Service Level Agreement for Alert EasyVault

How does Alert EasyVault protect your data and assure your business continuity in the event of data loss or a system failure?

Alert EasyVault, Alert’s Cloud-based emergency backup and restore software, has worked flawlessly for the past several years. No data has ever been lost with Alert EasyVault’s data backup service. Your data is vaulted in highly certified U.S. data centers in Colorado Springs, Philadelphia, Boston, or St. Louis. All nightly backups are encrypted using certified encryption technology. An archive of nightly backups is available for 14 days, or longer upon request.

Alert EasyVault is a commercial-grade ‘Managed Service’ which distinguishes it above the many consumer-oriented services which are often available for a lower monthly cost. Our Cloud backup software is specifically designed for your mission critical requirements and to provide the emergency responsiveness you need in the event of a server failure or data loss on your Alert system.

Most importantly, under the Alert EasyVault backup and restore program (unlike any ‘third-party’ backup service), you never need to call anyone other than Alert to resolve a backup problem. In fact, if there is a serious problem, we will call you first. The difference in protection (and your peace of mind) is amazing.

In addition to these safeguards, Alert provides multiple layers of protection for your valuable data. The first layer of Alert EasyVault backup and restore protection comes from an Alert technician monitoring your nightly backups every morning via a backup dashboard. Our technicians review any backup failures immediately and maintain a record of your last successful backup.

In the event of a backup failure, an Alert EasyVault Cloud backup software technician will contact you and provide corrective action to confirm that your critical data is successfully backed up.

• On-Premises Systems:If our Alert EasyVault technician is unable to remotely connect to your system, corrective action may require the assistance of a local IT. Alert does not charge any of our staffs’ time to assist with restoration, however, we are not responsible for any charges incurred by your local IT person or local contracted IT provider.
• Alert-on-the-Cloud Server Hosting Program:If your server is hosted in our Alert-on-the Cloud program, all maintenance and updates to your Alert EasyVault backup are included with your hosted server at no additional charge to you.

(For more on the many benefits of Alert-on-the-Cloud, contact Alert Sales: hello@alertms.com)

Alert EasyVault provides a second layer of protection through our partnerships with professionally managed data centers. Our data centers work closely with Alert to provide the expertise of a large staff of certified IT technicians who can assist Alert with even the most sophisticated problems. It is possible that corrective action may require Alert and/or our data center partners to access your server to resolve backup software issues to perform services such as reloading the backup software, changing security settings or providing various related troubleshooting. These services are always provided free under your Alert EasyVault backup and restore software subscription.

Alert EasyVault provides a third layer of protection by maintaining an alternate method of backing up the most critical data to a secure server in Colorado Springs. In the event of a significant backup gap on your system (more than two days), Alert has the option of manually backing up your most critical data (contracts, A/R files, financial reports, etc.) so that your system can be restored swiftly. This capability can be used in the middle of the day, for example, in the event of intermittent server failures, bad weather or some other condition that makes it advantageous to create a backup “RIGHT NOW” instead of waiting until the next scheduled nightly backup. Because this service is intended as an emergency backup to be executed in a matter of minutes, it does not backup non-mission critical data such as contract images, attachments, and any other documents that are not vital to your up-to-the-minute financial accountability. These take much longer to backup and are generally available from previous backups.

What are the terms of Alert’s Service Level Agreement (SLA) under Alert EasyVault?

In the event of a system crash or other event that causes data loss on your Alert system server, Alert will make its ‘best efforts’ to recover your system’s data, normally from the previous nightly EasyVault Cloud software backup (however, multiple backups throughout that day are available for a small fee). If that recovery is unsuccessful (i.e. in the event of a trojan or malware attack), a prior nightly backup may be used.

Alert will always attempt to use the most recent valid backup in the recovery. Alert may also employ other commercially reasonable means to recover your most recent data, solely at Alert’s discretion and expense.

There may be circumstances beyond our control which make your server inaccessible. There are many possible causes, including phone line issues, or problems with your Internet service account. The server itself may not be functional, requiring repair or replacement before we can restore your system. All these types of unusual circumstances are necessarily excluded from Alert’s SLA.

All such extenuating circumstances notwithstanding, Alert will reimburse the subscriber for down-time due to data loss caused by a failure of EasyVault at the rate of 1 day=one subscription month, up to a maximum of $2,700, or the pro-rated amount paid in subscription fees, whichever is less. Reimbursement must be requested in writing within 10 days of data loss. Alert will only reimburse for down-time starting on the third day. The first 2 days of downtime (or any part thereof) are considered part of the ‘normal’ emergency recovery process, which can vary considerably, depending on the time of day and the nature of the system failure or data loss.

If our effort to restore data from your EasyVault backups is unsuccessful, we may recommend local IT assistance to assist in the data restoration. Alert is not responsible for such expenses. Alert will not fund a ‘forensic’ recovery of damaged or erased hard drives, nor reimburse for manual re-entry of data.

Although the Alert EasyVault Cloud backup program has never lost any data or caused any down-time, it is not insurance. The Alert backup and restore software contract remains in full effect and governs the relationship between Alert and its customers. Alert is indemnified from nearly all types of liability, including software errors and mistakes by Alert staff or contractors, force majeure, environmental catastrophes, power outages, business interruption and many other potential hazards not mentioned here. Please review the Alert software contract if you have any questions regarding limitations of Alert liability.

Should you use some other form of back-up in addition to Alert EasyVault?

Alert recommends that you keep a current copy of your data locally at all times, as a precautionary measure. Some of your data (such as contract images, attachments, photos, etc.) may be easier to recover from a local device, since it takes longer to move large amounts of data over the Internet. Local availability of this data can reduce the amount of down-time during a recovery. Alert recommends that you recover a few files from local backups periodically, to make sure they are recoverable. Alert does not have the ability to read tapes that you overnight to us, or any other media requiring special drives or storage device readers. In general, sending us your data will not allow us to solve an unanticipated problem or get your system running faster.

Are there any other requirements under the Alert EasyVault program?

The unpredictable nature of a system failure or data loss makes it difficult to determine the skills and amount of time required to execute a full recovery. For this reason, we require that you keep a current Alert Support Agreement in place. Under our Support Agreement, the Alert EasyVault technician’s time is 100% covered for Alert EasyVault subscribers.

To avoid unnecessary down-time, we require that you maintain an approved 24/7 secure remote access for Alert technicians and our data center partners to access your server. Restorations are performed during normal AMS business hours except as authorized by Alert under extra-ordinary circumstances. Some downloads, however, may take all night as part of the restoration, thus requiring 24/7 unattended access. We must also be provided with current ‘administrative login’ access to your server. When you change the access credentials, it is your responsibility to inform Alert of the new credentials.

Alert reserves the right to upgrade your server to our latest software revision as part of the system restoration. This service is free under an Alert Support Agreement.