Attix5 - PC, Mac & Windows Server Online Vaulting Service Level Agreement...
What is Attix5 Electronic Vaulting ?
Attix5 Electronic On-line Vaulting (the ‘Service’) provides internet-based electronic vaulting for scheduled backup of customer-selected data and the restore or recovery of that data upon request. Data to be protected is selected (including from network shares) and optional plug-ins are available to protect specific applications, databases, network drives, and system information. When installed correctly and used in accordance with the defined requirements and guidelines, the Attix5 service is able to protect applications, open files and databases1 , and registry and security information2 from both the local machine and approved network drives. As well as protected data being transferred to two offsite data centres, a local copy of the last backup is held on the client computer providing network speed restores when required.
The Attix5 service is managed through a local application on the client computer that shows data protected and the status of backup and restore jobs. For multiple user installations, a management application is also available for controlling a community of users.
Data protected under this service is encrypted on the client computer before transmission to the data centres and remains encrypted at all times at the data centres and during a restore (so-called ‘Inflight and Offsite’).
What is an SLA and what does it mean to you ?
An SLA is a legally binding commitment to achieve a specific level of service. If this target is not achieved, the service provider will commit to compensating the customer based on previously established penalties. Consequently, a vendor willing to commit to an SLA is confident in the ability of the service and therefore creates customer reassurance.
Backup Direct views an SLA as a two-way agreement in which you the Customer also acknowledge your responsibilities to ensure the smooth operation of the supplied Service.
Why are SLAs Important ?
In the vitally important area of data protection and backup, it is important that business users have a robust, cost-effective and above all, consistent level of service and performance.
What is behind Backup Direct’s SLA ?
Backup Direct has a robust and resilient technology infrastructure protecting its customer’s data. Operated by IBM, two separately located data centres (in UK locations) mirror your critical business data which ensure that no single component of hardware or software failure could cause data loss. Our Service Team operates to ITIL v3 guidelines for managed IT services (http://www.itil-officialsite.com/home/home.asp)
What SLA does Backup Direct Offer ?
Backup Direct is committed to providing exceptional customer service at every opportunity and our key customer satisfaction measure is Net Promoter Score (www.netpromoter.com). Some aspects of the supplied service such as a high level of system availability should be taken as read. Our Service Team will endeavour to provide you with that ‘extra mile’ of service that, whilst not contractual, is what we believe you deserve.
The following points should be read in conjunction with our published Terms and Conditions (see www.backupdirect.net/legal for the latest version). This SLA may also be varied from time to time.
If you have any comments or observations about our performance and the service we provide you should contact our Operations Director, Dave Wigley, on 0800 0789 438 or email david.wigley@backupdirect.net
FAQs & Basic Support
Our website www.backupdirect.net/support contains answers to frequently asked questions and includes instructions with videos for a range of typical issues such as remote data recovery and system reinstallation. Our Quick Start Service Guides can also be downloaded from this site.
You will find good information at the website but you can and should contact us directly if you have any doubt about your service and its operation.
Customer Support Hours
support@backupdirect.net or 0800 0789 438
Your service includes free, unlimited telephone support on 0800 0789 438 or you may email requests for service/support to support@backupdirect.net
Core Customer Support Hours (a Core Day) are from 8:00am to 10:00pm seven days per week including Bank holidays.
Emergency support is available 24x7 for issues classified as Critical. Visit http://www.backupdirect.net/emergency for contact details.
We endeavour to answer all incoming phone calls immediately. In the event that all the Service Team members are busy we will ask you to leave a message outlining your issue.
Issue Response Times
We will discuss any reported issue with you and assess its criticality. We define the following levels :
Standard Issues - an event that does not interfere with data protection such as a request for a repeat invoice or support for data selection assistance.
High Priority Issues - an event that results in an interruption to data protection such as a failed backup or the need to recover an individual lost data file.
Critical Issues - typically full disaster recovery scenario where an entire system has been lost and urgent data recovery is required.
| Issue Level | Acknowledgement Time | Initial Response Time | Target Resolution Time |
| Standard | Within 24 hours | Within 2 days | Issue dependent |
| High Priority | Within 2 Core hours | 4 Core hours | 2 days |
| Critical | Within 1 Core hour | 2 Core hours | Continuous Support |
The final designation of your Issue is determined by Backup Direct. You must use the above contact details to register your issue and the phone service for Critical Issues.
Service Availability
Scheduled maintenance to the online Service takes place for several hours each month.
We guarantee that the online Service will be available 100% of the time in a given month, excluding scheduled maintenance.
The automated nature of the Service means that interruptions to the Service (e.g. for planned maintenance) are typically recovered within a short period of time. Therefore, we will not inform you of a planned service outage or minor incidents of unplanned outage. In the event of a major service outage (where the Service is expected to be unavailable for more than 24 hours) we will endeavour to inform you of the problem using the email address you supplied to us or by posting relevant information on the support section of our website at www.backupdirect.net/support
If you receive repeated automated warnings from your Attix5 service you should contact the Backup Direct Service Team immediately.
