A discussion during the meeting today surrounded a third party maintenance organization, "the SLA vendor," that would accept payment from "Behemoth, Inc." to fulfill Behemoth's SLA (24x7 support, MTTR, etc...). It is established, and I agree that the SLA relationship occurs exclusively between Behemoth and the SLA vendor, and that Behemoth has no higher precedence on the exchange than anyone else. Behemoth is just another port on the switch. However, the SLA vendor would require management access to the IXP equipment to support its SLA, and that is where my concern is. If the SLA vendor is under contract to make Behemoth happy, they may choose to make configuration changes that prioritize their SLA agreement without consideration for the other members in the exchange. e.g., "What if I shut these other ports down to see if it fixes Behemoth's problem?" or, "We just brought on a new MICE member today. Maybe they screwed something up. I'll shut their session down just to see if it affected Behemoth..." We need to thoroughly trust the SLA vendor. What about rights and responsibilities? What penalties will the SLA vendor face if they mangle something for the sake of their contract with Behemoth, Inc., regardless if it nefarious or not? The meeting moved on to change management, an appropriate segue. Jamison Masters Partner / CIO VERUS Corporation 763-354-2204 jamison@veruscorp.com
On Monday, November 16, 2015 6:15pm, "Jamison Masters" <jamison@VERUSCORP.COM> said:
However, the SLA vendor would require management access to the IXP equipment to support its SLA, and that is where my concern is.
Uh maybe I am missing something but why would this "SLA vendor" have access to make changes to the Exchanges equipment if the SLA vendor is not hired by the Exchange itself? The infrastructure is not owned or operated by "Behemoth", and the Exchange is not beholden to some SLA that "Behemoth" and "SLA vendor" created between each other. "SLA vendor" would need to go through the existing people/steps involved/in place for adding a new person to the exchange, or moving someone between a GigE and a 10GE port for example. Random members of the Exchange can't make changes to the switches or bird now, why would this relationship above lead to some SLA vendor being any different? -- Nevin Lyne -- Founder & Director of Technology -- Arcustech, LLC. - arcustech.com -- Gippy's Internet Solutions, LLC. - enginehosting.com
On 11/16/2015 07:19 PM, Nevin Lyne wrote:
why would this "SLA vendor" have access to make changes to the Exchanges equipment if the SLA vendor is not hired by the Exchange itself?
I assume that, in order to _guarantee_ they could meet the SLA needs of "Behemoth", the "SLA vendor" would have to employ someone (or better, multiple someones) with admin access to the switches. Let's assume that none of the employers of the existing technical committee members want to take on the role of "SLA vendor". Let's also assume the "SLA vendor" doesn't hire any existing technical committee members. For this to work, the "SLA vendor" would have to convince the MICE board/membership to add new people (employees of "SLA vendor") to the technical committee. -- Richard
Or, it would need to be a risk that the SLA vendor takes. Remember, the SLA vendor could, in the end, just remove the cross connect if they have access to the customers gear... Reid On Tue, Nov 17, 2015 at 12:52 AM, Richard Laager <rlaager@wiktel.com> wrote:
On 11/16/2015 07:19 PM, Nevin Lyne wrote:
why would this "SLA vendor" have access to make changes to the Exchanges equipment if the SLA vendor is not hired by the Exchange itself?
I assume that, in order to _guarantee_ they could meet the SLA needs of "Behemoth", the "SLA vendor" would have to employ someone (or better, multiple someones) with admin access to the switches.
Let's assume that none of the employers of the existing technical committee members want to take on the role of "SLA vendor". Let's also assume the "SLA vendor" doesn't hire any existing technical committee members. For this to work, the "SLA vendor" would have to convince the MICE board/membership to add new people (employees of "SLA vendor") to the technical committee.
-- Richard
-- Reid Fishler Director Hurricane Electric +1-510-580-4178
participants (4)
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Jamison Masters -
Nevin Lyne -
Reid Fishler -
Richard Laager