Service level agreement

Last updated 1 April, 2015.

This Service Level Agreement (“SLA”) between LDC Via Limited (“LDC Via”), and the user (“Customer”) of LDC Via’s services (“Services”) sets forth the service level terms and conditions and is an integral part of the Agreement. This SLA defines the terms of Customer’s responsibility with respect to the Services that LDC Via provides and Customer’s remedies in the event that LDC Via fails to meet these Service Commitments. This SLA and the SLA Credits set forth herein represent LDC Via’s sole obligation and Customer’s sole remedy for failure to meet such Service Commitments. This SLA does not apply to the availability of Third Party Services (TPS) which are subject to the TPS Agreements. The SLA is binding only on the Customer and LDC Via and does apply to any Third Parties, including Customer End Users.

1. Definitions. The following are definitions of capitalised words used in this Agreement:

   1. “Agreement” The Customer’s use of and access to Services is governed by the Terms of Services (“TOS”), Service Level Agreement, Privacy Agreement, Acceptable Use Policy, any other documents referenced herein (collectively, the “Agreement”).

   2. “Business Hours” means 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. (UK time), Monday through to Friday, and, notwithstanding the foregoing, does not include times during Service Maintenance.

   3. “Service Maintenance” means LDC Via’s maintaining of the Service including software. Service Maintenance includes, without limitation, database index rebuilding, hardware upgrades, software upgrades, and network upgrades, as applicable.

2. Data Retention. LDC Via shall make full backup copies of each database on a plan determined by the Customer’s service tier:

   • Basic: daily backups retained for 7 days, and weekly backups retained for 4 weeks
   • Standard: 6-hourly backups retained for 2 days, daily backups retained for 7 days, and weekly backups retained for 4 weeks
   • Pro: 6-hourly backups retained for 2 days, daily backups retained for 7 days, weekly backups retained for 4 weeks, and monthly backups retained for 4 months

   In addition, LDC Via retains copies of API log files for at least sixty (60) days

3. Service Availability

   1. Service Availability - General. LDC Via’s goal is to provide Service Availability twenty-four hours per day, seven (7) days per week (referred to as “24x7 Availability”) except during times of Service Maintenance as set forth in Section 3e herein. However, the parties recognse that 24x7 availability is only a goal, and LDC Via cannot represent or guarantee that such goal can be achieved.

   2. Service Availability Level Goals. LDC Via shall use reasonable efforts to achieve the target Service Availability Goal of 99.9% network uptime except during scheduled Service Maintenance (“Service Commitment”). Notwithstanding the foregoing, Customer recognises that the internet is comprised of thousands upon thousands of autonomous systems that are beyond the control of LDC Via. Routing anomalies, asymmetries, inconsistencies and failures of the internet outside of the control of LDC Via can and will occur, and such instances shall not be considered any failure of the 99.9% network uptime. Whilst Customers are free to monitor network uptime on their systems and other monitoring services, LDC Via proactively monitors network uptime and the results of these monitoring systems shall provide the sole and exclusive determination of network uptime.

   3. Response Time to Error. LDC Via has internal notification tools for service problems. Additionally, Customers may report problems to LDC Via Support. Once notified LDC Via Support will respond as per the details below. Note that these guidelines specify the time to begin investigation of the problem, not the length of time within which such problem will be resolved.

   4. Fair Use Policy. LDC Via employs a fair use policy whereby a Customer consistently exceeding document, data or service call limits forming part of their selected service tier may have their account suspended. Alternatively, LDC Via may send an email requesting a reduction in usage. If Customers do not act upon notifications we reserve the right to end service contracts following account suspension. LDC Via also reserves the right to modify the fair use policy at any time.

   5. Service Maintenance

      1. The parties agree that LDC Via shall provide Service Maintenance, which may cause errors. LDC Via shall use commercially reasonable efforts to limit Service Maintenance to two (2) hours per month. LDC Via shall notify named Customer contact by email prior to performing any Service Maintenance which LDC Via predicts will cause a severe issue outside of standard Service Maintenance Times.