Backup Direct is not responsible for internet downtime or technical problems with your local infrastructure.
Storage Platform Management Console
For users with multiple Attix5 accounts to manage, there is a dedicated management console available (this service may incur an additional monthly charge). The console allows the suspension, limit change, and deletion of accounts, together with user password changes (not Encryption Key access or changes), and reporting on account usage.
Data Transfer Speeds
Internet-based data transmission and recovery will depend on many factors including your connection speed/quality and local internet usage, rates of data changes, and total Gigabytes involved. Your internet bandwidth will have been discussed with the Backup Direct Sales Consultant to ensure you appreciate the requirements. Bandwidth latency can have a significant effect on data transfer rates.
You must ensure that you have the necessary internet bandwidth and computer processing power together with sufficient hard disk cache space to manage the level of data change involved, and especially the impact on your day-to-day operations.
Initial Upload of Data
The large amounts of data in use today can make for lengthy initial upload periods. You should discuss the initial upload with the Backup Direct Service Team to plan and implement a suitable upload strategy. You can assume an upload speed of approximately 2GB per day for each 256kbps of your available upload bandwidth.
If you have a large amount of data (typically >50GB) it is possible to load this onto a dedicated hardware device which can then be shipped to a data centre to complete the initial upload. This service will incur additional charges.
Extended internet/network interruptions can force the retransmission of files thereby delaying the initial backup.
Backup Direct do not recommend the selection of more than 250GB of data using the Attix5 service.
Remote Access and Online Data Restores
You may access your protected data from an internet browser via the website address : http://www.backupdirect.net/a5web You will need your Group/Community Name; User Name & Password; and your Encryption Key to access your data.
Restore performance will be influenced by the data type being restored (as data may have to be rebuilt from incremental changes gathered over time) and the internet connection. (For example, an 8Mbit/s bandwidth connection with an RTT better than 50ms should be able to recover a maximum of circa. 3GB of data per hour).
USB Hard Disk Restores
If a large amount of data is to be recovered, it is possible to request your data to be transferred onto a dedicated USB hard disk which can then be shipped to a location you specify. The Target time to prepare and load a disk will depend on the amount of data involved:
| Data Size | Submitted | Ready to Ship | Expected Delivery |
| 1-50GB | Before 10:00am | 5pm same day | Next business day |
| 51-250GB | After 10:00am | 5pm next bus. day | Third bus. day |
This service will incur additional service and courier charges and should be ordered after discussion with the Backup Direct Service Team.
Local Data Cache
The Attix5 service requires a sufficient local cache space to provide a fast restore of the last backed up data. This requirement will have been discussed with you during the sales and installation process and a rule of thumb is that you will need between 1.5 and 2x the size of your protected information available as free disk space.
The Local Data Cache and Attix5 System Working Directories must be on the local computer and not stored on remote/network drives.
Network Drives (NAS - Network Attached Storage)
It is normally fine to select and backup data residing on a NAS device providing the Attix5 service has permissions to read the data.
It is important that the system local data cache, working folders, or Attix5 plugin folders are not held on a NAS device.
NAS drives can come in many different flavours and performance characteristics – from high performance units to much cheaper, consumer-grade equipment. Due to this wide performance range it is important that customers undertake their own backup tests and restores to ensure reliable operation.
Backup Direct recommend the business grade QNAP devices if required.
Retention, Expiration and Deletion of Data
The Attix5 service is typically used on a daily cycle though it is able to capture file changes down to an hourly frequency subject to data volume and rate of change coupled with local computer processing capability.
At any time, daily versions of files are available for a minimum of 30 days to a maximum of 60 days with 1 month end roll-up. You should assume there will always be 30 days of daily backups available together with the last month end position. This includes any data that is deselected from the backup set.
Following expiration, data will be securely deleted and no longer available to you.
System Status and Automated Warnings
Correctly set-up with a working SMTP mail service, the backup service is able to send an automated non-backup warning message (or a backup successful message) to nominated email addresses. It is your responsibility to respond to these messages and maintain the appropriate email addresses in the system application.
You should confirm the setup of this service and test it with your IT Administrator or the Backup Direct Service Team.
Your Responsibilities
To provide a stable computer environment on which the service is installed and which meets the system operating requirements including sufficient free disk space, internet bandwidth and latency performance.
At installation (and any upgrades) you will refer to the product Release Notes and associated Service documentation provided by Backup Direct.
At the time of installation, you should check your computer specification against the minimum requirements. You must contact Backup Direct in the event of a need to make significant changes to that environment (e.g. Operating System changes or Service Packs, new anti-virus services, the use of other backup products or services) or the addition of new or changed applications that you wish to include in the protected data.
