This Service Level Agreement ("SLA") forms part of the agreement between you ("Customer") and Layer 9 Solutions Ltd ("Company," "we," "us," or "our"), Company No. 14857666, 124 City Road, London, England, EC1V 2NX, in relation to our Managed VPS service. It defines the service levels we commit to, how they are measured, and the remedies available to you if we fall below those commitments. This SLA is incorporated by reference into the Managed VPS Terms of Service.
1. Definitions
- Uptime: The period during which the Managed VPS is accessible and operational, expressed as a percentage of total time in a calendar month.
- Downtime: Any period during which the Managed VPS is inaccessible or non-functional due to causes within our reasonable control, excluding Scheduled Maintenance and Excluded Events.
- Scheduled Maintenance: Planned maintenance work communicated to you at least 24 hours in advance.
- Emergency Maintenance: Unplanned maintenance required to protect the security, stability, or integrity of our infrastructure. Does not count as Downtime.
- Incident: Any unplanned interruption or degradation of the Managed VPS service.
- Critical Incident: An Incident rendering the Managed VPS completely inaccessible.
- High Incident: An Incident causing significant performance degradation affecting normal use.
- Standard Incident: An Incident with limited impact on service usability.
- Service Credit: A credit applied to your next invoice as compensation for Downtime below the guaranteed threshold.
- Monthly Service Fee: The recurring fee paid for the Managed VPS in the relevant calendar month.
2. Network Uptime Guarantee
We guarantee that our network infrastructure supporting your Managed VPS will be available for at least 99.95% of each calendar month, measured as follows:
| Monthly Uptime | Maximum Downtime per Month | Service Credit |
|---|---|---|
| 99.95% and above | 21 minutes 54 seconds | No credit |
| 99.5% - 99.94% | Up to 3 hours 39 minutes | 10% of Monthly Service Fee |
| 99.0% - 99.49% | Up to 7 hours 18 minutes | 20% of Monthly Service Fee |
| 95.0% - 98.99% | Up to 36 hours 36 minutes | 35% of Monthly Service Fee |
| Below 95.0% | More than 36 hours 36 minutes | 50% of Monthly Service Fee |
Service Credits are the sole and exclusive remedy for Downtime. Credits are applied to your next invoice and are not redeemable for cash. The maximum credit in any calendar month is 50% of the Monthly Service Fee for that month. Credits do not carry over between months.
3. Uptime Calculation
Monthly Uptime percentage is calculated as follows:
Uptime % = ((Total minutes in month - Downtime minutes) / Total minutes in month) x 100Downtime is measured from the time a Critical or High Incident is logged in our monitoring systems (or reported by you via support ticket, whichever is earlier) to the time the service is restored and confirmed operational. Downtime is only counted where it affects your specific Managed VPS, not network events that do not impact your server.
4. Excluded Events
The following do not count towards Downtime for the purposes of this SLA:
- Scheduled Maintenance communicated at least 24 hours in advance
- Emergency Maintenance required to protect the security or stability of our infrastructure
- Incidents caused by your actions, including software you have installed, misconfigurations, or actions taken via root or administrative access
- Incidents caused by third-party software, applications, or services not provided by us
- Force majeure events including natural disasters, acts of government, upstream internet backbone failures, or DDoS attacks targeting your server specifically
- Incidents caused by your failure to follow our reasonable security recommendations
- Incidents during which your account is suspended for non-payment or Terms of Service violations
- Planned upgrades or migrations requested by you or agreed with you in advance
- Incidents caused by exhaustion of server resources due to your workload exceeding your plan allocation
5. Support Response Times
We commit to the following initial response times for support requests, measured from the time a ticket is submitted via the client portal at portal.layer9solutions.com or by email to [email protected]:
| Priority | Definition | Initial Response | Target Resolution |
|---|---|---|---|
| Critical (P1) | Server completely inaccessible, production site down | 1 hour | 4 hours |
| High (P2) | Significant performance degradation, partial outage | 2 hours | 8 hours |
| Standard (P3) | Limited impact, general queries, configuration requests | 4 hours | 24 hours |
| Low (P4) | Information requests, non-urgent changes | 8 hours | 72 hours |
Response times are measured 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. Resolution times are targets, not guarantees, and may be affected by the complexity of the issue or factors outside our control. Support response time SLAs apply to server-level issues within our managed scope as defined in the Managed VPS Terms of Service. Application-level support is outside scope.
6. Hardware and Infrastructure Commitments
- Hardware fault response: We will begin investigation within 2 hours of identifying or being notified of a hardware fault during business hours (09:00-18:00 GMT Monday-Friday), and within 4 hours outside business hours.
- Hardware replacement: Failed hardware components will be replaced within 4 hours of fault confirmation during business hours, and within 8 hours outside business hours, subject to parts availability.
- Security patching: Critical OS security patches (CVSS score 9.0+) will be applied within 24 hours of release. High severity patches (CVSS 7.0-8.9) will be applied within 7 days. Standard patches will be applied within 30 days as part of scheduled maintenance.
- Backup verification: We perform automated backup integrity checks. Where a backup is found to be corrupt or incomplete, we will notify you within 24 hours and initiate a new backup.
7. Monitoring and Incident Notification
We monitor all Managed VPS servers 24/7 using automated systems. In the event of a Critical or High Incident:
- We will open an internal incident record within 15 minutes of detection
- We will notify you via email within 30 minutes of a Critical Incident being confirmed
- We will provide status updates at least every 2 hours during a Critical Incident until resolution
- We will issue a post-incident report within 5 business days of resolution of any Critical Incident, detailing root cause and remediation steps taken
Incident status updates are also published on our status page. You can subscribe to status updates at status.layer9solutions.com.
8. Claiming a Service Credit
To claim a Service Credit, you must:
- Submit a credit request by email to [email protected] within 14 days of the end of the calendar month in which the Downtime occurred
- Include the subject line: Managed VPS SLA Credit Request - [Your Account ID] - [Month/Year]
- Include details of the Downtime period, including dates, times, and any support ticket reference numbers
We will review your request within 10 business days and notify you of our decision. If we confirm the Downtime and that it falls below the guaranteed threshold, the applicable credit will be applied to your next invoice. We reserve the right to reject credit requests that do not meet the requirements above or where the Downtime is attributable to an Excluded Event.
9. Limitations
This SLA does not apply to:
- Accounts in arrears or under suspension at the time of the Incident
- Beta, trial, or free tier services
- Services where the Downtime was reported more than 30 days after the event
- Any feature or component of the Service specifically noted as excluded from SLA coverage
Service Credits are the sole and exclusive remedy for failure to meet the uptime commitments set out in this SLA. Nothing in this SLA limits our liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, fraud, or any other liability that cannot be excluded under English law.
10. Changes to This SLA
We may update this SLA at any time with at least 30 days' prior written notice. Continued use of the Managed VPS Service after the effective date of any change constitutes acceptance of the revised SLA.
11. Contact
Layer 9 Solutions Ltd
Company No. 14857666
124 City Road, London, England, EC1V 2NX
Support: [email protected]
Billing: [email protected]
Legal: [email protected]