Support SLA

Owned by Andy Trayler
Last updated: Dec 08, 2023
4 min read

This document outlines the Support provided for CloudSphere Services. It details how support requests should be raised and how these requests are prioritized within the support and services organization at CloudSphere.

Support Entitlements

The following are the elements of standard support. Support is distributed across two distinct areas:

  • Service Availability

  • Application Support

Service Availability

Currently, the SLA associated with Service Availability is 98% uptime. Planned outages for patching and/or other technical efforts will be calculated separately and will be given notice of no less than 24-hours. See Status Page for notifications.

Application Support

Application support is provided by the CloudSphere support center during regional business hours. Clients also have access to:

  • 24 x 7 online Helpdesk System (to raise tickets and provide problem description)
    https://cloudsphere.atlassian.net/servicedesk/customer/portals

  • Predefined response time goals linked to the severity of the support incident

  • 24 x 7 access to CloudSphere’s Online Knowledge Base

  • Standard operational hours for application support

    • USA: Monday - Friday from 9AM to 5PM EST

    • EMEA: Monday - Friday from 9 AM to 5 PM GMT (adjusted for Daylight Saving Time)

    • Global: Online helpdesk system operational 24 x 7 (365 days)

Prioritization

All calls are assigned a call priority. Any change of priority must be jointly agreed by both CloudSphere and the customer. 

Classification

Response Requirement

Priority 1: Critical/Highest
Only available for production environment. 
Platform is unavailable

Response within 1 hour of outage.  Regular updates (120 mins) until platform is restored. Efforts will be made to ensure service is restored as quickly as possible or work around which permits the application to continue normally.  Resolution of Priority 1 conditions may include a temporary solution enabling the customer to operate until a more comprehensive solution can be provided.    Priority 1 service delivery requires that:

  • The customer must be available to actively collaborate with CloudSphere Support if necessary.

  • Provision of temporary solution will automatically lower the priority of the issue.

  • If the customer breaks continual effort the incident will no longer be classified as critical and will become a lower priority

Priority 2: Severe/High

Only available for production environments.  The platform is available but with errors that prevents key areas of the system from operating correctly.  Issue influences the day to day operations of the product’s key functions but does not impact platform availability. 

 

 

Response is required within 4 hours within standard operational hours (see above)

Priority 2 issues will be serviced as critical during standard business hours until the Priority 2 condition has been resolved or a workaround has been provided. 

Priority 2 service delivery requires that:

  • Customer has an active support contract for the product in question

  • Customer is available during normal business hours if the customer is unavailable the incident will become lower priority

Priority 3: Significant/Medium

This indicates that the application is usable but that some features (not critical to operations) are unavailable

Response is required within 8 hours (Monday to Friday)

Priority 3 issues are important for the customer and the customer’s services and will be serviced as such. These issues will be worked during normal business hours, until the Priority 3 condition has been resolved.

Priority 3 service delivery requires that:

  • both the product and the customer are eligible for customer support assistance. 

Priority 4: Minor

This indicates the problem does not significantly impact operations, or that a reasonable workaround has been implemented. 

Response is required within 5 business days.  Priority 4 issues will be serviced as general issues during standard business hours. 

Priority 4 service delivery requires that:

  • the customer is eligible and available for support assistance. 

 

CloudSphere Support will work in partnership with the customer’s technical resources to monitor the progress of tickets logged and will provide regular updates based on the priority of tickets.

Periodically, a support engineer may request a review of open tickets to ensure that the priority of the tickets meets the classification outlined by this document. 

Incidents where next steps are listed as “Awaiting Customer” will be closed after a period of 5 working days and will be assumed as closed/resolved unless active efforts are ongoing. Updates will be tracked as part of ticket monitoring. 

Logging a Support Request

Any issues may be logged with CloudSphere through our online support desk: https://cloudsphere.atlassian.net/servicedesk/customer/portals

In line with industry best practice, we have implementing a Multi-Tiered support structure.  This structure is supported by a helpdesk system which will allow a customer to log tickets directly, if desired.  Please contact customer-success-team@cloudsphere.com to request access to this service and to allow them to outline the process behind the helpdesk system.  Tickets, when submitted directly by a customer, will be subject to a triage process with the help of a level 1 support engineer to ensure correct priority and classification.  The support team is reachable at customer-support-team@cloudsphere.com if direct contact is required. Normal communication and problem resolution is achieved through updates to the tickets in the ticketing system.

Response Time

The response time to any request for support will be based upon the severity of the case reported.

A response will be one of the following:

  • A potential problem resolution

  • A request for more information which will allow CloudSphere to determine the next steps towards potential problem resolution

  • If the issue, at CloudSphere’s discretion, requires escalation or extensive time to research, a notification of the response duration needed to provide the client contact with more information, potential work arounds, or a resolution.

Platform availability is monitored 24 x 7 x 365. If the monitored services become unresponsive, it will be attended to by an Operations Engineer and updates will follow a priority 1 path for notification.