Update - Service are slowly resuming, however please be aware of the following points:
Important Security Warning: Phishing & Bogus Support Calls
Several security organisations have issued warnings regarding a spike in both phishing emails and fraudulent support desk calls targeting affected users. Attackers may use techniques such as posing as Microsoft or University IT support staff asking users to hand over their credentials, or sending fake emails prompting users to "re-authenticate" their accounts.
University IT support and Microsoft will never ask for your password. Please do not share your login details or approve unexpected multi-factor authentication (MFA) prompts, and take extra care when opening emails, clicking links, or responding to unexpected or urgent-sounding requests as delayed messages arrive.
Service Recovery Update
Services are gradually beginning to recover, though this remains a complex incident spanning multiple IT systems across over 70 countries and full restoration will still take time.
Current Service Status
- Email: Slowly returning for most users, although delivery is expected to remain sporadic for some time.
- Copilot & Viva Engage: Slowly returning to service.
- Teams & OneDrive: Microsoft Teams and individual access to OneDrive appear to be functioning normally, though some features may be unavailable. Due to the ongoing global incident, we cannot guarantee that these services will remain uninterrupted.
Mail Backlog & Potential Message Loss
- Extended Delivery Delays: Even once services are fully restored, clearing the backlog of queued emails will take a considerable amount of time, potentially several days, depending on global mail volumes.
- Risk of Lost Emails: There is still a possibility that some messages sent during the outage may be lost altogether.
Essential Equipment & Knock-On System Delays
- Check Critical Equipment Manually: System-generated notifications and critical alerts normally sent via email may continue to be delayed for some time, so staff who rely on email alerts to monitor the status of essential equipment should continue to check those systems manually.
- Downstream System Dependencies: Many IT systems rely on email integration with other platforms to function properly. Please be prepared for other dependent services to take additional time to become fully operational even after email is restored.
We are closely monitoring Microsoft’s recovery progress and will continue to post updates as the situation develops.
Thank you for your continued patience and cooperation.
Nov 13, 2026 - 14:41 GMT
Important Security Warning: Phishing & Bogus Support Calls
Several security organisations have issued warnings regarding a spike in both phishing emails and fraudulent support desk calls targeting affected users. Attackers may use techniques such as posing as Microsoft or University IT support staff asking users to hand over their credentials, or sending fake emails prompting users to "re-authenticate" their accounts.
University IT support and Microsoft will never ask for your password. Please do not share your login details or approve unexpected multi-factor authentication (MFA) prompts, and take extra care when opening emails, clicking links, or responding to unexpected or urgent-sounding requests as delayed messages arrive.
Service Recovery Update
Services are gradually beginning to recover, though this remains a complex incident spanning multiple IT systems across over 70 countries and full restoration will still take time.
Current Service Status
- Email: Slowly returning for most users, although delivery is expected to remain sporadic for some time.
- Copilot & Viva Engage: Slowly returning to service.
- Teams & OneDrive: Microsoft Teams and individual access to OneDrive appear to be functioning normally, though some features may be unavailable. Due to the ongoing global incident, we cannot guarantee that these services will remain uninterrupted.
Mail Backlog & Potential Message Loss
- Extended Delivery Delays: Even once services are fully restored, clearing the backlog of queued emails will take a considerable amount of time, potentially several days, depending on global mail volumes.
- Risk of Lost Emails: There is still a possibility that some messages sent during the outage may be lost altogether.
Essential Equipment & Knock-On System Delays
- Check Critical Equipment Manually: System-generated notifications and critical alerts normally sent via email may continue to be delayed for some time, so staff who rely on email alerts to monitor the status of essential equipment should continue to check those systems manually.
- Downstream System Dependencies: Many IT systems rely on email integration with other platforms to function properly. Please be prepared for other dependent services to take additional time to become fully operational even after email is restored.
We are closely monitoring Microsoft’s recovery progress and will continue to post updates as the situation develops.
Thank you for your continued patience and cooperation.
Nov 13, 2026 - 14:41 GMT
Update - Important Update: While we are receiving reports that emails are beginning to arrive for some users, this should not be taken as an indication that the issue is resolved. This has been a complex incident spanning multiple IT systems across over 70 countries; full resolution is still expected to take considerable time, and email delivery may remain unavailable or sporadic in the meantime.
