Service Level Agreement (SLA)

This Service Level Agreement ("SLA") describes certain performance and security components regarding the operation of Host Labs, Enterprise Hosting service and supporting Windows Hosting.

This SLA is governed by the Host Labs Master Service Agreement, No-Spam Policy, Acceptable Use Policy, and complemented by Host Labs Privacy Policy the collection of which are designed to protect the privacy, security and best interests of Host Labs customers. Host Labs agrees to abide by the terms of this SLA, and requires its customers to do likewise. Host Labs shall use commercial best effort to provide continuous and consistent service with respect to this SLA. Host Labs reserves the right to add, subtract or amend the terms of this agreement at any time in the event of significant changes in market conditions, or otherwise initiated by major vendors, which would affect Host Labs ability to provide its hosting services. Such changes shall be given to the administrator via e-mail with at least 60 days notice.

Service Availability

Does Host Labs have an uptime guarantee?

YES. Host Labs will use commercial best efforts to provide customers with 99.9% network availability [1]. Service status reports will be distributed via e-mail to the administrator. Host Labs reserves the right to plan a scheduled outage with forty-eight (48) hours advance notice. Host Labs will use commercial best efforts to schedule these outages at non-peak hours and limit their occurrence to strictly necessary upgrades and required maintenance.

Scheduled outages are maintained by broadcasting via e-mail to the designated administrator of each customer. Unplanned outages will result in affected customers receiving prorated credit for each hour of outage.

Customer Responsibilities
It is the responsibility of the administrators to notify all persons within their organizations of scheduled outages.

Physical Security and Environmental Control

This section describes how Host Labs protects the Host Labs a service against unauthorized physical access and the threats of fire, power, temperature, humidity and other physical forces.

1. The Host Labs hosting platform is colocated in a secure data center.
2. Physical access to the data center is protected by biometrics security systems and strictly limited to authorized Host Labs personnel. Other persons are admitted only on an as needed basis (e.g., to maintain hardware components), and only under supervision.
3. Environmental control provided by a redundant HVAC system.
4. Data center protected by state-of-the art fire prevention system.
5. Continuous conditioned power is supplied by battery backup systems and redundant diesel generators.

Network Access And Security

This section describes how we protect the Host Labs service against unauthorized network access and the related security measures Host Labs takes to protect its customers. It also contains some customer technical requirements and certain premium services Host Labs offers.

1. Host Labs uses Cisco routers and switches and our Engineers are Cisco Certified (CCNA + Security)
   Servers are installed in a load balanced and/or clustered configuration, as appropriate.
2. Host Labs configures each server with a switched one hundred (100) Mbps Fast Ethernet connection and RAID hard drive configuration.
3. Host Labs connects to multiple Internet backbones and uses Level 3 for our primary network.

Host Labs supports 128-bit or 256-bit encryption via SSL.

Customer Responsibilities:

Customers (or their agents) are responsible for properly maintaining the functional operation of all workstation equipment including connectivity to the Internet.

1. Prior to alleging any connectivity problems, the customer will verify that they are able to reach major sites such as www.msn.com or www.google.com.
2. Customers must use Microsoft Internet Explorer Browser version 6.0 or higher.
3. Customer's Administrators must allow the running of all Host Labs ActiveX controls in order to carry out user and service administration provided by Host Labs Service Manager. All Host Labs Active X controls are provided with digital certificates by Thawt.
4. Customer's Administrators must allow all software required for Host Labs Service Manager to operate programs on the workstation to be installed.
5. Customer is responsible for configuration of their Internet firewall to allow all necessary ports to be used or VPN access.

Premium Services:

For additional fees, Host Labs will be pleased to help its customers establish:

• A VPN (Virtual Private Network) connection to allow network traffic to be encrypted to further protect information traveling on the network.
• A point-to-point network to construct a physically dedicated connection to access applications.
• Regulatory Compliance with Exchange Hosting Services
• Live Communications Server activity (chat) archiving
• Mailbox restore from backup or PST on CD/DVD-ROM
• Migration Services specializing in large Lotus Notes and Exchange migrations
• Advanced Data Backup - Per mailbox backups, SQL database backups, SharePoint and Web/FTP site backups.

Data Security

This section describes the significant measures Host Labs takes to protect customer information, it contains important requirements for customers to follow to further enhance data security, and describes Host Labs Advanced Data Backup; a premium service.

• All customer data is located in secure directories that require access authentication.
• All customer data is backed up to tape using Host Labs DLT tape arrays.
• Backup tapes are stored in a secure off-site location.
• Nightly backups are retained for three (3) weeks.
• Weekly backups are retained for ten (10) weeks.
• Monthly backups are retained for fifty-two (52) weeks.

Customer Responsibilities:
The following customer requirements enhance data security:

1. Customers must use discretion granting administrator privileges.
2. Users must not share their login identifier or password.
3. We recommend that users change their passwords at least every forty-five (45) days.
4. Users must select passwords that are eight (8) characters or longer. We strongly recommend that passwords include mixed alpha and numeric text.

