The following changes to Vivio’s Managed Support service are scheduled to take affect June 1^st, 2018.

 

Managed Support is now SysOps Support

The web hosting industry is changing, and these days it seems like every hosting provider offers something they want to call “Managed Support”, but when you look closer, “Managed Support” can mean little more then automated system patches. To help demonstrate why Vivio’s support is better than the weak excuse for support that others provide, Vivio is renaming “Managed Support” to “SysOps Support” which is short for “Systems Operations Support”.

Along with the name change, there are several important functional changes that will also be coming with the new SysOps Support model. We’ll talk about these changes in detail below.

 

Fundamental Support is now Self-Service Support

In an effort to be more clear about the intention of what Fundamental Support is designed to cover, we are changing the name of “Fundamental Support” to “Self-Service Support”. To be clear, Self-Service Support is intended for clients that are comfortable maintaining their own servers without the help of Vivio support staff. It’s very similar to self-service gas stations: we give you the pump, but you have to pump the gas yourself. For Self-Service Support, Vivio will do anything that you cannot physically do because you don’t have physical access to the server. We’ll make sure the server is on, we’ll make sure you have access to it, but you’re expected to maintain it on your own. If you need more help than what’s provided by Self-Service Support, then the next step is SysOps Support. For a full list of what’s covered under Self-Service Support, visit this URL:

https://viviotech.net/self-service-support.html

 

Support that is No Longer Service-based

In the past, when you ordered a VPS or other service from Vivio, you had the option of adding “Managed Support” to that service. If you have more than one service with Vivio, you might already understand how frustrating this can be. For example, even though you may have Managed Support on one service, a different service would not be “managed” until you specifically added Managed Support to that individual service. This model doesn’t scale well and you can end up paying for services you don’t need or use.

 

Support that can be Used Anywhere

The Hosting Service Provider industry is changing and becoming vastly more diverse. More and more businesses are deploying hybrid clouds that use variety of Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) providers from all around the world. In order to adapt to this changing landscape and continue Vivio’s mission to help our clients succeed, Vivio’s new SysOps Support can be used with any public cloud, private cloud, IaaS, or Hosting Service Provider.

For businesses that do not have an internal IT Support team, Vivio can now work closely with your developers to manage any server, anywhere. This means you have direct access to quality, affordable, US-based support, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.

 

Trusted, Proven, and Certified

Vivio has implemented a bold new certification program for our support staff at every level. Most people who’ve worked with us for any length of time already know how knowlegable and helpful our support is, but with Vivio’s new certification program, this level of competance can grow and be demonstrated even to those who haven’t experienced our support yet.

On June 1st, Vivio will begin the process of requiring every support technician to maintain specific, verifiable certifications that correspond to their support Tier level.

This includes Tier 1, Tier 2, Tier 3, and unique specialization areas. These certifications include, but are not limited to, AWS, Azure, Linux, MCSA, IT Security, and many more. With the addition of this comprehensive certification program, you can be confident you’re working with the most talented and knowledgable support team in the industry.

We will be releasing more information about this certification program as the program matures.

 

Separating Service-Based Features

Since the discontinued Managed Support was service-based, some service-based features were bundled in with it. Because the new SysOps Support will not be service-based, any service-based features will need to be separated out into their own services.

In order to help make the transition easier for those who have the Sophos products bundled with Managed Support, Vivio is reducing the cost of the individual Sophos products to the following:

• Sophos Central Server Protection: $15/mo $5/mo
• Sophos Central Server Protection Advanced: $20/mo $10/mo

This lower pricing reflects some bulk pricing we were able to secure as well as our desire to make this transition as easy as possible.

Monitoring by Default will be split into the following two distinct services:

Self-Service Monitoring:

If you want to have your services monitored and the alert emails go only to you, you would use Self-Service Monitoring on that specific service.

SysOps Monitoring:

If you want Vivio to receive the alerts and respond to them using SysOps Support when we get them, you would use SysOps Monitoring.

 

Support that Scales

In the past, Vivio offered Managed Support at a fixed hourly rate. Due to the imbalance in the current Managed Support model, we are returning to our previous model where SysOps Support will be billed hourly and you only pay for the support you want.

For clients who regularly use SysOps Support, Vivio will also provide a SysOps Support subscription option. The SysOps Support subscription will include 2 hours of SysOps Support for $50 ($25/hr), with additional hours billed at a discounted rate of $50/hr. The standard rate of SysOps Support will be $100/hr. Those without a SysOps Support subscription who use SysOps Support will be billed at the standard rate.

If you have a SysOps Support subscription and need support for any server, your prepaid SysOps Support time will be applied to it. If you don’t have a SysOps Support subscription, you can just pay the standard rate and we’ll support you. The new SysOps Support model is more flexible and more versitle than the previous Managed Support model, and can scale perfectly with you as you grow and as your needs change.

