THIS SERVICE LEVEL AGREEMENT (SLA) DESCRIBES GUARANTEED SERVICE LEVELS PROVIDED TO OUR CUSTOMERS WHO RECEIVE WEB HOSTING SERVICES DESCRIBED BELOW.

I.  Web Hosting Services.

Dataride.com is a "self-service" web hosting service. Implex created the Dataride.com Automated Hosting Service to put YOU in control. You can purchase your domain name, upload files through FTP, add email accounts, and much more. Because you do all the work and we manage just the servers and connectivity, we can offer this service for much less than dedicated hosting.

If you have an "enterprise" website or have large/complex databases that are “business critical”, then Implex offers a "full-service" solution called "Dedicated Dataride Web Hosting" and this is the choice for you. It’s customized to meet your needs and is completely supported by a separate enterprise web hosting team. It may cost a bit more than a Dataride.com shared environment, but its worth it if you aren't comfortable managing your own website and/or databases. If you are interested in "full-service" web hosting, please call 612.339.8255 x5 for more details.

E-Mail and related features such as web-based mail reading, sending and delivering of electronic messages, and SPAM Filtering;

Domain Name Services and related features such as Domain Registration and Domain Resolution services;

Database Services such as MS SQL, MySQL, and MS Access;

Statistics reporting in the form of Raw Log Files or 3rd party reporting tools (depending on availability).

II.  Technical Support.

Web Hosting Support

support@dataride.com Operates 24 X 7 X 365

This is the primary means by which support is offered to Dataride.com self-service clients and you are strongly encouraged to use this primary method since phone support for Dataride.com users is limited (see below).

Send support a message with the full description of your support request including complete error messages (if applicable), along with your account name.

When you submit a trouble-ticket by email, the Dataride web hosting support experts will receive your request and attempt to resolve your issue in the order in which it was received. Most trouble-tickets are resolved within 24 hours, but more complex issues may require additional time. You can monitor your trouble-tickets progress online via the SupportSuite available on the Dataride.com website in the "Support" section.

By using email to send your support requests, the Dataride.com system will automatically generate a trouble-ticket immediately and the support team can begin troubleshooting the issue efficiently and effectively. In fact, Dataride.com will often identify and resolve issues with a service before our clients are even aware of them in most cases.

Limited Web Hosting Phone Support

612.339.8255 x6

Hours:

Monday through Friday, 9am – 5pm Central Standard Time
Holidays – no phone support but email support is always available (24x7x365). 

The best way to assist you is by using support@dataride.com to send us a message with the full description of your support request including complete error messages (if applicable), along with your account name.

If you feel you need to call Technical Support by telephone, we offer limited services. Telephone support will be able to assist you in: Publishing your initial website content to the Dataride self-service hosting infrastructure; Initial e-mail configuration (see Section X. Customer Responsibilities for required set up); Setup of small databases and its configuration (limited); Resolving problems involving connectivity to Dataride hosting infrastructure and other server related issues (limited).

If your need exceeds these limited telephone support areas, the support person can submit a trouble-ticket on your behalf while you are on the phone and the next tier of Dataride web hosting support professionals will receive your request and attempt to resolve your issue in the order in which it was received. Most trouble-tickets are resolved within 24 hours, but more complex issues may require additional time. You can monitor your trouble-tickets progress online via the SupportSuite available on the Dataride.com website in the "Support" section.

Dataride standard response time is twenty-four hours or less. The response time, however, may depend on the nature and complexity of the inquiry, or unexpected email and/or call volume. Twenty-four hour support reply does not apply to any “how to”, database, connectivity, software development and/or related inquiries since such issues often involve extensive research and testing.

Technical Support assigns the highest priority to inquiries related to the servers' unavailability. Such inquiries are addressed immediately upon notification. It may take some time to resolve the issue, so you may not get an immediate reply.

III.  Customer Service, Billing and Sales Inquiries.

Non-technical inquiries regarding your Dataride hosting account should be sent to support@dataride.com

Billing inquiries should be sent to billing@implex.net

Please note: Dataride must receive notice of billing disputes within thirty days of the date your credit card was charged for services.

All inquiries regarding purchase of new accounts or addition of services should be addressed to sales@implex.net

IV.  Issue Escalation.

If you are concerned with Dataride hosting services or if you are unable to resolve a technical support issue within the parameters outlined in this Service Level Agreement, contact the CEO of Dataride by Implex at exec@implex.net regarding your concerns. Your concerns will be reviewed, investigated, and responded to within two to three business days. As issues may be complex or require extensive investigation, this response time does not imply that a resolution is guaranteed within two to three business days.

V.  Account Provisioning and Server Management.

Account provisioning and server management tasks such as new account creation, password changes, and email address changes can be completed via the online control center at http://cp.dataride.com. Complex tasks that cannot be completed via the control center should be sent to the Dataride by Implex support team at support@dataride.com.

VI.  Service Availability.

Dataride by Implex is committed to providing the highest quality service to all customers. To support this commitment, Dataride gives the following service level guaranties and observes the following schedule of penalties for any failure to meet those guarantees.

Dataride by Implex guarantees 99.5% Service Availability, measured on a calendar-month basis. Service Availability is defined as the ability of a user within an organization to:

1) Serve web pages from our hosting location, and;
2) Send and receive messages via the email server, provided that the user meets the requirements under Section X, below.

