1 DEFINITIONS
In this SLA words, abbreviations and expressions have the meanings given in the Aethernet Limited Terms and Conditions except as set out below:
“Availability” means all the time in any calendar month for which the network and any service equipment is not subject to any service affecting faults, and is therefore Available.
“Business Day” means every day excluding Saturdays and Sunday and national holidays in England
“CDR”  means the committed data rate for each port set out in the service Order Form and provided as part of a Service.
“Customer” means the individual or organisation applying for the provision of the Goods or Services.
“Fault” means a material defect, fault or impairment in a service, which causes an interruption in the provision of the service.
“Non-Service Affecting”  means not materially affecting the performance or quality of the service.
“Service Affecting” means causing full or partial loss of the ability to transmit data.
“Third Party System”  means a telecommunication system that is neither owned nor operated on behalf of Aethernet.

 

2 GENERAL
2.1 This document is a service level agreement (SLA) setting out the levels of services to be provided by Aethernet to the Customer under this agreement and compensation for failure to meet those service levels.
2.2 In this SLA a reference to a paragraph, unless stated otherwise is a reference to a paragraph of this SLA. 
2.3 This SLA only applies to the service to the extent that it is provided by means of systems and equipment that are either owned or operated by or on behalf of Aethernet. All references in this SLA to network and service equipment shall be construed as references to such systems and equipment. 
2.4 Aethernet shall not be liable to pay compensation under this SLA where its failure to meet any of its obligations under this SLA is caused by a force majeure event, or by any act or omission of the Customer, or third party acting on its behalf. 
2.5 Credits or other compensation under this SLA shall only be payable where.
(a) The Customer has submitted to Aethernet a claim in writing identifying the circumstances in which the Customer claims that the credit or compensation arose, and
(b) Aethernet has agreed in writing, acting reasonably and without undue delay, to that claim.
All credits so payable shall be applied to the Customers account to be reconciled at an agreed time following Aethernet's agreement to the claim. All claims for credits or compensation must be submitted promptly and in any event within 10 business days, after the circumstances giving rise to the claim.
2.6 The maximum monthly credit available under this SLA is limited to an amount not greater than one months fees; furthermore residual credits will not be carried over to subsequent 12 month periods. The service credit shall be the Customers sole and exclusive remedy for any Aethernet service outage or any failure to meet the service objectives. 
2.7 Aethernet reserves the right to amend the SLA from time to time. The latest version of our SLA is available on request and will always be posted on the Aethernet website.

3 PROVISIONING OF SERVICE
3.1 Aethernet shall provide the Service by the service commencement date set out in the service order form. If Aethernet is unable to commence provisioning of the Service by the service commencement date, it shall credit the Customer with 10% of the activation charge set out in the service order form.

4 NETWORK AVAILABILITY
4.1 Aethernet guarantees that the network shall have 100% availability. If the availability falls below 100% in any month, Aethernet will credit the Customer with one days free network service for each accumulated hour when the network is not available, subject to the maximum of the standard monthly service charge for that service.
4.2 Aethernet shall not be obliged to pay compensation in accordance with this paragraph  where availability falls below 100% because of routine or emergency maintenance on the network or the service equipment pursuant to paragraph 8.

5 INFRASTRUCTURE GURARANTEE
5.1 Aethernet guarantees that the critical infrastructure systems, including power and HVAC, will be available 100% of the time in a given month, excluding scheduled maintenance. Aethernet will credit the Customer with one days free co-location for each accumulated hour when this infrastructure is not available, subject to the maximum of the standard monthly service charge for that service.
5.2 Critical infrastructure includes functioning of all power and HVAC infrastructure including UPSs, PDUs and cabling, which form part of the co-location facility.  
5.3 Infrastructure downtime exists when a particular server is shut down due to power or heat problems and Aethernet records such failure in the Aethernet monitoring system.

6 HARDWARE GURARANTEE
6.1 The hardware guarantee covers hardware provided by Aethernet on a rental basis. 
6.2 Aethernet guarantees the functioning of all rented hardware components and will replace any failed component at no cost to the Customer. Hardware replacement will begin once Aethernet identifies the cause of the problem. Hardware replacement is guaranteed to be complete within 4 hours of problem identification. In the event that it takes us more than 4 hours to replace faulty hardware, Aethernet will credit the Customer with one days free server rental for each accumulated hour when the hardware is not available, subject to the maximum of the standard monthly service charge for that service. Hardware is defined as the Processor(s), RAM, hard disk(s), motherboard, NIC card and other related hardware included under the server lease. This guarantee excludes the time required to rebuild a RAID array.
6.3 In the event of hard disk or fatal operating system failure Aethernet will perform initial install of standard OS distributions and supported preinstalled software.
6.4 Aethernet will perform maintenance and upgrades of Managed server software as we deem necessary to provide continued service.

7 FAULT HANDLING / RESPONSE TIME AGREEMENTS
7.1 Aethernet offers response time agreements, during the business day (8.30am to 6:00pm, Monday to Friday) as follows:
You can call us on our regular support number which will be given upon commencement of service and expect a prompt answer, you will be able to speak to a member of the OpsTeam (Operations Team) who will be familiar with your account and services. You can expect to be able to speak to a network engineer normally straight away and always within two hours. You can expect an initial response within two hours of a logged service interruption call.
7.2 Aethernet offers response time agreements, out of hours (outside 8.30am to 6:00pm, Monday to Friday and including bank holidays) as follows: You can call us on our "24x7" number(s) which will be given upon commencement of service, this will be responded to within one hour. We will require contact names & numbers from you. The Customer is solely responsible for providing Aethernet accurate and current contact information for Customer's designated points of contact. 
7.3 Third Party Interconnects - Any connections provided by a 3rd party supplier in order to complete the solution will be governed by the SLA offered by that supplier. Aethernet have carefully chosen our preferred suppliers based on their ability and track record, in order to provide a good quality, reliable solution.
7.4 Where the whole or any part of any Service is provided by means of a third party system, Aethernet shall, to the extent that it is able to do so, pass on the benefit of any service levels to which it is entitled from that provider of that third party system in accordance with paragraph 2.6 but shall not otherwise be liable to meet the service levels set out in this SLA in respect of that Service (or the relevant part thereof).

8 NETWORK AND SERVICE EQUIPMENT MAINTANENCE
8.1 Aethernet may suspend the Service to carry out periodic maintenance or upgrade work on the Network or Service Equipment, this will be carried out during the maintenance windows as defined in paragraph 8.4.
8.2 Except in the case of an emergency Aethernet shall provide the Customer with 5 business days notice of any suspension of the Service under paragraph 8.1. If it fails to provide the appropriate notice, the Customer shall be entitled to a credit of one days free Service.
8.3 As far as possible Aethernet shall endeavor to ensure that any disruption or interruption to the Service is kept to a minimum. Aethernet shall endeavor not to suspend the Service for planned maintenance or upgrade work more than 12 times in any calendar year and the Customer shall be entitled to one days free service for each additional service suspension for such work. Aethernet shall endeavor to ensure that planned maintenance or upgrade work does not exceed a total of 24 hours in any calendar year and the Customer shall be entitled to a credit of one days free service for each additional hour of service suspension for such work.
8.4 The standard for the Aethernet maintenance window for planned outages is between 00.00  07.00, local time as at node location in question. Aethernet will try to accommodate the Customer requirements in terms of outage times, however, depending on the circumstances this may not always be possible. Outage times will be quoted in GMT/BST to prevent mistakes being made over the various time zones.