Service Level Agreement

The University of Texas System Shared Data Center Program (“Program”) provides technology services on behalf of The University of Texas System (UT System), to the UT System community. This Service Level Agreement (“SLA”) addresses services to be provided to UT System Affiliate Institution (“the Participating Institution”) at the Austin Shared Data Center (“Data Center”) operated by University of Texas at Austin (“the Host Institution”) on behalf of the Program. A separate SLA is required for each project through which the Participating Institution places data at Host Institution’s Data Services Center.
The specific terms of the general duties and obligations of the Host and Participating Institutions (“the Parties”) as participants in the Program are defined in separate Memoranda of Understanding (“MOUs”) entered into between System and the Host and between System and the Participating institution.

The purpose of this Service Level Agreement is to define the specific duties and obligations of the Parties with respect to the technical aspects of the services to be provided to the Participating Institution by the Host Institution on behalf of the Program

The Parties agree and understand that to the extent that this SLA conflicts with the MOUs between each party and the UT System Shared Data Center, the terms of the MOUs shall govern over this SLA.

The Primary Contact on behalf of Host Institution for service related issues regarding this SLA shall be:

Name: Aaron Wilson
Phone Number: (512) 232-7597
E-Mail: mawilson@austin.utexas.edu

The Service Notification Contact person for Participating Institution for purposes of this SLA shall be:

Name:
Phone Number: work (xxx) xxx-xxxx cell (xxx) xxx-xxxx
E-Mail:

A list of the additional Participating Institution officers and staff authorized by Participating Institution to have access to the Data Center, and/or or to authorize access to data stored, collected and maintained on servers or other equipment placed by or on behalf of a Participating Institution through the Program at the Data Center (“Data”), and/or to whom Host Institution should direct all subpoenas, court orders, Public Information Request and other demands by third parties for Participating Institution’s Data is attached as Exhibit A.

Each Party agrees to promptly report, in writing, any changes to the names or contact information provided by the party as part of this SLA.

The services will be provided on a “for-fee” basis that is determined by the type and level of service and support the Participating Institution elects to receive from the Host Institution. The Participating Institution agrees to pay Host Institution all Data Center charges for services provided under this SLA.

Host Institution shall charge Participating Institution for services provided under this SLA based on the Rate Card that has been approved by System on behalf of the Program. All rates are subject to annual review / approval by UT Austin Finance. A copy of the Rate Card is attached as Appendix B. Schedule of charges at time of agreement is referenced in Appendix C.

The initial term of this Agreement is effective on the date it is signed by both Parties and approved by System on behalf of the Program and shall continue until terminated by the mutual consent of the Parties, or upon termination by either party as a Host or Participant, as applicable, in the Program. The Parties agree that any changes may be made only through a written amendment signed by both parties to this Agreement that has been reviewed and accepted by System on behalf of the Program.

Host Institution will provide housing for Participating Institution’s hardware in a secure location and includes traditional data center infrastructure services such as shared rack space, console switch, electrical power, HVAC, backup generator power and UPS.

The Participating Institution shall be responsible for all backup and restore activities as it pertains to the Participating Institution hardware being housed in the Data Center.

Physical access to the Data Center will be controlled by the Host Institution. Except as otherwise provided in this SLA, only the Participating Institutions staff identified in Exhibit A will be permitted to have physical access to the Data Center Space. Access to additional individuals may be granted only upon request of the Approvers in Exhibit A.

Badge provisioning and visits to the data center are to be coordinated and scheduled in advance. Vendors and 3rd parties are allowed with restrictions. Please submit a service request via email at udc-request@austin.utexas.edu for all security or access related inquiries. Emergency maintenance should be submitted promptly. Vendors or individuals not listed in Appendix A will require authentication from the Participating Institute individual list in Appendix A.

Austin Shared Data Center is designed as a highly reliable and concurrently maintainable facility. The design allows for maintainability without interruption to data center services. The facility design allows 1 side to be taken down to conduct maintenance without impact to data center services.

Provided by the University of Texas at Austin's own power plant, which is backed up by City of Austin (Austin Energy) power. The UDC is equipped with uninterruptible power supplies (UPSs) In the event of an electrical disruption, the UPSs maintain power to the IT equipment until the backup generators come online. Backup generators are connected to the A and B feeds and have at least 24-hour fuel supplies.

