AusTiger Hosting Service Level Agreement

 

Objectives of the Agreement

This agreement sets out the minimum level of service that AusTiger Hosting is required to meet and the corresponding penalties for not meeting such levels. Our objective is to provide a continuously operating service that is well beyond the minimum levels specified.

 

Network Uptime

The guaranteed up-time for Network Services is 99.99% each month. The guarantee applies to our internal network from the gateway routers down. This uptime is determined by monitoring performed from remote locations by AusTiger Hosting, and does not take into consideration outages or issues with upstream providers, network carriers or clients local area networks.

 

VPS & Shared Hosting Cloud Uptime

We guarantee our VPS Cloud Platform will have a minimum uptime of 99.99% each month and our Shared Hosting Cloud Platform will have a minimum of 99.9% each month. This guarantee applies to each respective platform as whole. The Cloud is designed and configured so that if any individual component should fail then services on that component will fail over to another. While in the majority of cases this involves no downtime there can be occasion where a service is restarting on different hardware and this forms part of the normal operation of the Cloud.

 

Customer Support

All routine support requests will be handled within 1 to 2 business days unless specified as urgent, at which point the request will be handled as soon as possible within normal business hours. Under normal load support requests are typically handled the same business day within a few hours.

 

Data Location

We guarantee that all Data and Services provisioned on our Australian Servers will be stored  within Australian shores at all times.

 

Restoration of Client Data

Restoration of client data is defined as returning the server to its most recent backup or backup specified within retained range. If hardware failure causes corrupted operating system, data files, or damaged service configurations, AusTiger Hosting will restore the system to its most recent state wherever possible.

While AusTiger Hosting maintains comprehensive backups of all infrastructure, AusTiger Hosting is not responsible for the restoration of data to a server unless explicitly covered by the hosting package. If hardware failure is experienced and subsequent data loss occurs, the client is ultimately responsible for data restoration. AusTiger Hosting shall not be liable for loss of data under any circumstances.

All backups are stored across redundant storage and are encrypted during transit and at rest.

 

Network Performance

All Network services are continuously monitored to ensure rapid response to any faults, which may occur. Monitoring is carried out on all primary services. Monitoring feedback is provided to technical support staff via email, SMS and paging services 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and 365 days per year.

 

Scheduled Outages

Our Cloud infrastructure is designed and built to include redundancy at every level, thereby precluding the necessity for any interruptions to service for maintenance. Having said this, we have to make an allowance for regular, unexpected and exceptional situations requiring maintenance, which is why we must include a clause for Schedule Outages.

From time to time upgrades to Virtual Machines will be required. Such upgrades will generally be performed outside of business hours to minimise interruptions. Clients will be notified, where possible as far as practicable, in advance of such upgrades.

Under normal conditions the Client will be advised via email and or telephone no less than 24 hours in advance of any scheduled outage. Under normal conditions, where possible, the Client’s input will be sought to identify the most suitable time for a scheduled outage to take place.

Outages caused by Upstream providers, such as the Data Centre and or the network carriers are not covered by this Service Level Agreement as such outages are beyond the control of AusTiger Hosting.

 

Un-Scheduled Outages

From time to time unscheduled upgrades and or maintenance to software may be required, where deemed to be urgently required in order to maintain network stability and operation. AusTiger Hosting reserves the right to perform such unscheduled activities, where it deems it necessary, to maintain network stability and operation.

As stated prior, our infrastructure is built in such away that there should be no necessity for emergency maintenance that involves an interruption to service, however we must again build in an allowance for such eventualities.

Outages caused by Upstream providers, such as the Data Centre and or the network carriers are not covered by this Service Level Agreement as such outages are beyond the control of AusTiger Hosting.

 

Service Agreement Exclusions

This Service Level Agreement does not cover Service Downtime caused by problems in the following:

  • Client’s local area network
  • Client-provided Internet connectivity or end-user software
  • The failure of a Hypervisor which requires a client’s virtual machine to be automatically transferred to another hypervisor will result in some downtime but this will be determined by the amount of time it takes for a new copy of their virtual machine to boot up and come online on another hypervisor. This feature forms part of our self-healing architecture and as such is not covered by the SLA
  • Entities inside Client’s internal network including, but not limited to, firewall configuration and bandwidth shaping, local area workstations, or other servers, equipment, and software that have a potential bearing on the local networking environment
  • Any predetermined Scheduled Service Downtime
  • Any problems beyond the immediate AusTiger Hosting network

Any interruptions, delays or failures caused by the Client or Client’s employees, agents, or subcontractors, such as, but not limited to, the following:

  • Inaccurate configuration
  • Non-compliant use of any software installed on the server
  • Client initiated server over-utilisation
  • Any problems related to attacks on the machine such as hacking, bandwidth-based attacks of any nature, and service or operating system exploits
  • Problems associated with Operating System, Software, or Applications

 

Service Level Guarantee

The service level guarantee will be measured by AusTiger Hosting and is based on the Network and Cloud up-time. If AusTiger Hosting determines that primary services were unavailable for a period exceeding the maximum allowable under the prescribed up-time target, and extending for a continuous duration of 1 hour or more per instance, upon the customer's request, AusTiger Hosting will credit the customer’s monthly invoice the prorated charges of one (1) day of the AusTiger Hosting services fee for each consecutive hour, up to a maximum of 30 days per month. To receive credit, if this guarantee has not been met, the customer must contact AusTiger Hosting within 30 days of the end of the month for which credit is requested and must provide specific data, dates and times of outages. Such contact must be through the AusTiger support portal.

This guarantee applies only to clients whose accounts with AusTiger Hosting are not in arrears at the time the Service Level Agreement is actioned.

AusTiger Hosting reserves the right to modify this agreement at any time.