Server hardware maintenance, monitoring and problem resolution;
Operating System maintenance, patching, upgrading, monitoring and problem resolution – Port and application level monitoring from within our network and from external networks. Hostway also monitors disk, memory and CPU utilization in addition to DNS queries, SMTP mail delivery, concurrent connections and a series of other health checks to ensure the server is running optimally. Should any health checks fail, Operations team is paged immediately to investigate.
Microsoft Exchange Server maintenance, patching, upgrading, monitoring and problem resolution – Port and application level monitoring. Hostway also monitors disk, memory and CPU utilization in addition to DNS queries, SMTP mail delivery, concurrent connections and a series of other health checks to ensure the server is running optimally. Should any health checks fail, Operations team is paged immediately to investigate.
Service Commitment (measured by the calendar month)
Helpdesk Hours – 24 hours a day, 7 days a week
15 min response time by appropriate communication methods from the Helpdesk for the initial support tickets. Customer may provide email address, phone number and mobile phone number when they report the tickets.
Hostway will provide Customer’s authorized account contacts with technical support on setting up and configuring Customer’s account, access to the server, and other issues related to the software at no additional charge.
Service Availability: 100%
Service Availability
Hostway guarantees 100% Service Availability. Service Availability is defined as the ability to pass incoming and outgoing TCP/IP traffic through Hostway’s network to/from the IP transit provider (Internet backbone) and the ability of a user on an Exchange account to (a) access and retrieve information from the Exchange server, and (b) send and receive messages via the Exchange server, provided that Customer’s hosting account is active and enabled.
Penalty Credit
If Service Availability for the full month is below the 100% guaranteed level, Hostway will issue a credit refund to Customer according to the schedule below.
Service Availability amount of the credit refund as a percentage of monthly fee:
To receive a credit refund for downtime, Customer must in good standing with Hostway and must not be delinquent in payment or in violation of Hostway’s Terms of Use available online at https://www.hostway.com/legal/terms_of_use.html (or such other URL as Hostway may designate from time to time). Customer must also send an email or written refund request to Hostway’s Billing Department in the 30 days immediately following the outage for which Customer is seeking a refund. Refund requests must include Customer’s account username and the dates and times of server unavailability.
The Billing Department will compare information provided by Customer to the server availability monitoring data the Hostway maintains. A credit refund is issued if Hostway can confirm from the monitoring data the server availability warranting the refund.
Penalty Credit
The total refund to Customer for any account may not exceed 50% of the monthly fees charged to that account during the month for which the refund is to be issued. Only one refund and refund level is available in any given month.
Exceptions
When calculating the uptime, the following exceptions will apply:
All scheduled service windows throughout that month (scheduled, unscheduled, mandatory, and emergency).
All internet connectivity and infrastructure issues/failures not attributed to facilities or equipment owned, leased, purchased or otherwise operated by Hostway that causes the unavailability.
All application related failures attributed to specific applications operated by the Customer that are not maintained and operated by Hostway that negatively impact Hostway’s ability to provide service.
Network or service availability issues related to malicious behavior perpetrated by the Customer, or their employees, customers, clients, associates et al that access the server by any means that negatively impacts the availability of the server, i.e. spamming, probing, spoofing, etc.
Network or service availability issues related to denial of service attacks, mail bombing and other flooding techniques.
Network availability loss caused by any factor(s) beyond Hostway’s control, including but not limited to such factors as IP transit provider (backbone) or end user’s portion of the network (commonly known as “last mile”) failure.
Other unforeseeable circumstances that are outside of Hostway’s control, such as, without limitation, acts of any governmental body, war, insurrection, sabotage, embargo, fire, flood, strike or other labor disturbance, unavailability of or interruption or delay in Customer telecommunications or third party services, the failure of any third party software, or scheduled or emergency downtime of the Server or Hostway Network for repair, replacement, or maintenance of any software, hardware, or network component thereof
Performance Monitoring
Hostway will ensure predictable performance and availability of all Services. This is achieved by actively monitoring the utilization levels (network, server, services and resources). If the situation changes, Hostway will notify Customer and advise them of recommendations that should and/or must be made to ensure consist and reliable Service. In some cases, a further investment by Customer in additional equipment may be required.
Data Integrity
Hostway will use commercially accepted best efforts’ to ensure all data stored as part of the Services provided is routinely backed up (daily and weekly) for up to a period of two (2) weeks. Notwithstanding the above, Customer is solely responsible for backing up (and/or archiving) data (locally or remotely) that can be used for restoration purposes. Hostway reserves the sole right to charge a ‘Restoration Fee’ if Customer requests that any data requires restoration.
Scheduled Maintenance
To ensure optimal performance of the servers, Hostway will perform routine maintenance on the servers on a regular basis, requiring servers to be removed from service. Hostway reserves two hours of server unavailability per month for maintenance purposes. This server unavailability will be excluded from the uptime calculations. Maintenance is typically performed during off-peak hours. Hostway will provide Customer with advanced notice of maintenance whenever possible.
Emergency Maintenance
Under certain circumstances Hostway may need to perform emergency maintenance, such as security patch installation or hardware replacement under the hardware replacement guarantee. Hostway will not be able to provide the Customer with advanced notice in case of emergency maintenance. This server unavailability due to emergency maintenance will be excluded from the uptime calculations.
Hardware Replacement Guarantee
Hostway will use industry standard practices to determine whether server hardware is functioning properly and will replace non-functioning hardware with similarly functioning hardware. Hostway guarantees hardware replacement within four hours from the time the problem is identified. In the case where this time is exceeded, the excess downtime is counted against Server Availability guarantee.
Customer Support Availability
The Helpdesk will be available in English to Customer 24×7 by telephone and email. The scope of Customer support services offered by the Helpdesk is as follows:
User Call
Email send/receiving trouble
Outlook setup inquiry
Outlook function inquiry
Password reset request
User information change request
Email address change
Mail storage size change
Spam Email recovery
Mailbox error, etc
Technical call (Level II)
Any technical issue (AD, Network, DNS related)
Any configuration change
For additional technical support requests and escalations, including but not limited to mailbox backups, restorations, or issues resulting from user error, that are outside of the scope of the Helpdesk, Hostway’s Systems Administrators are available Monday to Friday, 8:00 am to 5:00 pm PST.
Customer Responsibilities Problem Reporting
Customer is solely responsible for reporting and problems that have with our Services. Customer Care can be reached 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