Note: Web and Email server unavailability caused by denial of service attacks, mail bombing, extreme amounts of traffic in a short period of time, and/or other Denial of Service techniques is not included in uptime/downtime calculations (see below).

Hosting Infrastructure Unavailability

Implex monitors the Dataride infrastructure as a whole but does not monitor individual websites, databases or mailboxes. Web and Email server unavailability caused by denial of service attacks, mail bombing, extreme amounts of traffic in a short period of time, and/or other Denial of Service techniques is not included in uptime/downtime calculations.

Please note: Server downtime is not recorded and no credit is issued during scheduled or emergency system maintenance. Outages caused by the actions beyond Dataride's control including, but not limited to DoS attacks, extreme amounts of traffic in a short period of time, and/or other forms of intrusion are excluded from the uptime/downtime calculations.

Network Availability

Service unavailability resulting from network unavailability will not be included in the Service Availability calculation. Network unavailability is defined as Dataride network's inability to pass incoming and outgoing TCP/IP traffic, including but not limited to backbone problems, problems on the customer's portion of the network, interruptions of service caused by denial of service or similar attacks or other forms of intrusion.

Hardware Failure

In the event of a Dataride server hardware failure, Dataride shall replace or repair hardware within twenty-four hours of Dataride’s determination that the hardware has failed. Such hardware failure, and repair and replacement of the hardware and the associated downtime shall not affect the Service Availability calculation.

Scheduled Maintenance

To guarantee optimal performance of the hosting infrastructure, it is necessary for Dataride to perform routine maintenance on the servers. Such maintenance often requires taking Dataride web and email servers off-line, typically performed during off-peak hours.

Dataride will give you advance notice of maintenance requiring the servers to be taken off-line whenever possible. Dataride reserves four hours of Service unavailability per month for maintenance purposes. Such unavailability is not included in the Service Availability calculation.

Refund for Non-compliance – Hosting Infrastructure availability

For each full 1% of Service availability falling below the guaranteed 99.5% up-time guarantee, upon your notification (described below), Dataride will provide you with a refund in the amount of 5% of that month’s paid regular service charges.

To receive the refund you must send a request with your account username, including all dates and times of server unavailability, to support@dataride.com , in the month immediately following the month for which the refund is requested.

Dataride will then compare the information provided by you to the server availability monitoring data Dataride maintains and notify you of the issuance of any refund. A refund is issued if the unavailability warranting the refund is confirmed by Dataride server monitoring data.

Maximum Total Refund

The total refund to you for any account may not exceed 50% of the monthly fees paid for that account during the month for which the refund is to be issued.

VII.  Ownership of Data.

All data created or stored by you within Dataride servers are your property. Dataride shall allow access to such data by only authorized DataRide personnel. Dataride makes no claim of ownership of any web server content, e-mail content, or any other type of data contained within the account holder's server space or within applications on DataRide servers.

VIII.  Data Integrity.

Shared Hosting package includes Backup Services which includes: full server backup performed once weekly to the shared tape backup device over the network; differential server backup performed once nightly to the shared tape backup device over the network; backup copy retention time is one week;    Back-up Services do not include the process of restoring individual files, mailboxes or parts thereof. Dataride can restore the content of your website for a flat fee of $50 and any additional support required at an hourly rate of $125 or the current billable rate. Dataride is not responsible for data loss resulting from the failure or loss of backup media.

IX.    Data Retention.

COMPANY SHALL NOT RETAIN ANY OF YOUR DATA INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE CONTENT OF YOUR WEBSITE, EMAIL, LOG FILES, AND BACKUP COPIES. ALL DATA IS DELETED FROM THE SERVERS AND BACK-UP MEDIA AFTER ACCOUNT TERMINATION.

X.  Customer Responsibilities.

To access Dataride services, you must provide at the very minimum: an Internet connection with sufficient bandwidth and quality; network connection should not constrain browsing or email functionality; a fully functional Internet browser; Microsoft Outlook/Outlook Express software for each user who will connect directly (to the email server). Because Dataride.com is a "self-service" web hosting solution, you are responsible for learning the Dataride systems (Control Panel et al) and managing your own website and/or databases in Dataride. Dataride.com was designed to put YOU in control. You can purchase your domain name, upload files through FTP, add email accounts, and much more. Because you do all the work and we manage just the servers and connectivity in our Data Center, we can offer this service for much less than dedicated hosting.

There are extensive training materials available in the Dataride Support area ("Knowledgebase" and "Tutorials") to assist you. In addition there are Dataride Support staff available during most business hours via "LIVE ONLINE" chat (see "Support" area of the Dataride, lower right).

If you have an "enterprise" website or have large/complex databases that are “business critical”, then Implex offers a "full-service" solution called "Dedicated Dataride Web Hosting" and this is the choice for you. It’s customized to meet your needs and is completely supported by a separate enterprise web hosting team. It may cost a bit more than a Dataride.com shared environment, but its worth it if you aren't comfortable managing your own website and/or databases. If you are interested in "full-service" web hosting, please call 612.339.8255 x5 for more details.

XI.  Amendments.

This Agreement may be amended from time to time at the discretion of Implex. You will be notified of any changes via the website.