Service statements notes Total potential availability
Many services provided by ITS are on-line services, and, under ideal
conditions, would be available all the time. Consequently, such a service's
'total potential availability' is 24 hours per day, every day of the year.
Many such services are designed with a degree of resilience and redundancy
via backup systems, diesel generator powered computer rooms, mirrored
disks, server farms, and redundant network links to enhance continuous
availability where possible. However failsafe systems are beyond the level
of funding that is available to support the deployment of IT at Monash.
Supported availability
'Supported Hours' defines the times when support is available during
standard University working hours (Melbourne time) from ITS staff and
from contracted support from vendors of major hardware/software eg, Sun
Microsystems. In most cases, vendor support is from 9am-5pm weekdays.
For online services ITS provides a limited on-call roster for hours
outside the supported availability period where a very reduced number
of support staff are available to resolve operational issues as they arise.
The on-call roster currently operates from 6pm-10pm weekdays, and from
9am-5pm weekends.
It is anticipated that the availability of the service will be higher
during supported hours than on a 24 hour by 7 day basis. A range of staff
and vendors are available to attend if an on-line service fails during
the supported period, however (to take an extreme case for the purposes
of illustration) if an on-line service fails on a Friday evening it may
not receive attention from the appropriate vendor until the following
Monday morning.
Key performance indicators
Many key performance indicators (KPIs) measure performance over the supported
period, which corresponds with standard University working hours (Melbourne
time) - when most staff and students are using the services. This is also
the period when both ITS support staff and appropriate hardware vendors
are available.
However, ITS also recognises that customers will be interested in the
availability of the service on a 24 hour by 7 day basis if the service
is an on-line service. Consequently, ITS plans to report an additional
statistic to reflect performance over the total potential availability
of the service, 24 hours by 7 days, where possible.
Service outages and maintenance
A typical service statement may contain the following in the service
availability section:
Necessary outages (eg, the application of security patches) are advised,
and extended outages (eg, major upgrades of a system) are negotiated.
Major changes are planned and negotiated with key stakeholders
in advance. They may result in a service outage over an extended
period and may be performed during supported hours. An example
of a major change would be a SAP upgrade.
Emergency changes are undertaken as urgent action to prevent significant
operational issues. They are advised and may result in a service
outage during supported hours. An example of an emergency change
would be for the application of an urgent security patch.
Minor changes are normally performed outside supported hours,
and are advised. Examples of minor changes include minor upgrades
and regular maintenance.
For the purposes of determining performance against KPIs, the service
outage period for a major change will not be included as it has been negotiated
well in advance with major stakeholders. All emergency changes, planned
minor changes and unplanned service interruptions will be included when
determining the KPIs (ie, will be deducted as service is not available).
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