Current Service Status
Email: Remains unavailable for most users, though delivery is starting to resume for some, significant delays are still expected
Other Microsoft Services: Copilot and Viva Engage remain unavailable.
Operational (Subject to Change): Microsoft Teams and individual access to OneDrive appear to be functioning normally; however, file sharing through OneDrive is unavailable. Due to the global outage, there is no guarantee that these services will remain uninterrupted.
Mail Backlog & Potential Message Loss
Extended Delivery Delays: Even once services are fully restored, clearing the backlog of queued emails will take a considerable amount of time - potentially several days, depending on global mail volumes.
Risk of Lost Emails: There is a possibility that some messages sent during the outage may be lost altogether, particularly if the volume of backlogged email continues to grow.
Essential Equipment & Knock-On System Delays
Check Critical Equipment Manually: A reminder that system-generated notifications and critical alerts normally sent via email are not being received or received with significant delay. Staff who rely on email alerts to monitor the status of essential equipment must check those systems manually.
Downstream System Dependencies: Many IT systems rely on email integration with other platforms to function properly. Please be prepared for other dependent services to take additional time to become fully operational even after email is restored.
Stay Vigilant Against Phishing
Although Microsoft have confirmed there is no indication this outage is the result of a cybersecurity incident, attackers frequently take advantage of major global disruptions, knowing users will be overwhelmed when inboxes suddenly fill with delayed messages. As emails begin arriving, please take extra care when opening emails, clicking links, or responding to unexpected or urgent-sounding requests.
We are closely monitoring Microsoft’s recovery progress and will continue to post updates as the situation develops.
Thank you for your continued patience and cooperation.
Nov 13, 2026 - 12:32 GMT
Current Service Status
Email: Remains unavailable for most users, though delivery is starting to resume for some, significant delays are still expected
Other Microsoft Services: Copilot and Viva Engage remain unavailable.
Operational (Subject to Change): Microsoft Teams and individual access to OneDrive appear to be functioning normally; however, file sharing through OneDrive is unavailable. Due to the global outage, there is no guarantee that these services will remain uninterrupted.
Mail Backlog & Potential Message Loss
Extended Delivery Delays: Even once services are fully restored, clearing the backlog of queued emails will take a considerable amount of time - potentially several days, depending on global mail volumes.
Risk of Lost Emails: There is a possibility that some messages sent during the outage may be lost altogether, particularly if the volume of backlogged email continues to grow.
Essential Equipment & Knock-On System Delays
Check Critical Equipment Manually: A reminder that system-generated notifications and critical alerts normally sent via email are not being received or received with significant delay. Staff who rely on email alerts to monitor the status of essential equipment must check those systems manually.
Downstream System Dependencies: Many IT systems rely on email integration with other platforms to function properly. Please be prepared for other dependent services to take additional time to become fully operational even after email is restored.
Stay Vigilant Against Phishing
Although Microsoft have confirmed there is no indication this outage is the result of a cybersecurity incident, attackers frequently take advantage of major global disruptions, knowing users will be overwhelmed when inboxes suddenly fill with delayed messages. As emails begin arriving, please take extra care when opening emails, clicking links, or responding to unexpected or urgent-sounding requests.
We are closely monitoring Microsoft’s recovery progress and will continue to post updates as the situation develops.
Thank you for your continued patience and cooperation.
Nov 13, 2026 - 12:32 GMT
Monitoring - Update: Overall service status remains unchanged while we continue to wait for Microsoft to restore affected services.
Important Guidance
Check Key Platforms Manually: Because system-generated emails are not being delivered, users are advised to check key platforms manually rather than relying on email notifications (for example, managers will need to log into PeopleXD periodically to check for and approve leave requests).
Mail Delivery Once Restored: Once services are restored, queued emails will take some time to come through. While we expect most messages to be eventually delivered, given this is a global issue, depending on the sender's system, some emails sent during the outage may not be delivered at all.
Nov 13, 2026 - 09:50 GMT
Important Guidance
Check Key Platforms Manually: Because system-generated emails are not being delivered, users are advised to check key platforms manually rather than relying on email notifications (for example, managers will need to log into PeopleXD periodically to check for and approve leave requests).
