AiNET SLA Terms and Conditions
100% SLA (Service Level Agreement)
We believe we have the strongest, most forward looking SLA in the industry. We believe in making it public and universal for all our customers. We believe in making this commitment and working with our customers to exceed their expectations, every day.
Revised: May 2013
1. Application of AiNET SLA
These AiNET Corp and all affiliates (“AiNET”) Service Level Agreements (SLAs) provide Customers globally with certain rights and remedies regarding the performance of AiNET Services (as defined below).
These AiNET apply only to Global Customers receiving the following services from AiNET: (i) T1, T3, OC3, OC12, OC48, OC192, Fiber Connectivity, or Ethernet services, and/or (ii) colocation or dedicated server services utilizing the AiNET Backbone (each a “Customer”) and/or (iii) cloud computing, cloud storage, dedicated server, managed hosting, data migration, unless otherwise specified for a Customer.
2. Definitions
For purposes of these AiNET SLAs, the following terms have the meanings set forth below:
- “AiNET Backbone” means AiNET owned and operated Internet Protocol (IP) routing infrastructure consisting solely of selected AiNET points of presence at which AiNET has installed measurement devices (“Selected POPs”)
(i) within the United States and the connections between them in the forty-eight continental United States (the “North American Network”),
(ii) within Europe and the United States and the Trans-Atlantic connections between such Selected POPs (the “Trans-Atlantic Network”) and
(iii) within Asia and the United States and the Trans-Pacific connections between such Selected POPs (the “Trans-Pacific Network”).
- “Network Outage” means an instance in which no traffic can pass in or out of the Selected POP through which Customer connects to the AiNET Backbone for more than 15 consecutive minutes.
- “Latency” means the average time required for round-trip packet transfers between Selected POPs on the selected portions of the AiNET Backbone during a calendar month, as measured by AiNET.
- “Packet Loss” means the average percentage of IP packets transmitted between Selected POPs during a calendar month that are not successfully delivered, as measured by AiNET.
- “Average Jitter” means the average variation in delay for packet transfers between Selected POPs during a calendar month, as measured by AiNET.
- “Maximum Jitter” means the maximum variation in delay for packet transfers between Selected POPs, as measured by AiNET.
- “Base Fee” consists solely of the base monthly fee paid by Customer for the affected AiNET service and excludes all other fees which might be charged to Customer, including, by way of example and not limitation, set-up fees, fees for local loop, charges for additional services such as managed services, incremental bandwidth usage, extra IP addresses, RAM, or hard drives beyond that which is available without additional charge under AiNET’s standard rates, hourly support charges, and other types of optional additional services.
For example, for Dedicated Server Customers, the Base Fee may include just the fee for the standard server package, which would cover the use of the server and up to the amount of data transfer allowed each month without additional charge. For example, for Colocation Customers, the Base Fee may include just the fee for the space rental and power (if billed separately). For Customers of other AiNET services, the Base Fee may include just the base monthly access or bandwidth fee paid by a Customer.
In no way will an SLA breach be deemed to occur for a particular Customer if that Customer does not purchase the breached service from AiNET.
3. Summary of AiNET SLAs
As described in more detail below, these AiNET SLAs provide commitments based upon goals in four key areas:
- The AiNET Backbone available to Customer free of Network Outages 100% of the time.
- Latency of the AiNET Backbone of (i) 50 milliseconds or less for the North American Network, (ii) 90 milliseconds or less for the Trans-Atlantic Network and (iii) 130 milliseconds or less for the Trans-Pacific Network.
- Packet Loss of the AiNET Backbone of 0.1% or less.
- Average Jitter on the AiNET Backbone of 250 microseconds or less; and Maximum Jitter not to exceed 10 milliseconds more than 0.1% of the time.
- 100% Availability of Infrastructure Quality AC and DC Power.
- 100% Availability of Cloud Services.
- 100% Availability of Technical Support and related services.
4. AiNET Backbone Availability
AiNET’s goal is to make the AiNET Backbone available to Customer free of Network Outages 100% of the time. Subject to the Sections below, upon Customer’s request, AiNET will issue a credit to Customer for Network Outages in an amount equal to one day’s worth of the Base Fee paid by Customer, multiplied by each hour (or portion thereof rounded to the next hour) of the cumulative duration of such Network Outages during a particular month.
5. AiNET Backbone Latency
AiNET’s goal is to keep Latency on the AiNET Backbone to (i) 50 milliseconds or less for the North American Network, (ii) 90 milliseconds or less for the Trans-Atlantic Network and (iii) 130 milliseconds or less for the Trans-Pacific Network.
