow us to enable this new experience on a course-by-course basis. We will be offering courses for demonstration in the Spring as we learn more about how this new environment fits in to teaching and learning at BU.\u00a0You can read more about Ultra on Blackboard’s website<\/a> <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" On December 26th, 2019, Blackboard Learn will undergo a 3 day migration to a new infrastructure. We expect the system to be down from 10AM on December 26th to mid-day on December 29th. What is happening? In Summer 2014 we transitioned from an on-campus installation of Blackboard Learn to an instance hosted by the vendor,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6475,"featured_media":0,"parent":48177,"menu_order":3,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/124262"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6475"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=124262"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/124262\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":124652,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/124262\/revisions\/124652"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/48177"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=124262"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nIn Summer 2014 we transitioned from an on-campus installation of Blackboard Learn to an instance hosted by the vendor, referred to as Managed Hosting (MH). This hosting arrangement provided better speed, reliability, and uptime compared to the on-campus installation.
\nIn December we will once again take the platform offline for a migration, this time to the Software as a Service (SaaS) model. After the 3 day window, the new infrastructure will provide the following benefits:<\/p>\n\n
Frequently Asked Questions<\/strong><\/h3>\n