The FA have written to all Leagues informing them about “planned downtime of several FA systems from 5th to 7th March”. The systems that are at risk of being down during this test include MOAS, Onside, PFF Pro Club Portal & Club Portal, FAR and Full Time.
The FA have said:
“To ensure the integrity and resilience of our platforms, we need to run disaster recovery tests which involves verifying that we have the capability to recover data and applications and that we can continue to operate following critical IT failure or total disruption. It is vitally important we conduct these tests to ensure we are ready should any event take place. Therefore, this message is to inform you that we will be conducting such tests on 5th to 7th March.
We hope to only see 1 day of downtime, but have given a 3-day window to complete testing to provide sufficient time to fix any issues/restore any data if encountered during testing. Therefore, please prepare for IT systems to potentially be down on the 5th, 6th and 7th.
Our teams are currently working to map out all critical procedures and how they will function during the testing period and we will provide more specific information and clear guidance on these early next week.
We appreciate that this test will cause disruption and challenges, but it is critical that we conduct these tests to ensure we can operate should such an issue occur for real. Furthermore, we recognise that this test is in Season and at a time when midweek fixtures will be played. Unfortunately, we are unable to do these tests during the summer period despite extensively exploring the feasibility of doing so.
We therefore hugely appreciate your help, flexibility and support during this test.”
The FA intend to provide Leagues with specific guidance next week, which will also provide details about where to go for further assistance or questions.