Subject to the Sections below, if Latency on the North American Network, the Trans-Atlantic Network or the Trans-Pacific Network, as applicable, for a calendar month exceeds the time frame set forth above for the applicable portion of the AiNET Backbone, AiNET will issue a credit to Customer equal to one day’s worth of the Base Fee paid by Customer for such month.
The terms of this AiNET Backbone SLA related to Latency will take effect the first full calendar month after Customer’s first use of the AiNET Backbone.
6. AiNET Backbone Packet Loss
AiNET’s goal is to keep Packet Loss on the AiNET Backbone to 0.1% or less. If Packet Loss on the AiNET Backbone exceeds 0.1% during a calendar month, AiNET will issue a credit to Customer equal to one day’s worth of the Base Fee paid by Customer for such month.
The terms of this AiNET Backbone SLA relating to Packet Loss will take effect the first full calendar month after Customer’s first use of the AiNET Backbone.
7. AiNET Average and Maximum Jitter
AiNET’s goal is to keep Average Jitter on the AiNET Backbone to 250 microseconds or less; and for Maximum Jitter not to exceed 10 milliseconds more than 0.1% of a calendar month. Subject to Sections 9 and 10 below, if Average Jitter on the AiNET Backbone exceeds 500 microseconds; or if Maximum Jitter exceeds 10 milliseconds more than 0.1% of a calendar month, AiNET will issue a credit to Customer equal to one day’s worth of the Base Fee paid by Customer for such month.
The terms of this AiNET Backbone SLA relating to Jitter will take effect the first full calendar month after Customer’s first use of the AiNET Backbone.
8. Measurement
AiNET will periodically (on average every 5 minutes) measure the AiNET Backbone at Selected POPs using software and hardware components capable of measuring traffic and responses at such Selected POPs. Customer acknowledges that not every POP may be covered by such measurements, that such measurements may not measure the exact path traversed by Customer’s packets, and that such measurements constitute measurements across the AiNET Backbone but not other networks to which Customer may connect. AiNET reserves the right to periodically change the measurement points and methodologies it uses without notice to Customer. For reports of performance of the AiNET Backbone, please refer to the relevant links provided on this Web page.
9. AiNET Infrastructure Quality AC Power Availability
AiNET Power Availability Guarantee is to have AC power provided to AiNET Data Center and Customer’s co-located equipment, 100% of the time and, as set forth below, AiNET will credit Customer’s account if AiNET fails to meet this Power Availability Guarantee during any given calendar month. “Power Unavailability” consists of the number of minutes that power was not available to Customer’s co-located equipment, but will not include co-location power unavailability, which Customer fails to report to AiNET within five days, or any unavailability resulting from (a) any Customer circuits or equipment, (b) Customer’s application or equipment, (c) acts or omissions of Customer, or any use or user of the service authorized by Customer or (d) reasons of Force Majeure. For each cumulative hour of Power Unavailability or fraction thereof in any calendar month, Customer’s account shall be credit the charges for one day of the Base Fee.
10. AiNET Infrastructure Quality DC Power Availability
AiNET Power Availability Guarantee is to have DC power provided to AiNET Data Center and Customer’s co-located equipment, 100% of the time and, as set forth below, AiNET will credit Customer’s account if AiNET fails to meet this Power Availability Guarantee during any given calendar month. “Power Unavailability” consists of the number of minutes that power was not available to Customer’s co-located equipment, but will not include co-location power unavailability, which Customer fails to report to AiNET within five days, or any unavailability resulting from (a) any Customer circuits or equipment, (b) Customer’s application or equipment, (c) acts or omissions of Customer, or any use or user of the service authorized by Customer or (d) reasons of Force Majeure. For each cumulative hour of Power Unavailability or fraction thereof in any calendar month, Customer’s account shall be credit the charges for one day of the Base Fee.
11. AiNET Cloud Performance Standards
AiNET commits to providing you with SLA Cloud Performance (“SLA Cloud Performance”) relating to each AiNET Cloud Service which you subscribe and pay for, subject to the Sections below.
AiNET Cloud Hypervisors – We guarantee that Cloud Hypervisors will be available 100% of the time, as monitored from within, and by, AiNET’s monitoring systems. If a Cloud Hypervisor fails, restoration or repair will be complete within one hour of problem identification.
AiNET Cloud Storage – We guarantee that Cloud Storage will be available 100% of the time, as monitored from within, and by, AiNET’s monitoring systems. If AiNET’s Cloud Storage Service fails, restoration or repair will be complete within one hour of problem identification.
AiNET Cloud Network – We guarantee that our Cloud Network will be available 100% of the time in any given monthly billing period, excluding scheduled maintenance.
AiNET Cloud Migration – If Cloud Hypervisor migration is required because of Cloud Hypervisor maintenance or degradation, we will notify you at least twenty four (24) hours in advance of beginning the migration unless we determine, in our reasonable judgment, that we must begin the migration sooner to protect your Cloud service. Either way, we guarantee that the migration will be complete within three hours of the time that we begin the migration.
