Data Defense Managed Data Encryption for PCs Service Level Agreement...
What is the Data Defense Managed Data Encryption service?
Data Defense Managed Data Encryption Service (the ‘Service’) provides a centralised method of securing data on client PCs and Laptops. This is achieved by encypting the data and using rules/settings to prohibit access to this data when the defined rules have taken effect eg. upon a number of incorrect logon attempts or when the device has been registered as lost or stolen.
The service is managed through a web-based interface (the ‘Portal’) that shows the status of each device and enables the set-up, modification and configuration of data encryption and rule execution principles.
The Service is aimed at companies and individuals who have confidential information stored on a PC and require protection against malicious access to that information.
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 the customer’s Service. The software manufacturer behind the Data Defense server, Beachhead Solutions Inc., hosts the Data Defense web servers out of their HQ in Santa Clara CA. This infrastructure is mirrored to a second remote site for resilience purposes. The encryption algorithims employed are based upon Microsoft’s Encrypting File System (‘EFS’) and the level of encryption can be defined as 128-bit AES, 256-bit AES or 3DES, making the encryption level compliant with FIPS140-2 guidelines.
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
Full documentation and user administration guides for the Service can been found at the web portal logon page https://datadefense2.ironmountain.com
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 outside Core Hours
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 assistance with rule changes.
High Priority Issues - an event that results in an interruption to Service availability or customer not being able to access their protected device
Critical Issues - an event such as a lost or stolen protected device that requires immediate status change.
| 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 use 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 Service will be available 100% of the time in a given month, excluding scheduled maintenance. Scheduled maintenance is normally scheduled to occur weekly on Saturdays anytime from Midnight to 4:00 a.m. U.S. Central Time. The Scheduled maintenance should not exceed two (2) hours unless an exceptional outage occurs which requires extended Service downtime.
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
Backup Direct is not responsible for internet downtime.
Backup Direct agrees to inform Customer in writing as soon as practical of known serious anomalies in the Software, including known bugs that then exist in the licensed Software. The Customer may, at its discretion, notify Backup Direct of anomalies and bugs that it discovers or of which it becomes aware. Backup Direct will use reasonable efforts to cure, as described below, reported and reproducible errors in the licensed Software so that the licensed Software operates as specified in accordance with its documentation and configuration.
Deletion of Data
Depending on the configuration, the Service allows for the deletion of data on client machines. This configuration is the sole responsibility of the customer administrator and Backup Direct cannot be held responsible for any loss of data resulting from the service and configured rules.
It is of vital importantance you fully understand the implications of your rules in order to mitigate the risk of losing data.
Backup Direct strongly recommend that each protected device has a data backup strategy in force allowing the recovery of lost data in the event of the local data being deleted through rule enforcement.
System Status and Automated Warnings
Correctly set-up, the system is able to send a range of system status reports and automated warning messages to nominated email addresses. It is your responsibility to respond to these messages and maintain the appropriate email addresses in the system control portal. You should confirm the setup of this service with your IT Administrator or the Backup Direct Service Team and contact Backup Direct in the event of any messages for which you require further clarification.
Your Responsibilities
To provide a stable computer environment on which the service is installed and which meets the system operating requirements including sufficient internet bandwidth and latency performance for reliable communications.
To provide a suitably competent system administrator who is responsible for determining which Client Devices (the computers on which data is being protected against unauthorized access by the Data Defense Managed Encryption Service) are protected by the Software, installing the Software to the Client Devices, setting rules and groups, defining a Client Device as lost or stolen and tracking lost devices.
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 or data loss resulting from Service configuration conducted with 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.
At installation (and any upgrades) you will refer to the product Release Notes and associated Service documentation provided by Backup Direct and the Web Management Portal through which you manage the Service.
At the time of installation, you should check your computer specification against the service 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 encryption products or services).
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 Data Defense 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 enterprise-class protection 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 configuration and set-up of your service but the ultimate responsibility for rule definition and testing 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 access to your encrypted data following a problem or incident at your company within the viable scope of your defined Service rules. Where possible, we will help with restoration of your EFS certificate but our responsibility ends with recovery access to your encrypted 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 calendar days of the online service interruption.
| Online 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 Service is restored. Downtime does not include any element associated with any problem on your infrastructure or the internet but refers exclusively to the Data Defense Online 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.
Data Defense Managed Data Encryption for PCs - Service Level Agreement (SLA) Ver 2.0
This Service Level Agreement is available to download as a PDF (474kb) by clicking here.
