Service Level Agreement.

Introduction

This Service Level Agreement ("SLA") explains the service availability and support standards that apply to services provided by Kitwick ("Kitwick", "we", "us", or "our").

The purpose of this SLA is to explain what customers can expect from Kitwick in relation to service availability, support, maintenance, incident handling and service interruptions.

This SLA forms part of our Terms of Service and should be read together with those Terms.

Services Covered

This SLA applies to eligible hosting services provided by Kitwick, which may include:

• Web hosting.
• WordPress hosting.
• Domain-related services.
• SSL-related services.
• Other hosting services specifically identified as being covered by an SLA.

Not every product or service necessarily has the same service characteristics.

Where a particular service has specific service commitments, those commitments will take precedence over the general provisions of this SLA.

Service Availability

Kitwick aims to provide reliable and continuously available hosting services.

For eligible hosting services, our target is:

Service availability refers generally to the availability of the hosting environment or applicable service infrastructure, rather than guaranteeing that an individual customer's website will always be accessible.

A customer's website may become unavailable for reasons that are unrelated to the underlying hosting infrastructure.

Understanding 99.9% Availability

A 99.9% monthly availability target allows for a limited amount of downtime.

For example, over a 30-day month:

This is an availability target rather than a guarantee that every individual website will experience no downtime.

Availability calculations may use the relevant service monitoring information available to Kitwick.

What Is Included in Service Availability?

Where applicable, service availability may include the availability of:

• Hosting server infrastructure.
• Hosting network connectivity.
• Core hosting services.
• Server resources required to deliver the applicable hosting service.

Availability does not necessarily cover every component of a customer's website or application.

For example, problems caused by a customer's website code, plugins, themes, DNS configuration or third-party service may not constitute a hosting service availability failure.

What Is Not Covered?

The availability target does not apply to interruptions or failures caused by circumstances outside Kitwick's reasonable control.

Examples may include:

• Customer configuration errors.
• Incorrect DNS configuration.
• Website coding errors.
• Faulty scripts.
• WordPress plugins or themes.
• Third-party applications.
• Third-party APIs or services.
• Domain registration or registry problems.
• Customer account suspension.
• Resource usage caused by the customer's website.
• Security incidents affecting a customer's website.
• Malware or compromised websites.
• Customer-requested changes.
• Internet outages outside Kitwick's infrastructure.
• Failures of third-party providers.
• Events outside our reasonable control.

Planned Maintenance

Kitwick may carry out planned maintenance to maintain, upgrade, secure or improve our services.

Where reasonably practical, we will attempt to provide advance notice of significant planned maintenance that is expected to affect customer services.

Maintenance may include:

• Server updates.
• Security updates.
• Hardware maintenance.
• Network maintenance.
• Software upgrades.
• Infrastructure improvements.
• Emergency security work.

Some maintenance may need to be carried out without advance notice where delaying the work could create a greater risk to customers or the service.

Emergency Maintenance

Emergency maintenance may be required to address:

• Security vulnerabilities.
• Hardware failures.
• Network problems.
• Software failures.
• Serious service instability.
• Other circumstances requiring immediate action.

Where emergency maintenance is required, we will take reasonable steps to restore normal service as quickly as practical.

Advance notice may not always be possible.

Support Availability

Kitwick provides customer support through the support channels made available to customers.

Support availability and response times may vary depending on:

• The service purchased.
• The nature of the issue.
• The severity of the problem.
• The support channel used.
• Whether the issue is caused by Kitwick or a third party.

Support response times are targets rather than guaranteed resolution times unless a particular service expressly states otherwise.

Support Priorities

We may classify support requests according to their severity.

Critical

A widespread or significant service issue affecting the availability of an essential Kitwick service.

Examples may include:

• Significant hosting infrastructure outage.
• Major network outage.
• Widespread inability to access hosting services.

High

A significant problem affecting an individual service where the normal operation of the service is substantially impaired.

Normal

A general technical issue, configuration problem or service question that does not represent a major service interruption.

Low

General questions, requests for information, configuration assistance or non-urgent enquiries.

Kitwick may determine the appropriate priority based on the circumstances of the issue.

Incident Response

When Kitwick becomes aware of a significant service incident, we will take reasonable steps to:

1. Identify the cause of the problem.
2. Assess the scope and impact.
3. Work towards restoring the affected service.
4. Provide appropriate updates where practical.
5. Investigate the underlying cause where necessary.
6. Take reasonable steps to reduce the likelihood of recurrence.

The exact response will depend on the nature and severity of the incident.

Resolution Times

Kitwick aims to resolve support issues as efficiently as reasonably possible.

However, we cannot guarantee a specific resolution time for every issue.

Resolution times can depend on:

• The complexity of the problem.
• Third-party dependencies.
• Customer configuration.
• Availability of required information.
• Hardware or infrastructure requirements.
• Security considerations.
• The need for specialist investigation.

Where a problem cannot be resolved immediately, we may provide progress updates as appropriate.

Customer Responsibilities

Customers also have responsibilities that can affect service availability.

Customers are responsible for:

• Keeping account credentials secure.
• Maintaining their website software where applicable.
• Keeping WordPress, plugins and themes updated where appropriate.
• Avoiding malicious or abusive activity.
• Maintaining appropriate website configurations.
• Providing accurate information when requesting support.
• Cooperating with reasonable troubleshooting requests.
• Maintaining appropriate backups where applicable.

Kitwick may assist with technical issues, but not all website problems are caused by the hosting environment.