Mail Delivery Once Restored: Once services are restored, queued emails will take some time to come through. While we expect most messages to be eventually delivered, given this is a global issue, depending on the sender's system, some emails sent during the outage may not be delivered at all.
Nov 13, 2026 - 09:50 GMT
Identified - The University is currently experiencing an interruption to Microsoft services, including Email and Copilot, due to a widespread, global Microsoft outage impacting over 70 countries. The outage has been ongoing for over 14 hours.
Current Service Impact: Email, Copilot and Viva Engage are currently down, and potentially no email will have been delivered since the incident started yesterday evening.
Microsoft Teams and OneDrive appear to be functioning normally; however, because the global outage is ongoing, we cannot guarantee that this service will remain uninterrupted.
Microsoft have confirmed that there is no indication this is the result of a cybersecurity incident.
We are closely monitoring Microsoft’s recovery progress and will continue to post updates as the situation changes throughout the day.
Thank you for your patience while Microsoft resolves this issue.
Nov 13, 2026 - 07:48 GMT
Current Service Impact: Email, Copilot and Viva Engage are currently down, and potentially no email will have been delivered since the incident started yesterday evening.
Microsoft Teams and OneDrive appear to be functioning normally; however, because the global outage is ongoing, we cannot guarantee that this service will remain uninterrupted.
Microsoft have confirmed that there is no indication this is the result of a cybersecurity incident.
We are closely monitoring Microsoft’s recovery progress and will continue to post updates as the situation changes throughout the day.
Thank you for your patience while Microsoft resolves this issue.
Nov 13, 2026 - 07:48 GMT
Update - Work to restore services affected by the global PHP platform security issue is continuing, and services are being brought back in priority order.
If you are still affected by a service that is critical to you, please contact IT Support.
We will provide a further update as restoration work continues.
We appreciate your patience while we work to resolve the issue.
Nov 02, 2026 - 10:54 GMT
If you are still affected by a service that is critical to you, please contact IT Support.
We will provide a further update as restoration work continues.
We appreciate your patience while we work to resolve the issue.
Nov 02, 2026 - 10:54 GMT
Identified - We continue to experience some service disruption as a result of the global cyber-security issue affecting the PHP platform. Service restoration work is progressing well, however some services are still affected as recovery work continues.
How does this affect service users?
- There is no indication that University systems, data, or user accounts have been compromised.
- Some of our websites may be temporarily unavailable from outside the University while we address the underlying issue. In most cases, affected websites can be accessed on-campus or via the University's VPN.
What is being done?
Our technical teams continue to work actively on restoring services. Significant progress has been made, and a large number of affected services have been successfully restored.
Due to the scale of the wider issue and the complexity of the remediation work required, recovery of some services may extend over the coming weeks. Work remains ongoing to restore full service and ensure systems are operating securely and reliably. We will continue to provide updates as further information becomes available.
We apologise for any inconvenience and appreciate your patience while we work to resolve the issue.
Oct 29, 2026 - 16:00 GMT
How does this affect service users?
- There is no indication that University systems, data, or user accounts have been compromised.
- Some of our websites may be temporarily unavailable from outside the University while we address the underlying issue. In most cases, affected websites can be accessed on-campus or via the University's VPN.
What is being done?
Our technical teams continue to work actively on restoring services. Significant progress has been made, and a large number of affected services have been successfully restored.
Due to the scale of the wider issue and the complexity of the remediation work required, recovery of some services may extend over the coming weeks. Work remains ongoing to restore full service and ensure systems are operating securely and reliably. We will continue to provide updates as further information becomes available.
We apologise for any inconvenience and appreciate your patience while we work to resolve the issue.
Oct 29, 2026 - 16:00 GMT
Investigating - University IT have been made aware of a significant vulnerability requiring urgent patching maintenance. As this vulnerability is critical, we have taken the decision to block internet access to the affected systems (note that access is still available if on-campus or via the VPN). The vast majority of our services are unaffected, but it is difficult to list all affected systems.
We apologise for the disruption this may cause.