Provided from an A and B source to every server for redundancy. The redundant power connections allow servers to retain power even during maintenance and unplanned events. Maintenance will be performed on only one side of the electrical system at a time.

Cooling is provided by a redundant cooling system that maintains the raised floor space at a temperature between 70 to 74 degrees (Fahrenheit) and humidity between 35 to 60 percent.

VESDA Early warning detection system. Dry pipe water suppression, individually zoned, double-interlocked pre-action system.

The data center has a state of the art security system and stringent security processes. Physical security for the UDC is governed by the University Data Center Security Standard.

Host institution’s infrastructure monitoring to be conducted at the Data Center shall address, but is not limited to, potential security, fire suppression, and water damage. All monitoring will be done on a 24/7/365 schedule.

Based on facility design there are no scheduled maintenance outage windows. The Host Institution will conduct periodic non-impacting Facility Maintenance. The Host Institution will provide at least 5 business days’ notice to the Participating Institution before initiating a Facility Maintenance. If unforeseeable circumstances require an emergency Facility Maintenance based on a shorter notification period, the Host Institution shall provide prior notification to the Participating Institution with notice that is reasonable under the circumstances.

The Host Institution will maintain a mailing list of customer contacts used to notify Participating Institution customers about facility maintenance events. The Participating Institution must notify the Host Institution of any changes to contact information as part of providing escalation path information. The Host Institution will review contact lists bi-annually.

Host Institution shall provide the following levels of service:

Tier 1 support is available 24x7x365 and includes:
Visual Inspections, Reboots, Removable Media Swaps, Console Connections, Cabling Reseats, Receiving Records Requests, and On-site assistance during customer visits.

Tier 2 support is available 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday to Friday as well as 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. on the first Saturday of the month and includes:
IT Equipment Installation / De-installation / Relocation, Hardware Component Installations & Replacements, OOBM / DRAC / ILOM Configuration, Hard Drive Degaussing & Destruction, Vendor Coordination & Support, Inventory / Surplus Coordination, Shipping / Receiving of IT Equipment, Security Records Requests.

The Host Institution may conduct non-impacting maintenance in a rack or on hardware, as requested by the Participating Institution. If the maintenance will be intrusive, a maintenance notification will be sent 15 minutes prior to the work being performed. Intrusive maintenance is defined as: Work in or around the rack that has the potential to compromise power or networking, work that requires a device be moved, and work that requires internal component replacement. The maintenance notification will include the activity of the work performed and the location of the device.

The Host Institution will maintain customer contact information associated to each device in the Data Center Infrastructure Management (DCIM) tool and will be used to notify Participating Institution customers about Hardware/Rack maintenance events. The Participating Institution must notify the Host Institution of any changes to contact information as it relates to hardware in the DCIM as part of providing escalation path information. Contacts will be reviewed bi-annually by the Host Institution.

Host Institution will acknowledge receipt of Participating Institutions requests relating to Data Center services within 4 hours of its receipt of any request in accordance with this SLA by the Participating Institution’s as its “Service Notification Contact Person.” The Host Institution will respond to such requests within 24 hours of the Host Institution’s acknowledgment of the request. Acknowledgments of requests and notification of actions taken with respect to such requests will be sent via e-mail to the participating institution’s requestor. See Appendix D for Guidelines

Participating Institution is responsible for ensuring that its staff will not attempt to circumvent or interfere with Host Institution’s reasonable security precautions relating to the services provided by the Host Institution. The Participating Institution agrees to provide Host Institution with prior notification of any change in configuration that could interfere with the Data Center services, and if necessary and upon the Host Institution’s request provide a qualified, knowledgeable representative to be present at the Data Center to assist the Host Institution in addressing issues created by any such configuration change.

Participating Institution agrees to, open a Trouble Ticket by reporting the Data Center services unavailability to the Data Center by email at udc-request@austin.utexas.edu or by telephone to 512-471-0007 within 24 hours of experiencing any Data Center services unavailability that it believes is not created by the Participating Institution’s own network, internet service provider or other system host. Upon receipt, the Host Institution will discuss the report with Participating Institution and attempt to resolve the service interruption immediately. If immediate resolution is not possible, the Data Center will assign a Trouble Ticket number to the issue and begin an investigation in order to resolve the issue.