Website Application Issues

Hosting availability does not guarantee that an individual website or application will function correctly.

Website availability may be affected by:

• PHP errors.
• Database errors.
• WordPress configuration.
• Plugin conflicts.
• Theme problems.
• Application bugs.
• Incorrect .htaccess configuration.
• DNS configuration.
• Resource-intensive scripts.
• Malware.
• Customer modifications.

Where the hosting infrastructure remains available but a customer's website is malfunctioning, this may not constitute an SLA availability failure.

DNS and Domain Services

Domain and DNS services depend on external registries, registrars, DNS infrastructure and other third-party systems.

Kitwick cannot guarantee uninterrupted availability of services controlled by external parties.

Domain-related delays or interruptions may occur because of:

• Registry systems.
• Domain transfer processes.
• DNS propagation.
• Registrar requirements.
• Domain expiry.
• Incorrect domain information.
• Third-party infrastructure.

Such events may fall outside the service availability calculation.

Third-Party Services

Kitwick may use third-party infrastructure, software, networks or service providers to deliver certain services.

These may include providers responsible for:

• Data centre infrastructure.
• Network connectivity.
• Domain registration.
• Payment processing.
• Security services.
• Backup infrastructure.
• Email services.
• Software and licensing.

Where a service interruption is caused by a third-party provider, Kitwick will take reasonable steps to investigate and address the issue but cannot guarantee the availability of infrastructure that it does not directly control.

Security Incidents

Kitwick may temporarily restrict, suspend or modify services where necessary to protect:

• Our infrastructure.
• Other customers.
• Customer accounts.
• Networks.
• Websites.
• Systems from security threats.

Examples may include:

• Malware outbreaks.
• Compromised accounts.
• DDoS attacks.
• Brute-force attacks.
• Vulnerability exploitation.
• Spam activity.
• Other malicious activity.

Security-related action may be necessary even where it temporarily affects service availability.

Backups and Restoration

Where backups are included with a customer's service, Kitwick will make reasonable efforts to maintain those backups in accordance with the applicable service.

However, backups should not be treated as an absolute guarantee against data loss.

Customers should maintain their own copies of important data where appropriate.

Backup frequency, retention and restoration options may vary between services and plans.

Service Credits

Unless expressly stated otherwise for a particular service, Kitwick does not automatically provide financial compensation or service credits for downtime.

Where a service-specific agreement expressly provides for service credits, the applicable terms of that agreement will apply.

SLA Claims

If you believe an SLA availability target has not been met, you may contact Kitwick support with details of the issue.

We may request information including:

• Your domain name.
• Your hosting account.
• The date and time of the incident.
• The nature of the interruption.
• Any relevant error messages.
• Other information necessary to investigate the issue.

Kitwick may review its own monitoring, infrastructure records and relevant third-party information when assessing an SLA claim.

Measuring Availability

Where availability is measured, Kitwick may use server, network and service monitoring information available to us.

Third-party monitoring services may report different results because monitoring locations, connection methods, DNS caching and measurement methods can vary.

Kitwick's relevant infrastructure monitoring and service records may therefore be used when determining whether an availability target has been met.

Exclusions from Availability Calculations

Periods of unavailability may be excluded from availability calculations where they result from:

• Planned maintenance.
• Emergency maintenance.
• Customer actions.
• Customer-requested changes.
• Customer software or configuration.
• DNS or domain-related issues outside Kitwick's control.
• Third-party failures.
• Security incidents.
• Abuse or malicious activity.
• Internet connectivity outside Kitwick's infrastructure.
• Events beyond Kitwick's reasonable control.
• Suspension or termination of an account.
• Breaches of the Terms of Service or Acceptable Use Policy.

Events Outside Our Control

Kitwick will not be responsible for failure to meet an availability target where the failure results from circumstances beyond our reasonable control.

Such circumstances may include:

• Natural disasters.
• Major infrastructure failures.
• Internet backbone failures.
• Government action.
• War or civil unrest.
• Significant cyber attacks.
• Widespread telecommunications failures.
• Utility failures.
• Third-party infrastructure failures.
• Other events outside our reasonable control.

Service Improvements

Kitwick may make changes to its infrastructure, systems and services in order to:

• Improve reliability.
• Improve security.
• Increase capacity.
• Improve performance.
• Introduce new technologies.
• Improve customer experience.

Such changes may occasionally require maintenance or temporary service interruption.

Changes to This SLA

We may update this SLA from time to time.

Changes may be made to reflect:

• Changes to our services.
• Changes to our infrastructure.
• Changes to our support arrangements.
• Changes to third-party providers.
• Changes to applicable requirements.
• Improvements to our service management processes.

The latest version will be published on the Kitwick website.

The Last updated date at the top of this document will indicate when the SLA was most recently updated.

Relationship With Our Other Policies

This SLA should be read together with Kitwick's other policies and agreements, including:

• Terms of Service.
• Acceptable Use Policy.
• Privacy Policy.
• Cookie Policy.
• Any service-specific terms.

If there is a conflict between this SLA and a specific service agreement, the specific service agreement will apply to the extent of that conflict.

No Guarantee of Individual Website Performance

The availability target described in this SLA relates to the applicable Kitwick service and does not constitute a guarantee that an individual website will always:

• Load instantly.
• Remain free from errors.
• Achieve a particular page speed.
• Remain compatible with all software.
• Be free from application bugs.
• Remain available when affected by customer configuration or third-party services.

Website performance can depend on many factors outside the hosting infrastructure.