Service Level Agreement (SLA)

Version Date: 02-06-2015
 

The SLA applicable to all Services delivered to Customers. This SLA does not apply to the availability of Third Party Services which are subject to the 3rd Party Legal Agreements. The SLA is binding only on the Customer and Ascend Servers and does not apply to any Third Parties, including Customer End Users or Friends. The issuance of SLA Credits (defined below) is the sole and exclusive remedy of Customer and Ascend Servers’s sole and exclusive obligation, for any failure by Ascend Servers to satisfy the requirements set forth in the SLA

1 Standard Support
(Free Support) which includes (One Hours Per Month) is defined as a basis for each customers basic support allotment, Ascend Servers is at right at all times to request payment if support faults are originated from the client and in no way shape or form fault of Ascend Servers.

It is at Ascend Servers's discretion to provide support for software configuration or any form of custom coding / scripting under the free support allotment.
1.1 Advanced Support
("Advanced Support") is defined as advanced technical support for dedicated, virtual, gaming, voice and web hosting. This support can be used for any number of support services and includes server troubleshooting, software configuration, operating system configuration, operating system reinstalls, and any task that does not fall under the "free support" provided with the service. For various levels of support requirement a particular amount of time is provided and is at Ascend Servers's discretion whether it's chargable or not.

1.2 Network
("Network") is defined as the equipment, software, and facilities within the Ascend Servers's infrastructure, including Ascend Servers's contracted connectivity services to which the Ascend Servers hosting environments are connected and are collectively utilized by Ascend Servers to provide dedicated, virtual, gaming, voice and web hosting services.

1.3 Service Availability
("Service Availability") is the total time in a calendar month that the Ascend Servers infrastructure is available through the Internet, provided that client has established connectivity. Ascend Servers takes responsibility for the service availability within its infrastructure, and cannot be held liable for problems directly related to an external bandwidth provider, hardware and or software fault.

1.4 Service Downtime
("Service Downtime") is any unplanned interruption in service availability during which the client is unable to access the services as described in preceding section 1.3, provided the interruption is determined to have been caused by a problem in the immediate Ascend Servers infrastructure as confirmed by Ascend Servers will measured as the total length of time of the unplanned interruption (complete outage) in service availability during a calendar month.

1.5 Scheduled Service Downtime
("Scheduled Service Downtime") is any scheduled interruption of service. Scheduled service downtime occurs during a Ascend Servers standard server maintenance window, which occurs in conjunction with a 1 hour notice to the client via electronic communication. In ("Advanced Support") downtime is coordinated with the client to the best of Ascend Servers abilities as to align the window of maintenance with the clients explicit wishes.

1.6 Performance Credit
("Performance Credit") occurs when 100% uptime is not met. Ascend Servers will refund the customer 5% of the monthly fee for each 1 hour of downtime up to 100% of the clients monthly fee. Downtime is measured from the time a trouble ticket is opened by a customer to the time the service is once again available.

Performance credit is completely at Ascend Servers's discretion and is only applicable if it's the direct fault of Ascend Servers. Performance credit is not included in the case of Server Attack of any type, Hardware Failure, Software Failure or any 3rd party failure.

1.7 Monitoring Service
("Monitoring Service") is the service Ascend Servers provides in order to analyze availability of services and applications through its internal monitoring system.

2 Billable System Administration
("Billable System Administration") is operation, configuration, performance tuning, security configurations, and any interaction with the operating system or software installed on the service in question.

Services have a specified amount of "free hours" support that are included. In the event these are exceeded billable system administrations will apply, based on approval from client and the discretion of Ascend Servers.
System administration of the client's server.
Software installations performed by Ascend Servers
Virus and security scans of the server.
Configuration of the operating system or services provided on the server.
Security auditing and resource management & efficiency of the server.
3 Service Exclusions.
3.1 This SLA does not cover service downtime caused by problems in the following:

Client's local area network.
Client-provided Internet connectivity or end-user software.
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 Ascend Servers's infrastructure.
Any interruptions, delays or failures caused by client or client's employees, agents, friends, 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-utilization.
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, Applications and 3rd Party interactions.
4 Service Hardware and Software
4.1 Hardware is defined as the Processor(s), RAM, hard disk(s), motherboard, NIC card and other related hardware included under the server lease.

4.2 Hardware Replacement Guarantees and service levels are defined as applying to servers less than 12 months in production and apply only to verified server vendors such as Supermicro, Dell, HP and IBM. Hardware Replacement Guarantees are only available in certain datacenters of which the client will be notified upon reporting a hardware specific issue.

4.3 Hardware Replacement will occur within 12 twelve hours of the reported problem in supported datacenters. The client will be notified by support in the instance were hardware can-not be replaced under this time and is subject to section 4.2.

4.4 Restoration : Is defined as returning the service to its original state before the date the service went offline. If hardware failure causes corrupted operating system, data files, or damaged service configurations, Ascend Servers will restore the system to its original state if possible however maintains no responsibility of backup data or integrity of the restoration. If Ascend Servers is unable to restore any of the configuration a new installation of the service will be provided free of charge.

4.5 Ascend Servers is not responsible for the restoration of data. If hardware failure is experienced and subsequent data loss occurs, client is ultimately be responsible for data restoration. Ascend Servers shall not be liable for loss of data under any circumstances.

4.6 Hardware Upgrade is the cost of the hardware peripherals at the time of ordering the server & on subsequent upgrades can be different. A one time setup fee would be applicable in certain upgrade requests.

4.7 Ascend Servers does not take responsibility for the overall security of the service. If any services are compromised in any way, Ascend Servers reserves the right to immediately audit the service and server. Ascend Servers reserves the right to cancel the service if any of the services are compromised via the implementation of weak password schemes, elderly backend application content and scripting, or via other blatant disregard to simple security measures. A fee will be incurred in respect to any security related work performed due to any such service being compromised by negligence on the part of the client.

4.8 Service Migration : If a customer wishes to migrate from one service to another service, they would have to go through the 30 (thirty) day notice period for the old service also. The old service would have to be cancelled & a new service order would have to be placed. Data migration would commence only after both the formalities have been completed. There would be no charges for migration of data when it has to be done from one service of Ascend Servers's network to another service within the Ascend Servers's network. Customer charges are applicable for data to be moved into Ascend Servers's network and charges would be applicable on a per migration basis.