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QUESTION

Why was IBM not involved in the Snow Day preparation tests and simulations?

1:03:24

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IBM's systems were used in Snow Day preparation simulations, but there was no direct consultation or separate notification to IBM prior to the event.

Deputy Chief Information Officer Scott Strickland clarifies IBM was not directly involved in the preparation tests but their service ran without issues alongside other vendors.
The purpose of the test was to ensure students and staff were prepared, and no major vendors, including IBM, had previously experienced service difficulties.
Chief Operating Officer/Deputy Chancellor for Operations + Finance Emma Vadehra explains that IBM's systems were indeed utilized in district-by-district simulations, similar to services like Zoom and Google Classroom.
Going forward, the NYC Department of Education adjusts its approach by informing vendors beforehand and conducting more thorough load testing.

Shekar Krishnan

1:03:24

So there was no actual consultation with IBM or Snow Day preparation with IBM where they were involved before the actual snow day happened.

1:03:47

But why was that?

1:03:48

Why were they not involved?

1:03:49

Given that they managed the whole system?

1:04:44

Uh-huh.

1:04:44

Okay.

1:04:46

It also seems very strange that they wouldn't be involved given that they oversee the whole system and administer it, you know, when you're talking about preparing for the snowstorm.

1:04:55

One thing I wanted to correct was and I hopefully, we came up from IBM too, but I believe that their login rate reached about 3000 per second, which is much higher than the contract amount.

1:05:05

Just going back to my first question.

Scott Strickland

1:03:38

So they were not involved in the tests that were preparing our students Right.

1:03:41

Staff administrators.

1:03:43

Their service had run fine as well as our services from all of our other managers.

1:03:58

The objective of that test was to make sure our student and staff were prepared.

1:04:01

It could do the work.

1:04:03

And we had not experienced difficulties again across the pandemic.

1:04:07

With any of our major vendors that provide these type of services, whether it's IBM or Outlook, Microsoft, Google, etcetera.

Emma Vadehra

1:04:17

I also just want to again clarify, and I appreciate the question you're asking, and it's a good question, and it's obviously something we're adjusting going forward with all of our vendors.

1:04:24

Their systems were involved.

1:04:26

So their tool was involved.

1:04:28

Their tool worked in those simulations that we did district by district.

1:04:31

Just like Zoom did, Google Classroom did as well.

1:04:34

Right?

1:04:34

So it's not like their systems were not involved, but we didn't do a separate notification to them.

1:04:38

This is what we're doing this.

1:04:39

So we're doing this.

1:04:40

Now That is what we are doing with them as well as more load testing, but their system was used.

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How many logins were successfully processed on February 13th, and what issues arose?

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Was IBM notified about the snow day, and were senior officials informed?