      2. LDC Via shall attempt to schedule Service Maintenance during the times as specified in Table 1 – Service Maintenance Times. However, the parties agree that it may be necessary for LDC Via to perform Service Maintenance during times other than those specified in Table 1, and LDC Via reserves the right to perform Service Maintenance during times other than those specified in Table 1.

         Table 1 – Service Maintenance Times

         Service Maintenance Times (Day)	Service Maintenance Times (Hours)
         Monday to Friday	8pm to 4am (UK)
         Saturday	12pm to 12am (UK)
         Sunday	12pm to 12am (UK)

      3. Disclaimer of Actions Caused by and/or Under the Control of Third Parties. LDC Via does not and cannot control the flow of data to or from LDC Via’s network and other portions of the internet. Such flow depends in large part on the performance of internet services provided or controlled by third parties. At times, actions or inactions of such third parties can impair or disrupt customer’s connections to the internet (or portions thereof). Although LDC Via will use commercially reasonable efforts to take actions it deems appropriate to remedy and avoid such events, LDC Via cannot guarantee that such events will not occur. Accordingly, LDC Via disclaims any and all liability resulting from or related to such events.

      4. Limitations. LDC Via cannot assume responsibility and shall not be liable for any impacts on Service Availability due to (i) any requests for non-standard environment or Customer machine access; (ii) any downtime caused by Customer-produced code; or (iii) any changes to the Service by parties other than LDC Via. LDC Via will make reasonable efforts to ensure that Service changes do not affect customers.

      5. LDC Via reserves the right to change this SLA at any time, and without notice.

   6. Financial Penalties for SLA Violations

      1. In the event that LDC Via fails to meet the guarantee stated above (excluding Service Maintenance during the windows described in Section 3e), the Customer may submit an SLA Claim. Following a valid SLA Claim, LDC Via will credit 5% of the Customer monthly service Fees for each sixty (60) minutes of network downtime experienced up to 100% of the monthly service Fee for those Services affected (“SLA Credits”).

      2. All SLA claims should be communicated via the LDC Via Support facility (or an email to [email protected]) within seven (7) days of the incident. The notice must include all relevant information, including service name, IP address, full description of the incident, and any logs (if applicable). All SLA credits will be issued as credits against future invoices for services.

      3. In order to qualify for SLA Credits, Customer must be current on all payment obligations, and not be in violation of the terms and conditions, fair use policy or any other policies and procedures of this Agreement.

      4. No SLA Credits will be given for service interruptions: (i) caused by the action or failure to act by Customer , (ii) due to failure of any equipment or software provided by Customer, (iii) which are the result of scheduled maintenance, (iv) due to a force majeure event, (v) for which Customer is entitled to a SLA Credit for the same or contemporaneous Service Commitment failure or (vi) resulting from Customer’s breach of the Terms of Service, Acceptable Use Policy or any other policies and procedures of this Agreement.

      5. Total cumulative SLA Credits during any given month shall not exceed the Customer monthly fee for those Services affected.

LDC Via support policy

Primary incident-reporting, where your service tier includes online support, is done via our Customer Ticketing System (powered by Zendesk). Through this system you have access to all tickets on your account, both open and completed, both current information and historical. We prioritise tickets by severity, so for example issues where a site is completely unavailable will be processed before tickets where a site is slow, and those before general questions about our service or general advice covering the software offered inside LDC Via. Shown below is a guide to the LDC Via Severity Levels:

Internally, our support team, and the processes we use therein, change over time as we grow and as we learn how to better serve our customers, and therefore they are not documented here.

The goal of the support Team is to provide specific support around the features and functionality of the LDC Via platform itself, included but not limited to the installation, back-up, deletion, or other techniques, features and processes used by LDC Via. Any other support offered (e.g. in assisting a Customer with their own technology utilising LDC Via services) are offered on a “best endeavours” basis.

Service status can be tracked at status.ldcvia.com.

Key service announcements regarding billing, security, new features, and upgrades will be published either on our website, our blog at blog.ldcvia.com, or both.

For any customer-specific communications about site issues, security issues, scalability issues, and similar, we will use the contact information we have on file for you.