CenturyLink SLA:
Managed Disaster Recovery Services
(MDRS)

Updated: December 19, 2019

1. Introduction

This SLA Attachment - Managed Disaster Recovery Services ("SLA Attachment") sets forth the service levels (“Service Levels”) for the Managed Disaster Recovery Service (referred to as the “Service”) provided to Customer by CenturyLink. “MDRS” may also be referred to as “Disaster Recovery Management Services” or “DRMS” in any applicable orders or invoices. This SLA Attachment is subject to and incorporated into the Agreement, including the Hosting Service Schedule between the parties (“Agreement”). All other CenturyLink Services Customer purchases for the Supported Production Platform and Supported Recovery Platforms are not covered by this SLA.

In the event of a Service Level Failure, Customer may be entitled to receive the applicable Service Credit set forth herein.

2. Service Levels/Service Credit Calculation

Managed Disaster Recovery Services

a. For each server protected by Managed Disaster Recovery Services, CenturyLink will deliver a 99.9% availability of Managed Disaster Recovery Services (“Availability Service Level”). For purposes of the Availability Service Level, availabily refers to the continuous replication between the Supported Production Platform and Supported Recovery Platform. Availability Service Level is calculated by dividing the number of minutes of uptime in a calendar month by the total number of minutes in that calendar month. An Availability Service Level Failure shall occur if the Availability Service Level falls below 99.9% and is not the result of an Excluded Event (“Availability Service Level Failure”). In the event of an Availability Service Level Failure the Customer may be entitled to a Service Credit equal to ten percent (10%) of the MRC for the Service for the month in which the failure occurs.

b. For each server protected by Managed Disaster Recovery Services, CenturyLink will deliver a 4-hour Recovery Time Objective (“RTO”). The Service delivers a 4-hour RTO on a Protected Server. If CenturyLink is unable to recover a Protected Server within the 4-hour RTO (“RTO Service Level Failure”) and it is not the result of an Excluded Event, then the Customer may be entitled to an RTO Service Credit equal to one hundred percent (100%) of the MRC for the Service for the month the Services were affected.

This MDRS SLA takes precedence over any other applicable SLA for related and/or Supported Production Platforms and Supported Recovery Platforms, etc). If any such related or dependent platform incurs an outage or service failure that also results in a MDRS Service Level Failure and qualifying Service Credit for Customer, Customer shall only be eligible for the Service Credit as expressly provided herein and no other credits for which Customer may be eligible under any other SLA will apply.

3. Process

Customer must request any Service Credit due hereunder by submitting an e-mail to billing.department@centurylink.com within sixty (60) calendar days of the conclusion of the month in which the Service Level Failure(s) occurs. Customer waives any right to Service Credits not requested within this sixty (60) calendar day period. Service Credits will be issued once validated by CenturyLink and applied toward the invoice which Customer receives no later than two (2) months following Customer's Service Credit request. All performance calculations and applicable Service Credits are based on CenturyLink records and data unless Customer can provide CenturyLink with clear and convincing evidence to the contrary.

4. Definitions

“Emergency Maintenance” means unscheduled maintenance to the Services which must be performed on an emergency basis where failure to do so is likely to result in an imminent and/or material service deficiency (i.e. the installation of new virus or worm patches that are released by our software vendors that must be immediately applied to prevent infections of servers, core networking gear and/or firewalls that support the solution). Emergency Schedule may limit or suspend the availability of the Services. Emergency Maintenance will be performed without advance notice to Customer because of its immediate nature.

“Maintenance — Current scheduled maintenance windows are:

  • Americas: Monday through Thursday 10:00AM-4:00PM local time
  • EMEA: Monday through Thursday 10:00AM to 4:00PM local time
  • APAC: Monday through Thursday 10:00AM to 4:00PM local time
  • Japan: Monday through Thursday 10:00AM to 4:00PM local time

Unless otherwise noticed, all times listed under scheduled maintenance windows are local times (of the location of the specific datacenter where the services are hosted) and subject to change. CenturyLink has the right to perform schedule maintenance (during the windows specified above), which may limit or suspend the availability of the Services.

“Protected Server” means a server that is under protection of Managed Disaster Recovery Services.

“Recovery Time Objective (RTO)” means the period of time beginning when CenturyLink initiates a failover of a Protected Server to the time when the Protected Server is running in the recovery environment, excluding any time associated with manual action or the execution of Customer scripts.

“Service Availabilty” means the continuous replication from a Supported Production Platform to a Supported Recovery Platform.

“Service Credit” means an amount deducted from fees billed to Customer in the event of a Service Level Failure.

“Service Level Failure” means CenturyLink’s performance for a particular Service fails to meet the applicable Service Level set forth in this SLA.

“Supported Production Platform” means CenturyLink Cloud, Dedicated Cloud Compute, CenturyLink Private Cloud on VMware Cloud Foundation, Amazon Web Services EC2, Amazon Web Services Elastic Block Storage, Microsoft Azure virtual machines and disk storage or Customer-provided environments that utilize VMware virtualization.

“Supported Recovery Platform” means CenturyLink Cloud, Amazon Web Services EC2, Amazon Web Services Elastic Block Storage, Microsoft Azure virtual machines and disk storage.

5. Limitations

This SLA provides Customer's sole and exclusive remedies for any Service interruptions, deficiencies, or failures of any kind. This SLA and any remedies hereunder will not apply and a Service Level Failure shall not be deemed to have occurred and Customer will not be entitled to receive a Service Credit (a) during any period in which Customer provided hardware and/or software maintenance contracts are not current and/or are “offline” for any reason; (b) if any inconsistencies in the environment or unavailability of the Service results from changes in the Customer’s source or redundant environment, including either intentional or accidental connections or disconnections to either environment; or (c) in the event of an Excluded Event. Excluded Event means any event that adversely impacts the Service that is caused by (a) the acts or omissions of Customer, its employees, customers, contractors or agents; (b) the result from the use of services, hardware, or software not provided by CenturyLink, including, but not limited to, issues resulting from inadequate bandwidth, network outages or related to third-party software or services; (c) Force Majeure events; (d) Scheduled Maintenance and/or Emergency Maintenance; (e) any suspension of Service pursuant to the Agreement; (f) the unavailability of required Customer personnel, including as a result of failure to provide CenturyLink with accurate, current contact information. Customer will not be eligible to receive any otherwise applicable Service Credits if Customer is in breach or default under any provisions of the Agreement at the time the Service Level Failure(s) occurred or at the time when such Service Credit is requested by Customer until such breach is cured, at which point the Service Credit will be issued.

The Availability Service Credits set forth herein are not cumulative and in no event will the Availability Service Credits accrued in any calendar month exceed, in the aggregate across all events, ten percent (10%) of the MRC for the affected Service in the calendar month in which a Service Level Failure occurred. The maximum aggregate credit for an RTO Service Credit during a calendar year, for all Service features combined, is four months' Service fees, regardless of the length of failure or the number of occurrences.