F5 Inc, Service Level Agreement
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Purpose
This Service Level Agreement (“SLA”) describes the service levels to be provided by F5, Inc (“F5” or “Company”) to Customer (“Customer”, or “Client”) regarding the F5® Distributed Cloud Services Global Network (including Backbone) (“Services”). The company reserves the right to alter or revise the terms of this SLA.
Definitions
In this SLA, a reference to:
Availability Rate is defined as follows:-
- Availability Rate (%) = ((Monthly Total Time(min) minus Monthly Downtime(min) )) / Monthly Total time(min)) x100
- Monthly Total Time(min) means 720 hours per calendar month, irrespective of the number of days in any calendar month.
- Monthly Downtime(min) means the Unavailable time of the Service in a month excluding the downtime of the Service subject to Section Exclusions.
- The Availability rate calculation starts from the first full month of Services.
Emergency Maintenance means any maintenance or repair works which Company needs to carry out on any networks or equipment used to provide the Service (in which case Company will use its reasonable endeavors to give prior notice to the Customer).
End User means any person or entity that uses the Services through Customer, or accesses the Services provided to Customer.
Maintenance means Scheduled Maintenance and Emergency Maintenance.
Scheduled Maintenance means the maintenance performed (i) no more than once in a calendar month between the hours of 22:00 pm– 06:00 am, local time of the relevant region; or (ii) when Company notifies Customer at least two weeks in advance unless agreed otherwise in writing by the Parties.
Service(s) means the Global Network (including Backbone) which is an enterprise-grade global network (including Backbone) provided by Company to the Customer. The platform is orchestrated via software and consists of servers, storage and network elements coupled with virtualization technology and operating system software. The status of the service can be viewed at https://www.f5cloudstatus.com/ on the following line items specifically
| Service | Status |
|---|---|
| North America Network PoPs | Operational |
| South America Network PoPs | Operational |
| Europe Network PoPs | Operational |
| Asia Network PoPs | Operational |
Service Charges mean variable usage charges and fixed monthly charges for the Service described on https://www.f5.com/cloud/pricing.
Service Credits mean the percentage reimbursement which Company will provide to Customer in the event Company fails to meet the Availability Rate.
Service Level(s) means those service level(s) of the Service set forth in Section 3.1.
Solution Monitors means the monitoring hardware and software used by the Company to monitor and measure the provision of Services. Solution monitor for the Service is available at https://www.f5cloudstatus.com/ on the specific line items shown next:
| Service | Status |
|---|---|
| North America Network PoPs | Operational |
| South America Network PoPs | Operational |
| Europe Network PoPs | Operational |
| Asia Network PoPs | Operational |
Unavailable and Unavailability mean failure of the Service identified by one or more Solution Monitors.
Service Level
Service Level Agreement
Response SLA
Company will make commercially reasonable efforts to respond to Customer support tickets within the time-frame specified in the following table for the Customer's chosen plan level
| Priority | SaaS | Standard | Enhanced | Enhanced+ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| P1 (Phone Only) | 15 minutes | 15 minutes | 15 minutes | 15 minutes |
| P2 | 60 minutes | 60 minutes | 30 minutes | 15 minutes |
| P3 | 2 days | 1 day | 2 hours | 60 minutes |
Uptime SLA
Company will make commercially reasonable efforts to make the Services available with an uptime percentage of at least 99.99% during each calendar month.
The Service is considered non-available if:
- There is a critical failure on the Customers’ network access port in the Service.
- The Service suffers hardware or software problems which cause the interruption of traffic of the Customers’ Network to the public Internet network via the Service
A Service will be deemed ‘available’ if it is identified as Operational by the Solution Monitors on the following line items
| Service | Status |
|---|---|
| North America Network PoPs | Operational |
| South America Network PoPs | Operational |
| Europe Network PoPs | Operational |
| Asia Network PoPs | Operational |
Service Level Measurement
-
Availability time and Unavailability time will be counted by measurements designated by Company based on UTC (Coordinated Universal Time).
-
The duration of Unavailability time shall commence at the time the Unavailability is recorded and terminates when Solution Monitors records the Service is restored. Such time is reduced by the following events:
- Delay caused by the Customer in giving access to technical equipment under its responsibility.
- Delay in closing an incident ticket caused by non-reply from the Customer.
- Other delays caused by the Customer or its representatives in repairing any breakdown.
-
The duration of Response time shall commence at the time an incident or support ticket is generated, an email is sent or a telephone call is made by the Customer to the Company.
Exclusions
-
Notwithstanding anything to the contrary in this SLA or any agreement between Customer and Company, the following provisions will apply: Exclusions apply for Unavailability due to:
- A Force Majeure event, which means any cause beyond Company’s control including but not limited to, any act of God, earthquake, explosion, flood, fire, power failure from main provider (includes DataCenter and/or power-company), blackout, severe weather, or other catastrophes; any embargo, insurrection, national emergency, terrorist act, or war; any Law or any order, direction, or request of any federal, state, local, foreign, or other government or of any civil or military authority; or unavailability of necessary equipment, supplies, services, labor, or facilities;
- Any act, misconduct or omission of Customer or End User;
- Any default of third parties;
- Scheduled Maintenance;
- Any failure of Customer or End User equipment;
- Any failure to comply with Acceptable Use Policy;
- Customer’s failure to follow Company’s instructions;
- Unauthorized changes to Company Equipment due to an act, misconduct or omission of Customer or End User; or
- Failure of hardware, cabling, services or networks not included in the Services proposed by the Company or under its responsibility
- Surrounding conditions on the Customer site such as electrical supply, temperature etc.
- Suspension or termination of the Services in accordance with the Contract
-
Notwithstanding anything to the contrary in this SLA or any agreement entered into between Customer and Company, the following will be excluded from the Monthly Downtime:
- Any Unavailability due to Maintenance announced in advance by Company (including Emergency Maintenance);
- If the automatic switchover of a redundant device worked; or
- A failure to provide Customer Portal and the website (https://cloud.f5.com), provided by Company, which has no impact on the Service.