willtech

If you use SSL decryption you should be able to block it.

Permanent, you cannot, ESS have said this, unless it has changed in the last week. Completely agree SNG is a mess I can see a number of schools wanting to move. Stage 3 (From July–October 2026 onward) Redirects become permanent and cannot be disabled.

ID service platform you say... All I will say !

Yes, sadly it is a mess. Especially if you want to use Azure to enforce conditional access and a common MFA.

Each user has to activate it themself in their profile area. There is no turn on for all from an admin side. See: https://id.sims.co.uk/support/wiki/8/my-profile#Manging-third-Party-Logins Be aware: Users of third-party Identity Providers may not be able to access all services associated with SIMS ID and will be required to sign in with an email address-based SIMS ID account to access those services.

LGfL Gridstore (RedStor), they have good pricing. Non LGfL schools can request a quote: https://lgfl.net/smartbuy/disaster-recovery-dr Also PeaSoup another good supplier for just server backups and S3 storage.

You can turn off the link redirection in the admin centre Bear in mind this, you have not got long until timetables hit stage 3: Stage 2 (Starting June 2026) Redirects are switched on centrally. Schools can temporarily opt out if needed. Your school will have a user setup as an administrator, they can make the changes if you would like to temporarily opt out, please note the changes will take 24 hours to register with Sims and Next Gen. Stage 3 (From July–October 2026 onward) Redirects become permanent and cannot be disabled. Key module rollout dates: Timetables: Stage 2 from 8 June → Stage 3 from 6 July Attendance: Stage 2 from 22 June → Stage 3 from 28 September Conduct & groups: Stage 2 from 13 July → Stage 3 from 26 October

Call support they are very helpful and can get you what you need, also they can advise the best upgrade path: 01273 811011 [email protected]

I don't believe you can or if you can you will be paying a high rate. Thing is stuff is moving to next gen, so deployment will stop on it at some point surly.

https://acuityautoredact.com/ think it does PST files as well. Does cost.

That exactly. Unless you are using the SCCM version, you need to move to an alternative method of deployment.

Try restarting the SIMS Service Manager on the SIMS server. Then going into the SIMS Service Manager and check services are running. It might take a little time for it to settle down.

Same in place upgrades will work, as TYS says backups and snapshots are key. Only other thing is to follow the notes on the technical road map about compatibility mode. SIMS7-Technical-Roadmap-Spr25-1.pdf

MoodleCloud - Moodle - Cloud LMS - SaaS eLearning Thinkific Teachable Sell On-Demand Courses Online | FreshLearn

Sound Innovations, they cover a lot of things, but had good installs from them: Sound Innovations

Tried Getech when we had issues, they could not help. They stated they were in the same position.

Also to add to this their automatic process went over to a manual process.

I have shared your comment with Anna Artemyeva at Google. She was fantastic in helping us out when we got stuck.

GLPI: Smart IT Service Management, Helpdesk & Asset Tracking | GLPI we use it for a lot of things as it covers assets and helpdesk. Another good one is Snip IT: Home - Snipe-IT Free open source IT asset management we used this in the past but went to GLPI to cover a number of our needs.

Also Reading: Meeting digital and technology standards in schools and colleges - Filtering and monitoring: core standard - Guidance - GOV.UK for example IWF they have a category for, but cannot see anything for Counter-Terrorism Internet Referral Unit (CTIRU) list in Cisco Umbrella. If that's the case it would not meet DFE standards.

You can create team templates (How to create and manage Teams Templates | SharePoint Maven), Locker when creating the team would have to reference the template and pipe it into the creation of a team. (New-Team -Template EDU_Class -DisplayName "Your New Team") Templates do have some limitations.

You might be able to disable the signing requirement: How to enable LDAP signing - Windows Server | Microsoft Learn but where possible I would use signed. You may also need to check local group policy to ensure the change kicks in.

I believe this is normal behaviour, it has to be powered on to see the config. We have a few Dell servers that does the same.

Oh no 😬

Can you see traffic going out to licenses.sims.co.uk on port 443 ? Also does workstations have .Net 4.7.2 or above