Information Technology Service Level Agreement (SLA) for Email

Contents:
I           Supported Services                                          
II.        Service Limitations and Exclusions           
III.       Non-Performance                                            
IV.       Service Assurance                                            
V.        Costs                                                                    
VI.       Approvals                                                          

I. Supported Services

Service Description
Connect@Stern is the Stern School of Business’ email system.  It provides account holders an email account for use in sending and receiving electronic mail through Stern’s mail servers.  Connect allows users the choice of either the Internet Mail Access Protocol (IMAP) or Post Office Protocol (POP3) to receive mail and Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) to send mail.  Connect can be accessed via either a supported web browser or email client.  Connect supports both secure and non-secure email protocols and is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week except during planned maintenance events.

This SLA describes Stern IT’s commitment to provide the following email services:

•     Access to email via the web, POP, or IMAP protocols.
•     Ability to send and receive email.
•     Virus Scanning: Connect will scan incoming and outgoing email routed to/from all user mailboxes for virus payloads.  Messages identified as carrying a virus will not be accepted by the campus mail gateways.
•     Spam Filtering: Connect will block incoming messages identified as spam based on widely used and recognized block lists.  The current level for spam blocking is 80% of all incoming messages.
•     For security reasons, Stern blocks attachments containing files with the potential of being insecure.  See the Email FAQ for further info.

Connect does not remove/delete any user email.  Users are wholly responsible for the actions they take regarding Connect email.  This includes sending, filtering, deleting, and forwarding.  Connect cannot restore deleted email or folders.

This SLA does not cover the following services (for more information on these areas see the Stern IT FAQ and How-to-Guides.
•   Backup and restore of individual emails and/or accounts.
•   Assurance of delivery of any mail sent from outside Stern or if it leaves the Stern network.
•   Simon
•   Personal email addresses
•   Vacation messages
•   Mail forwarding
•   Calendar
•   Mailing Lists

Service Availability
Stern strives to a maintain greater than 99% availability for the email system, not including scheduled maintenance.

•   99.9% of the email sent internally from and to Stern addresses will be delivered within forty (40) minutes of being sent.
•   IMAP response will be 4 seconds or less 95% of the time while on NYU networks.
•   Web mail load time will be under 30 seconds for a 50mb inbox; larger inboxes will take longer to load.
•   1gb of mail storage regardless of the access method used.
•   Maximum message size, including attachments, is 30mb.

Client Responsibilities
Customer responsibilities and/or requirements in support of this agreement include:

• A valid Stern username, with a valid password.
• Supported email client program or web browser as listed on the Stern IT Service Catalog. 
• In event of problems, a detailed description of the email/software issue and problem.
• Consent to allow a technician access to email software to further trouble-shoot any problems.
• Backing up of email/messages is the client’s responsibility; Stern IT is not responsible for lost data.

How to Access the Service
Clients can access Stern’s web client by visiting http://connect.stern.nyu.edu and logging in with a valid Stern account ID and password.

In addition, stand alone email clients may be used.  For instructions on how to set up email clients, visit the Email - How-to-Guides and FAQs at http://www.stern.nyu.edu/it/guides/email-home.html

Glossary:
For a Glossary of terms referenced in this and all Stern IT SLA’s, please refer to the Stern IT Glossary of Terms.

Support Hardware and Software:
For a current list of Hardware and Software supported by Stern IT, please reference Stern IT Supported Hardware and Software.

II. Service Limitations and Exclusions

Scheduled Events that Impact Service Availability

In order to ensure reliability and performance expectations of standard services provided, Connect will periodically perform maintenance and upgrades on equipment, which support these services.

Routine Downtime
Stern IT reserves the option of system downtime on the first Friday of each month from 10:00pm to 6:00am the following morning for routine maintenance. 

Non-Emergency Enhancements
When at all possible, non-emergency enhancements will be scheduled during the Friday maintenance window. For occasions when that is not possible, notification will be sent to the Stern community 48 hours in advance along with the expected duration.

All planned downtime will be announced on the Stern IT Service Advisory page (http://www.stern.nyu.edu/it/advisory/) and via email to the Stern Community.

Change Process

Other Limitations
Stern IT cannot guarantee service levels when faced with circumstances beyond our control.  This includes, but is not limited to:

• Natural or man-made disasters
• Electrical outages or disruptions
• Equipment failure unrelated to abuse or neglect
• Denial of Service Attacks, such as an overload of spam emails attacking our servers.

Exclusion
Any customized individual changes to the mail client or the way an individual’s mail is routed, invalidates this SLA.

III. Non-Performance

The successful implementation of this agreement depends upon all owner parties’ full execution of responsibilities detailed in the document. This section lays out what constitutes non-performance and its consequences.

Service Provider

Non-Performance

• Less than 99.9% of internally routed email delivered within the forty (40) minute time frame.
• Web client or email clients not working as expected.

Consequence
Client’s issue will be escalated to the Senior Director of Enterprise Operations and Solutions.

Client

Non-Performance
Not conforming to the list of approved email clients or browsers.

Consequence
User will not receive support and could potentially encounter problems preventing them from sending, receiving or accessing their mail.

IV. Service Assurance

Stern IT will assign a Project Liaison for this service. The Project Liaison may be contacted via telephone or e-mail during regular business hours to address any problems or concerns related to the service provided.

Stern IT will provide a standard set of reports to measure performance against this Service Level Agreement as follows:

Service Continuity: Good Citizenship Feedback
The Service Recipient will provide the service provider with satisfaction feedback at the conclusion of each service rendered.  Feedback information will be used to evaluate and manage service continuity.

V. Costs

Connect is provided free of charge to the Stern community. Clients will not be charged.

VI. Approvals

Stern IT

Stern Administration