12. AiNET Cloud Technical Support
Availability – Cloud Technical Support will be available 24 hours a day, seven days a week every day of the year.
ITIL Process – AiNET Support staff will follow an ITIL-defined system for service response and resolution, which will include
Call response targets
- Phone average time to answer: 60 seconds
- Email average time to answer: 1 hour
Trouble ticket creation and assignment
- 100% of all calls and emails answered
- 100% response for every ticket created
- 100% follow-up for every ticket created
- Repair, reconstruction or resolution action commences as follows
- Emergencies – action plan development commences within fifteen (15) minutes.
- Emergencies – action plan commences within thirty (30) minutes. Emergencies include: Server down and major Routing issues.
- Non emergencies – action commences within 120 minutes. All other cases included in non-emergencies AiNET may reclassify any case or Ticket misclassified as an emergency and such case will not qualify for emergency treatment. Note that AiNET cannot guarantee all resolutions or repair times, and this SLA does not provide a guarantee related to time taken to a particular repair, resolution or reconstruction of Services.
- 7/24/365 Network Monitoring and Systems Management
- Network Monitoring: 24 hours a day, every day of the year from AiNET network operations centers (“NOCs”)
- Systems Management: 24 hours a day, every day of the year from AiNET network operations centers (“NOCs”)
- Accounting and Billing Queries: Phone and email response: AiNET core business hours defined for each regional office
13. Exceptions
Customer shall not receive any credits under these AiNET SLAs in connection with any failure or deficiency of the AiNET Service caused by or associated with:
(i) circumstances beyond AiNET’s reasonable control, including, without limitation, action or inaction of any governmental or quasi-governmental body, war, insurrection, sabotage, embargo, fire, flood, strike or other labor disturbance, interruption of or delay in transportation, unavailability of or interruption or delay in third party telecommunications or other third party services, failure of third party software or inability to obtain raw materials, supplies, or power used in or equipment needed for provision of the AiNET SLAs;
(ii) failure of third party access circuits to the AiNET Backbone, unless such failure is caused solely by AiNET;
(iii) scheduled maintenance and emergency maintenance and upgrades;
(iv) DNS issues outside the direct control of AiNET;
(v) false SLA breaches reported as a result of outages or errors of any AiNET measurement system;
(vi) Customer’s acts or omissions (or act or omissions of others engaged or authorized by Customer), including without limitation, any negligence, willful misconduct, or use of the AiNET Backbone or AiNET services in breach of AiNET’s Terms and Conditions of Service, AiNET’s Service Agreement, AiNET’s Colocation Agreement, AiNET’s Master Services Agreement, AiNET’s Acceptable Use Policy, any AiNET GWAC, BPA or Cooperative Purchasing Agreement, or any similar purchasing or sales agreement.
14. Credit Request and Payment Procedures
In order to receive a credit under these SLAs, Customer must make a request therefore by accessing and following the credit request procedures established and amended from time-to-time by contacting their sales representative. Each request in connection with a Performance, Network or Infrastructure Failure must be received by AiNET within five days of the Performance, Network or Infrastructure Failure and must be confirmed by AiNET’s measurements and calculations. AiNET must receive each request in connection with Latency or Packet Loss in a calendar month within five days after the end of such month. Each valid credit will be applied to an invoice of Customer within two billing cycles after AiNET’s receipt of Customer’s request therefore. Credits are exclusive of any applicable taxes charged to Customer or collected by AiNET.
Customers are not eligible for SLA credits if their account is not good standing, earned but unpaid Fees, or not current for any Base, Late, Monthly, Variable (or Usage) or other Fees.
Notwithstanding anything in this AiNET SLA to the contrary, the total amount credited to a Customer in connection with Network Outages, Latency, Jitter and Packet Loss, Infrastructure Quality Power Availability, Performance in any calendar month will not exceed the Base Fee paid by Customer for such month.
This SLA in no way construes AiNET will guarantee performance against any failures including those of application specific failures, such as web server software, operating system software, failing hardware, web site application features, database performance or related components. It will be at AiNET’s sole discretion to determine fault and identify failure to perform under the obligations of this SLA. Where an SLA goal is described without a specific credit, the goal is a service process target as defined under the appropriate ITIL, ISO or similar process. No credit under this SLA shall be construed as a penalty, unsatisfactory contract performance, or acknowledgment of failure, and shall serve as the sole cure and remedy for any event arising in a credit.
This SLA is subject to change at the sole discretion of AiNET, without notice to Customer. In cases where FAR/DFAR applies, this acceptance will not be unreasonably withheld, conditioned or delayed.
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