CITY MOVING FORWARD ON WEBSITE BACK-UP PLAN

Following the power and website outage on April 21, 2014 the City continues to improve its communications procedures.

The power outage allowed us to identify a vulnerability with the Fire Department’s radio systems.

“The Fire Department will be reviewing its protocol for switching to a more basic radio system during momentary outages that may be caused by a massive power outage,” says Assistant Fire Chief Morgan Hackl.

Further analysis revealed that radio communications were lost for 20 minutes in total, while the system switched to and from a back-up power supply.

The outage also caused the City’s website and e-mail systems to go offline.

“The City already has a plan in place to provide residents with an alternate online location to access information. This will work along with other digital information sources, such as Twitter and Facebook,” says Corporate Performance General Manager Catherine Gryba. 

Additionally, a plan is already underway to move an emergency generator from the “old” Police Headquarters on 3rd Avenue to City Hall.

In preparation for the City’s new website, the Information Technology Division has been creating alternate data centres, which will provide additional back up to essential online service such as Fire Computer Assisted Dispatch, Saskatoon.ca, corporate email and VOIP telephone service.

For more City of Saskatoon Public Service Announcements, News Releases, Traffic Detours and Service Alerts, visit www.saskatoon.ca or connect with the City of Saskatoon on Twitter and Facebook.