Oct 21, 2026 - 15:13 BST
We apologise for the disruption this may cause.
Oct 21, 2026 - 15:13 BST
Issue impacting Oracle EBS and .msg files within the Published Applications Service (Windows App)
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Investigating - We have been made aware of an issue opening .msg files in the Published Applications Service. For some users the file type may have lost the default association to Outlook Classic.
Until resolved, please ensure that you choose Outlook (classic) if prompted when opening an attachment. Otherwise, you will not be able to directly open any PDF or Excel attachments from Outlook, and will instead have to save them to your OneDrive in order to open them.
If you see the prompt, please select Outlook (classic) rather than Outlook.
Oct 12, 2026 - 11:07 BST
Until resolved, please ensure that you choose Outlook (classic) if prompted when opening an attachment. Otherwise, you will not be able to directly open any PDF or Excel attachments from Outlook, and will instead have to save them to your OneDrive in order to open them.
If you see the prompt, please select Outlook (classic) rather than Outlook.
Oct 12, 2026 - 11:07 BST
About This Site
This page details the current status of services maintained by Cardiff University, and select external service providers.
If this page does not reflect your experience with our services, please contact the Service Desk at
it-support@cardiff.ac.uk
+44 (0)29 2251 1111.
Communication & Collaboration
Partial Outage
Email & Calendar (Outlook)
Partial Outage
Microsoft Teams
Operational
Netcall (Call Centre functionality)
Operational
Telephony (Microsoft Telephony)
Operational
Viva Engage
Partial Outage
Corporate Reporting, Data and Analytics
Operational
Business Objects
Operational
Business Intelligence
Operational
Computers, Software, & Printing
Operational
Desktop, Laptops, & Mobile devices
Operational
Printing, Copying, & Scanning
Operational
Published Applications (AVD)
Operational
Remote Access to a Campus Computer
Operational
Published Applications and Desktops (Horizon)
Operational
File Storage
Operational
Home & Shared drive (H: & S:)
Operational
Microsoft Cloud Storage
Operational
Finance Systems
Operational
Financial and Procurement System (Oracle-EBS)
Operational
Help & Support
Operational
Service Desk Support (IT single point of contact)
Operational
IT Portal (Self Service ticket logging)
Operational
Student Enquiry (GECKO)
Operational
HR & Student Record Systems
Operational
PeopleXD
Operational
SIMS (Admin)
Operational
Library Systems
Operational
Electronic Resources
Operational
Library Management System (ALMA)
Operational
LibrarySearch (Primo)
Operational
Reading Lists (Leganto)
Operational
Network
Operational
Wired Network Connectivity
Operational
Wireless Network Connectivity
Operational
Virtual Private Networks (VPN)
Operational
Public Website & Intranet
Operational
Public Website (Squiz)
Operational
Intranet (Squiz)
Operational
Research
Operational
ARCCA Processing and Analysis (Falcon)
Operational
ORCA & Manage My Publications
Operational
Research Data Store
Operational
Research Portal (Converis)
Operational
Research Data Repository (Figshare)
Operational
Worktribe
Operational
Room & Equipment Bookings
Operational
Reserve (TimeEdit)
Operational
Resource Booker
Operational
Room Bookings (Syllabus Plus / Scientia)
Operational
Student Systems
Operational
Learn Plus (Panopto)
Operational
Mahara
Operational
Residences Student Portal (Accommodation)
Operational
Student App
Operational
Student Records (SIMS Online)
Operational
Student Timetable
Operational
Turnitin
Operational
VLE (Learning Central)
Operational
Operational
Degraded Performance
Partial Outage
Major Outage
Maintenance
Scheduled Maintenance
Service Desk Ticketing System (ASM) - Planned maintenance: 14/11/26 Nov 14, 2026 08:00-12:00 GMT
Service Desk Ticketing System (ASM) - Planned maintenance: 14/11/26
What is being done?
Our support partner, Alemba, is applying updates to the Service Desk Ticketing System (ASM).
When is it being done?
Between 08:00 and 12:00 on Saturday, 14th November 2026.
Who will this affect?
All users across all partitions (Finance, Human Resources, Registry and University IT).
