Go to this page on the Microsoft downloads area and then download the file which is the Exchange Hosted Services Service Level Agreement document.

Scroll down to the bottom, and you will find what Microsoft will pay you if they fall foul of the SLA.

Basically, they will give you “Service Credits” for downtime, and at no point will the Credit exceed the value of what you pay Microsoft for the month of service provision.

Now look at the percentages: to get 100% of your money back, Microsoft has to fail a 95% SLA.

For the sake of easy Maths, let’s assume there are 30 days in a month, which equals 720 hours. 95% uptime is 36 hours over the entire month. 36 hours is 4.5 working days of downtime, assuming an 8-hour work day.

So the most you can get back from Microsoft only kicks in when you have had your hosted exchange server down for almost one week in four, assuming all the unexpected downtime happens within your working day. Hardly generous, is it?

But there’s more: “Scheduled downtime” is excluded from this rebate scheme until it exceeds another 10 hours per calendar month.

Quite apart from this, the document is a wonderful example of legalese and obfuscation. How about this part:

“‘Monthly Uptime Percentage’ for a specific Customer is calculated by taking the total number of minutes in a calendar month multiplied by the total number of licensed users minus the total number of minutes of Downtime experienced by all users in a given calendar month, all divided by the total number of minutes in that calendar month multiplied by the total number of users.”

Well that’s perfectly clear then.

By the way, it’s the same terms for the hosted SharePoint and hosted Live Meeting too. And of course, there is no link between these SLAs either, as far as I can see.

Dear Customers,

Today at 6:00am, the FBI conducted an unwarranted early morning raid of our 2323 Bryan Street Datacenters, on the 7th and 24th floors.

I received a phone call at 6:05am from our NOC that the entire network was powered off. I called Capstar Commercial and TELX, our landlord, and was told that the FBI was in the datacenter with a search and seizure warrant. I asked that the agent in charge call me immediately.

I received a call 15 minutes later from FBI Agent Allyn Lynd. Mr. Lynd would not tell me why he raided our datacenter or what he was looking for. He also accused me of hiding inside my house in Ovilla, Texas. I was actually in Phoenix, Arizona when this happened. I told him that, and he told me that he was “getting the dogs” after me, and hung up on me. I found out from an employee that there were 15 police cars and a SWAT team at my home in Ovilla.

The FBI has seized all equipment belonging to our customers. Many customers went to the data center to try and retrieve their equipment, but were threatened with arrest.

Neither I, nor Core IP are involved in any illegal activities of any kind. The only data that I have received thus far is that the FBI is investigating a company that has purchased services from Core IP in the past. This company does not even colocate with us anywhere, much less 2323 Bryan Street Datacenter.

Currently nearly 50 businesses are completely without access to their email and data.  Citizen access to Emergency 911 services are being affected, as Core IP’s primary client base consists of telephone companies.

If you run a datacenter, please be aware that in our great country, the FBI can come into your place of business at any time and take whatever they want, with no reason.

I can be reached for further comment at: [removed by PC Pro]. Further information will be given as it becomes available.

Yours,
Matthew Simpson
CEO, Core IP Networks, LLC