Premium Services:

For an additional fee, Host Labs will distribute (on a monthly basis) a full copy of the client's application data files for the applicable month. (CD or other agreed upon format.)

Application Maintenance

This section applies to applications hosted by Host Labs

Upgrades will be available according to the following schedule (based on the number of days following Host Labs receipt of such upgrades from the ISV):

1. Fixes--no later than 5 days; Minor Upgrades--within 60 days of our receipt; Major Upgrades--within 90 days.
2. Multiple versions of an application will be available using reasonable best efforts, as long as it is technically and commercially feasible for Host Labs to do so.
3. Applications will meet Host Labs certification requirements for the hosting environment.
4. Host Labs cannot guarantee service of applications residing on customer's dedicated servers.

Customer Care Quality

This section describes how Host Labs maintains the highest quality customer care to ensure customer satisfaction.

Host Labs provides a variety of ways for customers to request help or otherwise make inquiries.

An online Support module may be used to report and track issues.
24 x 7 toll-free telephone support (1-877-571-0403)
E-mail to support@hostlabs.com

Severity categories and response times are as follows:
Severity #1 - assigned to outages that keep a business from being able to access one or all of their applications.
Severity #2 - assigned to a situation that slows an organization's response time or limits the functions of one of the applications.
Severity #3 - assigned to a general question or requests for enhancement.

Description	Severity 1	Severity 2	Severity 3
Status Updates	2 hours	24 hours	5 business days
Third Party Vendor Coordination	Yes	Limited	As Needed
Host Labs Management Escalation to Level 2	Yes	As Needed	As Needed
Resolution report identifying the cause of the problem	Yes	Yes	As Needed

If Host Labs fails to comply with the response procedures described above, it will give affected customers a full day's credit [3].

Customer Responsibilities

It will be the Customer's responsibility to maintain profile information for their administrators and keep it updated in order to receive notifications, which may be made via e-mail, phone, pager, fax or mail.

Business Continuity Provision

In the event that Host Labs is unable to continue service to Customer, Host Labs guarantees to provide no less than 90 days of interim service. During this period, Host Labs will deliver upon request and at no cost up-to-date data backups, as well as all necessary information, including application settings and utilities, in order to facilitate a transition of Customer's service to another provider or in-house implementation.

Hardware

We stand behind our computers with an "unlimited free replacement warranty" for ALL leased or rented systems, including individual parts ordered as upgrades from Host Labs

Host Labs will replace, at no charge (including labor), the following components or system parts: System Enclosures or cases, CPU or Processors, Random Access Memory (RAM), System Motherboards, Controllers, Ethernet Adapters, Ethernet or Network Cards, CD/DVD ROMs, Floppy Drives, IDE or SCSI Hard Disk Drives, SCSI Adapters, Video Cards, Sound Cards, Surge Protectors and Uninterrupted Power Supplies (UPS), Network and Power Cables, System Power Supplies, System Fans.

Repair will start upon our identification of the hardware failure and will be completed within 2 hours from problem identification. If faulty hardware replacement takes more than 2 hours, customer will be refunded 5% of monthly fee per additional hour of down time (up to customer's full monthly fee).

Network

Host Labs uses Cisco switches, routers, and other networking equipment. Redundant components are used to ensure uptime and minimize failure. Our network is connected through multiple T-3 lines within an OC-12 Sonet Ring to several backbone providers, for fast, reliable connectivity. Our primary network is Level 3 only.

Network Uptime

Host Labs guarantees network availability of 99.9% in a given month (43.2 minutes downtime per month), excluding scheduled maintenance. Network is considered unavailable if there is a 100% packet loss from Host Labs to its backbone providers. We will refund customers 5% of the monthly fee for each additional hour of downtime (up to 100% of customer's monthly fee). Network infrastructure is all equipment, from the cable connected to the server's NIC to the backbone provider, and includes routers, switches and cabling. Downtime is measured past 10 minutes after notification of network failure, via the ticketing system. If the ticketing system itself is unreachable, the ticket must be started by calling the NOC. Host Labs personnel will determine end of downtime by a trace route to the customer's machine from outside Host Labs.

Claiming Refunds

Customer is responsible for notifying the billing department for any credits due for the month within seven days from the time of the incidence. Customer should supply all relevant information, including ticket numbers, for refund to take place. Denial of customer claims may be appealed through the normal escalation procedure.

Customer Spamming Policy

Host Labs has zero tolerance for spam originating from our customers, or from our customers' customers, or for spam advertising web sites of our customers or our customers' customers.

Open a Ticket

To open a ticket send an email from any email address to our ticketing system and a ticket number will be sent back to you via the automated response of the ticketing system. The ticketing system's direct email account is helpdesk@hostlabs.com.
If you do not receive a response to your email with the ticket number within ten(10) minutes, the ticketing system itself may be down. If the ticketing system itself is unreachable, the ticket must be started by calling the NOC and requesting a ticket number over the phone. The NOC phone number is (619) 819-7534.