The Parties agree that that disaster recovery replacement costs or business continuity planning are not included in any of the services provided by the Data Center. The Data Center disaster recovery plan is referenced in Appendix E and is deemed by the Parties to fulfill the problem management requirements for this SLA.

A completed Participating Institution Equipment Information Form (“Form”) for each Participating Institution hardware device to be housed at the Data Center pursuant to this SLA is attached as Appendix F.-

Before hardware can be accepted by the Data Center from Participating Institution, the following conditions must be met:

In the event of a data center emergency situation, the Host Institution shall determine the duration of any downtime. If necessary, services will be suspended until the Host Institution’s Engineer is satisfied restoration is safe and proper. Host Institution must account for its decisions and actions concerning the downtime to the Participating Institution by the following business day. There will be no fee reimbursement by the Host Institution to the Participating Institution for losses incurred during service interruptions.

Participating Institutions shall provide Help Desk and end-user support for all of its business application(s). Participating Institution shall be responsible for supporting applications that are hosted on its servers unless otherwise provided in this SLA.

1. Participating Institution must provide description of hardware to Host Institution for applicable hardware residing within the Data Center.

2. The hardware must be rack-mountable.

3. The hardware must have dual power supplies when available as an option. If hardware does not support dual power supplies, Participating Institution is required to purchase a Micro Automatic Transfer Switch (µATS) from the Host Institution in order to preserve the Facility’s concurrently maintainable design.

4. The hardware must have a current hardware maintenance agreement in place.

5. If the hardware is to be purchased from a third party, the Participating Institution must make its own arrangements for completing the purchase but must ensure that all shipment, deliveries, and inquiries concerning the order are directed to the appropriate Host Institution staff at the Data Center. Host Institution shall notify Participating Institution when the server and any associated equipment arrives at the Data Center. Host Institution technicians will contact and work directly with the Participating Institution until the hardware is turned over for production use.

6. The Host Institution must approve the hardware configuration.

7. The Participant Institution agrees to maintain system security in accordance with UT System 165 Information Resources Use and Security Policy.

8. Host Institution provides no loss or liability insurance for Participating Institution equipment.

Both Parties agree to operate under this SLA from a position of “good faith” and “good intentions” and to make a good faith effort to resolve any disputes arising between the Parties concerning this SLA. The Parties further agree to bring any dispute regarding this SLA that cannot be resolved between the Parties to the System for review and resolution. The Parties agree that relief for either Party for a dispute arising from this SLA shall be limited to termination of the Agreement, and/or reimbursement of fees on a prorated basis, and/or resolution of disputes as to ownership of any equipment as applicable.

The SLA, signed by both institutions was received and accepted by System and shall remain on file with System.

List name and contact information for Participating Institution’s Officers and/or Staff permitted to access Participating Institution hardware and other equipment housed at the Data Center pursuant to this MOU and/or or to authorize to Participating Institution’s Data, and/or to whom Host Institution should direct all subpoenas, court orders, Public Information Request and other demands by third parties for Participating Institution’s Data.

Approvers:

*Each Blade Server is counted as an occupied RU (Rack Unit)
**Unoccupied reserved or occupied cabinets where per equipment fees are below the minimum charge will be billed at the minimum cabinet charge rate.

One-time costs are estimated and determined on a per project basis.

All rates are subject to annual review / approval by UT Austin Finance

Attached Schedule of Charges

The Shared Data Center will respond to requests according to the following severity levels:

Routine service requests can be submitted through the Self Service Portal or via email and are assigned as Priority 4.

Urgent service requests should be submitted via phone to the Operations Center and are assigned as Priorities 1, 2 or 3.

Self Service Portal: https://ut.service-now.com/utss/ SELECT: Information Technology > Servers, Storage & Data > Data Center Services > University Data Center
Email: udc-request@austin.utexas.edu
Phone: 512-471-0007

Data Center Disaster Recovery Plan is hosted by Kuali Ready and available upon request.