Managed Utility Servers – detailed information

1. Service overview

Managed Utility Servers are one of three managed server solutions offered by Telstra.
Provisioned from an ‘in the cloud’ infrastructure of processors, memory and storage, Managed Utility Servers provide a flexible and rapidly scalable answer to your IT requirements. Each service is built with a base level of resources which can be increased as required.

Telstra’s Managed Utility Servers environment comprises virtualised services in the form of multiple virtual servers provisioned on a dedicated virtual infrastructure. Redundant power and cooling as well as low latency bandwidth to the internet, or your corporate network, ensures that your critical business processes continue uninterrupted.

24/7 support is provided by qualified Telstra engineers who are responsible for server management, monitoring, maintenance and data back-up.

2. Service features

• Virtual Infrastructure
  Dedicated processing infrastructure built on best-of-breed HP blade servers and VMware® virtual technologies.

• Virtual Servers
  Multiple virtual servers are provisioned onto your Virtual Infrastructure as is optimal for your solution.

• Operating systems
  Choose from Red Hat Enterprise Linux or Windows Server.

• Implementation and installation
  Including: procurement of hardware, configuration of hardware, installation and configuration of virtual technologies, creation of virtual machines, preparing them ready for Operating System installation, installing and configuring the Operating System to meet your individual requirements.

• Networking
  Telstra will implement the necessary networking components to ensure the server is available from the internet. Redundant (failover) feeds are available as a recommended option.

• Customer access
  You will be provided with full administrative access to the server.

• Management
  Telstra will manage the licensing of the Operating System and Microsoft software, management of the Operating System itself, back-ups and back-up schedule, and changes to Operating System configuration.

• Patch management
  Telstra implements patch management for all Microsoft Windows servers, with centralised reporting of the patch status of servers and susceptibility to known exploits.

• Anti-virus management
  The service includes the installation, update and maintenance for Sophos anti-virus. The system is managed and updated using a centralised infrastructure, an agent on the server and the out-of-band management network.

• Back-ups
  Back-ups of all closed files are performed on a daily basis using Snap-Shot storage technologies. Data is then retained for 28 days.

• 24x7 monitoring
  The server hardware and health is monitored through Telstra’s automated systems using Management Information Base (MIBs) in conjunction with Simple Network Management Protocol plus an agent installed on the customer server. The system delivers real time centralised monitoring under the constant scrutiny of a dedicated customer support team. Pre-failure and failure events are immediately identified so preventative or corrective action can be taken. Key applications such as database and web server applications are also monitored along with network availability and back-ups.

• Web server monitoring
  Telstra will monitor HTTP/HTTPS, critical web services, SMTP (if installed), WWW, FTP (if installed) and provide pro-active monitoring of the customer web server environment.

• SQL server monitoring
  We will monitor the critical SQL server processes to ensure they are active and will monitor the event viewer log on the SQL server to search for the expressions “transaction log full” and “backup job fail”. We will provide proactive monitoring of the customer SQL server environment.

• Maintenance
  Including: updating firmware levels, updating anti-virus signatures, updating critical and security patches, and replacement of faulty hardware. If Telstra needs to perform hardware maintenance we will migrate your Operating Systems to alternative devices whilst maintenance is performed to ensure continuous service.

• High availability
  All Managed Utility Servers are provisioned in a highly available manner. In the event of a hardware failure, the server will automatically restart elsewhere.

• Resource alterations
  Alterations of CPU, RAM and Storage can be completed on request.

• Addition of new servers
  Additional Managed Utility Servers, which do not significantly alter the service architecture, can usually be provisioned within one working day of receipt of order.
  

3. Added value options

A range of value added options and upgrades are available at additional cost for the Managed Utility Servers service, including:

• Additional monitoring
  We can provide an even higher level of service by providing advanced monitoring, including process monitoring, service monitoring, log file monitoring and a large range of internet protocol monitors.

• Hardware upgrades
  Upgrades within the constraints of the device are available at any time during the life of the service.

• Application management
  Installation and monitoring of applications is included in the Managed Utility Server service, but ongoing management of applications is not provided as standard. We can offer application management for SQL, Oracle, Citrix, Sharepoint and Exchange.

• Load balancing
  This is typically implemented to load balance multiple web servers in a dedicated web-farm to provide a consistent, fast and reliable user experience. Software Network Load Balancing (available for up to two Windows servers) or Hardware Load Balancing (using industry leading F5 hardware).

• ‘Hot’ database back-ups
  Included by default in our Windows SQL Servers offerings, this option backs up data on live databases without the need for the database to be stopped.

4. Service Level Agreements

Telstra can provide a range of SLA options to meet your requirements. Our SLAs take a holistic approach and are dependent on the overall solution rather than simply individual components. 

• Solution Level SLAs
  These will be applied to the availability of the solution’s function rather than its individual components. Solution Level SLAs are designed to ensure the availability of complete solutions and thus be more realistic and appropriate to the continued functioning of your business processes.

• Bandwidth SLAs
  Bandwidth is offered with 99.99% availability for high availability feeds and 99.9% for single feeds.

• Response Times and Service SLAs
  Tickets will be categorised by level of severity which will determine the target resolution time. The highest priority issues attract a 1st Line Response Time of 15 minutes and a Target Resolution Time of 30 minutes.