This is a general question related to all of the SLAs, but I’m especially interested in the answer as it pertains to this one. The KSA report defined “Enterprise” as something that is “Exclusively offered by a Central Entity.” Does adoption of this SLA, then, force adoption of Central IT hosting for all websites, or is this SLA an attempt to describe a service that is currently offered as an option for departments? Some definition of that in the scope would be helpful.
Under Metrics & Logs, I am not familiar enough with C-Panel to know specifically what they are referring to, although I can guess. It does raise the question, though should the SLA be describing features of the product (help documentation) or should it be more focused on what services are being provided and what level of service users should expect?
Under the section UNM IT provides:
I would specify that “<span style=”line-height: 1.5;”>Support services via UNM IT Service Desk” are limited to support of this as a service, and not applicable to support for end users of the department’s web sites or services, unless the intention is to triage those at the support desk.</span>
Is any level of “systems operations” a shared responsibility? What are the limitations of access and configuration available to end users?
Can we get more definition on “<span style=”line-height: 1.5;”>Basic system level backup processes and disaster recovery;” Does this include off site backups? With what frequency? How is Disaster recovery handled? Are on-demand snapshots possible?</span>
How are notifications handled for up/down monitoring?
2.1.1 –Â If a department does not want to adhere to the bullets listed (I don’t recommend it, but it happens), they should use a different service? I know this isn’t the intention of this SLA, but it seems like it would be more universally beneficial to have a collaborative group define what the branding, security, documentation, administration, etc. standard are for departments supporting web sites and services.
Is there a way for departmental admins to perform ad hoc snapshots and restores of their systems? This has been critical for some of our web applications.
Is there an effort to create web standards for anything other than the PHP/MySQL? If the intention is to move websites to an exclusive service, limiting the boundary to PHP/MySQL may just create incentives for people to use Ruby or ASP or something else.
24 hour notice of suspension of service is very short. I know there are emergencies, but the provision just says failure to comply with the agreement, which could mean anything from an egregious failure to a website using more than the allowable storage. It would be good to see something that outlined the levels of infraction and escalation response.
2.2.1 – can we be more specific than “a few days”?
3.2 – if the service features are documented in the service catalog, what are the terms for updating the service features and catalog under the SLA? Should the SLA be product specific to cPanel and Softaculous, or more descriptive of the services those programs provide?
Under “<span style=”line-height: 1.5;”>Bring to the Customers’ attention any situation in which extra time is required of UNM IT” what are the correlated responsibilities of IT when extra time is required due to lack of Central IT staff planning, knowledge, or implementation practices? How is fault determined? What happens when it is shared?</span>
4.3 Escalation – What recourses are available to the customer beyond contacting the service owner?
7 – How are changes to the maintenance window negotiated with customers?
Thanks, Tuan. Please don’t take any of these comments to be dismissive of the work that has already gone into this document. It just seems to me that an SLA should include more definition, especially if we are heading toward exclusive provision of services.