 

No More Setup Fees

SysOps Support will use an entirely different implementation model then the previous Managed Support model, and no longer requires a setup fee.

 

SSL Installation

The install fee for SSL Certificates will still be waived for SysOps Support subscribers, the same way it was waived for Managed Support subscribers, but the time to install will be tracked as SysOps Support time. Clients who do not have SysOps Support will be charged the standard setup fee, rather than have the time tracked.

 

SysOps Time Tracking

Time tracking with SysOps Support will be 100% transparent and tracked directly in the Vivio ticketing system. For web chat and phone support, corresponding tickets will be created and time will be tracked within those tickets. The time spent on these tickets will be viewable in your Vivio Portal.

If you make a request which is covered by Self-Service Support, with no other actions necessary, this will not be tracked as SysOps Support time. If an action covered by Self-Service Support is performed as part of a larger support request, that action would be tracked as SysOps Support time. For example, Self-Service Support allows a client to request a system reboot when the server is locked-up and cannot be connected to remotely. If a SysOps Support subscriber requests a system restart due to a locked-up server, that time would NOT be tracked as part of SysOps Support. However, if a technician is performing a SysOps Support task, which at some point requires a reboot, or initiates a restart due to an alert, that time would be tracked as SysOps Support time as the action was part of a larger SysOps Support response.

 

The Monthly Subscription Option

SysOps Support subscriptions will only be available on a monthly basis, and will not be available querterly, semi-annually, or annually. Furthermore, any changes made to SysOps Support subscriptions will not take place until the following monthly billing cycle. For example, if you do not have a SysOps Support subscription, but choose to add it during any specific month, the SysOps Support subscription will not go into affect on your account until the next monthly billing cycle. You’ll need to plan ahead!

 

Migrating to SysOps Support

Current subscribers to Managed Support will be automatically upgraded to a SysOps Support subscription on June 1st. Specifically, the Managed Support service add-on will be cancelled, and replaced with the service-based features that were previously bundled with Manged Support, such as Sophos and Monitoring. After that, anyone who had a service with Managed Support will have a new “SysOps Support” subscription added to their account.

Here’s a hypothetical account that shows how the upgrades be applied:

Client: Aye Jent Smith

Services	Monthly
4g – Linux – VirtualMin SSDp VPS	$45.00
– Managed Support w/ Sophos AV	$35.00
8g – ColdFusion Linux SSDp VPS	$135.00
– Managed Support w/ Sophos A/V	$35.00
Total:	$250.00

 

Here’s how the account will look after the SysOps Support upgrade has been applied:

Client: Aye Jent Smith

Services	Monthly
4g – Linux – VirtualMin SSDp VPS	$45.00
– Sophos Central Server Protection	$5.00
– SysOps Support Monitoring	$0.00
8g – ColdFusion Linux SSDp VPS	$135.00
– Sophos Central Server Protection	$5.00
– SysOps Support Monitoring	$0.00
SysOps Support (2 Hours)	$50.00
Total:	$240.00

 

If you have questions on how your account will change with the move to SysOps Support, just let us know and we’ll be happy to help!

 

Support that is Always Available

If you have a situation where you need SysOps Support, but you don’t have a SysOps Support subscription, SysOps Support is still available to you – you simply need to pay the standard rate. The following tables help illustrate the differences between the two options:

SysOps Support Subscribers:

Hours included each Month	Monthly Cost	Additional Hours
2	$50.00 ($25/hr)	$50.00/Hour

 

Non-Subscriber Standard Rate:

Hours included each Month	Monthly Cost	Additional Hours
0	Free	$100.00/Hour

 

Vivio’s SysOps Support is an Unbeatable Value

When you compare the value of SysOps Support, no one offers you better value than Vivio. These are some of Vivio’s defining features:

• All Vivio Technicians are 100% US-based and local.
• All Vivio Technicians have undergone extensive in-house training.
• All Vivio Technicians have undergone FBI background checks and have their fingerprints on file with local law enforcement.
• All Vivio Technicians have base level certifications that will match their Tier status.

Also, compare the cost of Vivio SysOps Support to other providers:

• Rackspace – $400/mo minimum (Managed Azure, AWS, etc)
• Linode – $100/mo minimum per node
• Media Temple – $199/mo minimum (CloudTech Essential)
• GoDaddy – $49.99 for 1 task (WP Premium)

… and these are some of the few that actually list their rates! When you do your research, it’s very difficult to find places that offer the same level of support as Vivio who are willing to list their rate.

For less than the cost of your plumber, you can get 24/7/365 highly skilled, US-Based, technical professionals to help you with almost any server problem you might be have on any server, located anywhere. Truly, this is an amazing offer.

 

We’re here to Serve

Through our processes occasionally change, Vivio’s goal remains the same. We’re here to help you succeed and we look forward to working with you now, and well into the future.