Hosting Support Agreement
Introduction
This Hosting Support Contract (The Hosting Support Agreement), describes the terms and conditions that will govern the hosting relationship between the client and the supplier outlined in the corresponding Hosting Proposal.
Purpose
The client depends on Hosting equipment, software and/or services, together: ‘the Hosting Support System’, that is maintained and supported by the supplier.
This Hosting Support Agreement sets out how the supplier will provide products and services for the Hosting Support System. It describes for which items the supplier will provide support, what activities it will perform, and how the client can expect problems, and changes, with the Hosting Support System to be handled.
Dates and Reviews
Hosting services are provided on a yearly basis and the client will be invoiced yearly on the date that this agreement is signed for services to be received. Each year this hosting agreement will be automatically renewed if no changes have been made. Each billing cycle is considered a renewal of the current version of this hosting support agreement and the agreement can be reviewed by both the supplier and the client. Should needs or requirements change, the supplier and the client can review or renegotiate this agreement at any time. A new agreement will be provided if changes are made to any of the details of this agreement.
Should no payment be made within 30 days of the supplier’s invoice date, the supplier reserves the right to suspend the client’s access to all equipment, software, and services outlined in the Hosting Proposal until the client pays all outstanding invoices in full or an alternate payment plan is agreed upon between the client and the supplier. If a client takes longer than 60 days to provide payment or alternate payment arrangement, a new agreement, which may include additional fees and/or conditions, may be required.
This agreement begins on the date that it is signed and terminates when a cancellation agreement has been signed by the client. The client must provide at least two weeks notice before cancellation and the cancellation date must be more than one week before the end of a billing cycle. Upon the supplier receiving a cancellation request the client will be sent a cancellation agreement from the supplier which must be signed to officially cancel the service. We do this as a form of confirmation so that the agreement is only terminated intentionally.
The supplier reserves the right to cancel this agreement at any time for any of the following reasons but is also subject to the supplier’s discretion. The following are reasons for a termination of services:
- A clause of any agreement has been broken.
- A law has been violated.
Prices are subject to change with a minimum of 60 days notice provided to the client.
Equipment, Software and Services Covered
This agreement covers the equipment rental, software and services listed in the corresponding Hosting Proposal. This list may be updated at any time, with agreement from both the client and the supplier and a new Hosting Proposal signed.
Responsibilities
Key Client Responsibilities
The client Will:
- Notify the supplier of issues or problems in a timely manner.
- Provide the supplier with access to equipment, software and services for the purposes of maintenance, updates and fault prevention.
- Keep the supplier informed about potential changes to its Hosting System such as plans for updates, making changes manually, or switching over to another supplier with at least two weeks notice.
- Maintain good communication with the supplier at all times in the form of emails, in-person meetings, and or phone calls.
Key Supplier Responsibilities
The supplier will maintain and keep hosting systems up to date and ensure 24/7 uptime and support the Hosting Support System by providing quality customer service to the client in the form of a ticketing system and dedicated support phone number to resolve unforeseen issues. The supplier will also:
- Ensure relevant software, services and equipment are available to the client.
- Respond to support requests within a reasonable time, in any case as outlined in the corresponding Hosting Proposal.
- Do its best to resolve or escalate issues in an appropriate, timely manner.
- Maintain good communication with the client at all times.
- Keep equipment up to date and remove legacy software in a timely fashion.
Reactive Support
The supplier will also provide reactive support services to the client. When the client encounters an issue with the Hosting Support System, it should raise this with the supplier.
The supplier will then investigate the problem and respond appropriately.
All support issues should be raised via email to support@firesideagency.ca. If the issue is critical, you may call 705-242-0195 during regular business hours, 8:30 am to 5:30 pm, to escalate your issue. Raising issues in this way enables the supplier to prioritize and handle support items in an efficient and timely manner.
This ensures that the required information about an issue is captured efficiently and that the supplier’s response times are measured fairly.
- Telephone Support will be provided during working hours. These are also referred to as ‘standard hours’ and are 8:30 am — 5:30 pm on weekdays.
- Email Support is provided between the hours of 8:00 am and 10:00 pm on weekdays. Requests are responded to within 4 hours.
- Support will be provided on a remote access basis. Visits to the supplier’s premises (or to other sites) may be charged separately.
Additionally
The client and the supplier will both actively seek to keep up to date any and all web technologies. This includes but is not limited to, updates and version changes to websites, software, features etc..to ensure that both the resources of the client and the supplier are secure.