This includes customers (these can be internal and external to the university) who may log calls or interact with the system in some way, e.g., to request or approve shared drive access rights etc., and analysts, who manage/process calls within the system.
How will this affect users?
The Service Portal and the Service Desk application (ASM) will be unavailable.
Why is it being done?
This is standard patching to apply application updates and bug fixes for known issues.
Posted on Nov 05, 2026 - 12:22 GMT
Research Data Store (RDS) - Migration to New RDS Technology - 20/11/2026 Nov 20, 2026 08:00 - Nov 24, 2026 08:00 GMT
The Research Data Store (RDS) is planned to be set to "read-only" over the weekend of Friday 20 November, while we migrate to new RDS technology. More details are available below.
Support for the current RDS hardware finishes at the end of November, and the infrastructure will be replaced by a new, bigger RDS.
As part of the upgrade from the current RDS (known as RDS2) to the next version (RDS3), there will be a period of service disruption while we complete the final transfer of user data. During the migration, RDS2 will enter a “read-only” state. This means that during the migration period, you will still be able to access, view and download data from RDS2, however, you will not be able to create, modify or delete files and folders. Any processes, applications or workflows that need to write data to RDS2 will fail during the read-only period and should be planned accordingly.
We currently expect the final data transfer to take approximately 3 to 4 days, depending on the volume of file changes made immediately before the migration. Once the transfer is complete, RDS3 will become available for normal use.
• RDS2 will go read-only around 9am on Friday, November 20th 2026, and the migration will run (mostly) over the weekend to minimise disruption.
• This schedule is subject to final arrangements and work with our technology supplier.
If you do need to make changes to your data during this period, you may still copy data from the current RDS to suitable temporary storage. There is no need to wait until the migration begins; you may move working data in advance if this better supports your research activities. Please be aware that any files created or modified in temporary storage during the migration will need to be copied back to RDS3 once the service becomes available.
To help minimise the overall disruption and reduce the migration window for all users, we ask that you avoid unnecessary large-scale data transfers from RDS2 during the migration period.
We will provide a further update closer to the migration date, including confirmed timings, expected service availability, and any actions required from RDS users e.g., validating access to the new platform.
In the meantime, please plan ahead for a period of restricted service access and avoid scheduling any critical activities that depend on RDS availability during the migration window.
Thank you for your patience and cooperation as we complete this important upgrade.
Best wishes,
ARCCA and University IT
Posted on Nov 13, 2026 - 14:34 GMT
Support for the current RDS hardware finishes at the end of November, and the infrastructure will be replaced by a new, bigger RDS.
As part of the upgrade from the current RDS (known as RDS2) to the next version (RDS3), there will be a period of service disruption while we complete the final transfer of user data. During the migration, RDS2 will enter a “read-only” state. This means that during the migration period, you will still be able to access, view and download data from RDS2, however, you will not be able to create, modify or delete files and folders. Any processes, applications or workflows that need to write data to RDS2 will fail during the read-only period and should be planned accordingly.
We currently expect the final data transfer to take approximately 3 to 4 days, depending on the volume of file changes made immediately before the migration. Once the transfer is complete, RDS3 will become available for normal use.
• RDS2 will go read-only around 9am on Friday, November 20th 2026, and the migration will run (mostly) over the weekend to minimise disruption.
• This schedule is subject to final arrangements and work with our technology supplier.
If you do need to make changes to your data during this period, you may still copy data from the current RDS to suitable temporary storage. There is no need to wait until the migration begins; you may move working data in advance if this better supports your research activities. Please be aware that any files created or modified in temporary storage during the migration will need to be copied back to RDS3 once the service becomes available.
To help minimise the overall disruption and reduce the migration window for all users, we ask that you avoid unnecessary large-scale data transfers from RDS2 during the migration period.
We will provide a further update closer to the migration date, including confirmed timings, expected service availability, and any actions required from RDS users e.g., validating access to the new platform.
In the meantime, please plan ahead for a period of restricted service access and avoid scheduling any critical activities that depend on RDS availability during the migration window.
Thank you for your patience and cooperation as we complete this important upgrade.
Best wishes,
ARCCA and University IT
Posted on Nov 13, 2026 - 14:34 GMT