You are responsible for ensuring that all the data you wish to be protected has been selected for inclusion in the service. You will undertake regular checks that all your required data is being protected.
You will retain a secure note of your encryption key required for any form of data recovery. You understand that WITHOUT THIS KEY IT IS NOT POSSIBLE TO RECOVER YOUR PROTECTED DATA. BACKUP DIRECT DO NOT HOLD A COPY OF YOUR UNIQUE KEY.
You will undertake test restores at appropriate regular intervals to ensure that you can recover your critical data and systems and inform Backup Direct Service Team of any issues encountered.
If you ask us to work directly with your designated IT Partner we will do so. However, ultimate responsibility for your components of this agreement remain with you, the customer. Backup Direct will not be responsible for slow or inappropriate responses from your IT Partner. You are responsible for the security aspects of providing any passwords or confidential information to your IT Partner and we may contact you to confirm their right to access certain information. You must inform us if your IT Partner changes and you must ensure that contact information is updated in our systems.
In the event of data recovery using the service, you must have access to the appropriate level of technical knowledge to rebuild your data into your systems (if you do not have this skill yourself, you should use an IT partner or IT support company).
To ensure that you keep the automated email warning system up to date with an appropriate email address and to contact the Backup Direct Service Team in the event of repeated system warnings.
To provide and maintain main contact information to Backup Direct so that we can contact you in the event of an issue or for security validation.
To provide relevant requested information to support the investigation and resolution of any identified issues with the service. This will include system log files and other important information regarding your computer infrastructure.
To ensure your use of the Service does not affect the operation of the overall Attix5 platform. In the event that your usage is adversely affecting the overall platform, it may be suspended or terminated without liability to Backup Direct upon prior written notice (or immediately without notice in the event of a technical emergency).
You will notify us of your desire to cancel the Service, giving the appropriate notice, as described in our Terms and Conditions.
Please refer to our full Terms and Conditions at www.backupdirect.net/legal for a complete breakdown of both your and our contractual responsibilities.
Our Responsibilities
To provide you with an enterprise-class backup technology and the highest level of customer service as described in this SLA and your contract with us.
We will contact you once the service is installed and check that you are happy with the service and all is working well. We refer to this process as ‘On-Boarding’.
In the event of technical matters, we will endeavour to provide you with one technical contact to address your issue. Where necessary we will escalate your issue to other technical specialists.
We will assign your business to a dedicated Account Manager with whom you can discuss any aspects of the service and your requirements.
We will prioritise and endeavour to resolve any issues you raise with the Service within our target resolution times wherever possible. Please recognise that we have to prioritise all customer issues in order to address the most critical problems first.
At your request, we will support you with the selection of your protected data but the ultimate responsibility for data selection resides with you at all times.
We will provide free of charge updates to the service at regular intervals and inform you of requirements for upgrades.
We will maintain your data in a secure manner and will not provide access to your data without appropriate security checks being completed. If we are not convinced of a caller’s right to access your account we will seek further clarification from a senior representative from your company.
Our responsibility is to ensure you can recover your protected data following a problem or incident at your company. Where possible, we will help with re-integrating your data into your company systems but our responsibility ends with recovery of your protected data. Our Service Team have the right to withdraw from providing further support if they believe they may be putting your systems at risk; or you lack the technical expertise required; or your request is outside the scope of our service commitment.
We will contact you at least once a year to seek your customer Net Promoter (satisfaction) Score and any feedback you may have. We will act on your feedback.
Should you choose to leave Backup Direct we will make your departure as smooth as possible and continue to support you until the end of the contracted term and assist where possible with account closure and data transfer.
Financial Claims
If you wish to make a claim for non-conformance against this SLA you should do so in writing to support@backupdirect.net citing your reasons in full within 10 days of the online service interruption.
| Attix5 Service availability in a given month (excluding planned maintenance) | Rebate (% of monthly recurring charge) |
| Less than 100% and greater than or equal to 98.0% | 10% |
| Less than 98.0% and greater than or equal to 95.0% | 20% |
| Less than 95.0% | 30% |
Service Downtime is measured from the time a Case is raised with us by you until the online service is restored. Downtime does not include any element associated with any problem on your local infrastructure or the internet but refers exclusively to the Attix5 online backup service.
You are not entitled to a credit if you are in breach of our contractual agreement.
Our Directors will review any incident you raise.
Footnotes
1. Open file and application handling not available Mac systems. Databases should typically be closed during backup to ensure a restorable snapshot is obtained (e.g. Sage, QuickBooks, etc.)
2. Windows Server Edition only – Mac Server not supported
PC, Mac & Windows Server Online Vaulting - Attix5 - Service Level Agreement (SLA) Ver 3.0
This Service Level Agreement is available to download as a PDF (489kb) by clicking here.