If a situation arises where equipment or software is outdated, the supplier reserves the right to suspend service(s) until such a time as the software and/or equipment is updated.
Support Tiers
Support requests raised by the client will be handled by three tiers of support:
- Tier one. This is where all support incidents begin. The issue is clearly recorded and submitted to the supplier through their support system, and or the client calls the supplier to perform basic troubleshooting. More often than not, most issues are taken care of within this tier.
- Tier two. If an issue cannot be resolved by tier one, a support agent will escalate to tier two supportAt this point, the supplier will perform more complex support, using specialist staff where appropriate. Additional fees may be applicable to work done by this tier depending on the complexity of the issue and the amount of time spent to resolve the issue. All fees will be agreed upon by the client and supplier before work begins.
- Tier three. Issues that cannot be resolved at tier two will be escalated to tier three. At this level, support is provided by the supplier’s most-experienced staff, who can draw on a range of expertise from third-parties when needed. Additional fees may be applicable to work done by this tier depending on the complexity of the issue and the amount of time spent to resolve the issue. All fees will be agreed upon by the client and supplier before work begins.
Availability of Services
The supplier will attempt to provide the client with uninterrupted service 24/7 and we provide 99.9% Network Uptime, but there will be the rare exception when our servers are inaccessible for reasons including, but not limited to, equipment malfunctions, periodic maintenance, repairs or replacements, or other reasonably unforeseeable causes beyond the control of the supplier. Although it is virtually impossible to guarantee 100% uptime, if server maintenance is required and the server will be offline for any period of time we attempt to do so during the lowest traffic times of day/night for minimal business impact.
Confidentiality
The client and supplier may disclose confidential information one to the other to facilitate work under this agreement. Such information, regardless if it is spoken or written through email and or support tickets, shall be safeguarded and not disclosed to third parties by the receiving party. If this clause is broken in any way Fireside reserves the right to seek legal action to the fullest extent of the law.
CPU & Disk Usage
Shared hosting space may only be used for web files, active email and content of User Websites. Shared hosting space may not be used for storage (whether of media, emails, or other data), including, as offsite storage of electronic files, email or FTP hosts. The supplier reserves the right to review accounts for excessive usage of CPU, disk space and other resources that may be caused by a violation of this agreement. The supplier may terminate access to the Services, apply additional fees, or remove or delete user content for those accounts that excessively tax the server after providing fair warning to the client.
Fees and Charges
The monthly price for these services is varies depending on the resources and services provided. Fees and services are outlined in the corresponding Hosting Proposal.
This is an all-inclusive charge that covers everything described in this agreement and the corresponding Hosting Proposal.
- Additional charges apply for these items:
- Any client requested server customizations.
- Website maintenance or updates.
- Reactive support due to client changes to the server environment.
- Support time over and above the hourly limits outlined in the corresponding Hosting Proposal.
Additional charges are billed at $85 per hour or as a one time quoted cost for a specified scope of work that is agreed upon by both parties. All prices shown exclude 13% HST.
Exclusions
As this Hosting Support System agreement is written in a spirit of partnership, the supplier will always make the best possible efforts to provide support and rectify problems as needed. However, this agreement only applies to the sections of the Hosting Support System listed above.
This agreement may not apply if:
- There are security issues that result from outdated or unmanaged website software.
- The client uses equipment, software or service(s) in a way that is not recommended.
- The client has made unauthorized changes to the configuration or setup of equipment, software or services.
- Including and not limited to the client using the equipment, software, or service of the supplier in a way that promotes, encourages, or engages in illegal activity, pornography, piracy, terrorism, violence against people, animals, or property, spam, unsolicited bulk email, hacking, and other unethical activities of similar manner.
This agreement does not apply to circumstances that could reasonably be said to be beyond the supplier’s control. For instance: floods, war, acts of God and so on.
This agreement also does not apply if the client fails to pay the agreed suppliers invoices within 60 days of receiving an invoice. When a client is late on a payment a 2% interest fee will be applied after two weeks of not receiving a payment.
Having said all that, the supplier aims to be helpful and accommodating at all times and will do its absolute best to assist the client wherever possible and within the scope of this agreement.
Governing Law
This Hosting Support Contract shall be governed and construed under the laws of the province of Ontario.
By signing and agreeing to your proposal you accept the terms of this agreement.