Advanced Infrastructure Managed Services

Summary

Advanced Infrastructure Managed Services covers specialist management of critical infrastructure — servers, storage, virtualisation and data centre environments — backed by blueAPACHE's operational engineers.

This is the service line for organisations that keep application ownership in-house but want the platform layer run by someone else. The relevant credential is that blueAPACHE operates its own HPE-based private cloud and MPLS core network, so the team managing your infrastructure runs comparable infrastructure daily rather than only supporting it.

Key facts

What is managed

• Servers — lifecycle management from provisioning through maintenance to performance reporting
• Storage — capacity management, performance and protection
• Virtualisation — hypervisor platform management
• Data centre environments — the infrastructure layer beneath the applications
• Monitoring and capacity baselining, with predictive capacity monitoring used to plan growth
• Automated patching and compliance through remote monitoring and management tooling

Where the boundary sits

The division of responsibility is the part worth getting explicit, because "infrastructure managed" means different things to different providers:

Under the general terms, anti-virus on customer-managed equipment is the customer's responsibility unless the Service Description says otherwise, and backups are an obligation only where the Schedule expressly includes them. Where they are not included, the customer must take regular complete backups and keep duplicate copies.

Scheduled maintenance, specifically

For managed services, Scheduled Maintenance means manufacturer-recommended routine maintenance of Customer Managed Equipment, carried out either within the windows set in the relevant Schedule, or with at least three Business Days' notice outside them.

In an Emergency — defined as an event that in blueAPACHE's reasonable opinion threatens or causes major disruption requiring immediate remedial action — the service may be unavailable, and blueAPACHE restores it on a best-efforts basis. An Emergency is also a Reasonable Excuse, meaning Service Level obligations do not apply for its duration.

The shared-infrastructure caveat

If your workloads run on emPOWER Cloud rather than your own hardware, clause 5.1 allows blueAPACHE to implement software updates and replace infrastructure components with similar or superior ones without prior customer consent, amending the Service Description accordingly.

That is normal for shared platforms, but it is worth knowing if you have applications with strict certification requirements against specific hypervisor or firmware versions. Raise it during design rather than discovering it at an upgrade.

Why the provider's own platform matters

blueAPACHE runs emPOWER Cloud on a Tier 1 HPE reference architecture — HPE Synergy compute modules, all-flash HPE Primera storage, HPE BladeSystem blade servers — consumed as a service through HPE GreenLake, with VMware virtualisation.

For an infrastructure management engagement this is a reasonable proxy for capability: the escalation path for a storage or virtualisation problem runs through engineers who operate the same class of equipment at scale, not only through a vendor support queue.

It also means there is a credible migration path if you later decide not to own hardware at all — see emPOWER Cloud.

Reporting and governance

• Standard monthly reports on performance against key delivery metrics, within 5 Business Days of month end
• Formal service review every 6 months
• A named account team — Account Executive, Service Delivery Manager, Technical Account Manager and engineers
• Customer access to the same monitoring and management toolset blueAPACHE uses

What is not published

• Supported platform matrix — which hypervisors, storage arrays, server vendors and operating system versions are in scope
• Response and resolution targets — a bespoke priority and escalation matrix is agreed per customer
• Service credits — none in the general terms; any sit in Schedule 2
• Patching cadence and maintenance window defaults
• Capacity thresholds that trigger a scaling recommendation

The supported platform matrix is the one to ask for first. Infrastructure engagements go wrong most often over a component that both parties assumed the other was covering.

Integration with other emPOWER services

Advanced Infrastructure Managed Services is the platform layer beneath most of the rest of the portfolio, so it rarely stands alone:

• Managed Service Bundles — the service desk, monitoring and patching that sit around infrastructure management are the same operational stack a bundle draws on; organisations often take this service to add platform-specific depth on top of a bundle rather than instead of one
• Field Services and Staff Augmentation — remote infrastructure management still needs hands on-site for hardware refresh, cabling and physical fault response; the two are commonly paired
• emPOWER Cloud — the natural next step if the goal shifts from managing owned infrastructure to not owning it at all, since both run on the same HPE Synergy, Primera and BladeSystem platform under VMware
• Disaster Recovery as a Service — infrastructure management covers day-to-day operation; DRaaS covers what happens when the infrastructure fails outright, and the two are typically scoped together for production estates
• Security — automated patching and compliance under this service reduces the exposure surface that Exposure Management tracks

Typical engagement

Onboarding. Immediately following the Service Commencement Date, blueAPACHE runs Transition In Services: a due diligence process to catalogue the servers, storage and virtualisation in scope, configuration of its monitoring platforms against that inventory, documentation on how to raise and track support requests, and an agreed reporting schedule. The customer's obligation during this period is to promptly supply access details — passwords, network and firewall information — and to review and approve transition documentation without delay; slow sign-off is the most common cause of a stretched transition.

Steady state. Once live, the service runs to the pattern described above: monitoring and capacity baselining, automated patching, monthly reporting within five Business Days of month end, and a formal review every six months with the named account team.

Term and exit. The default is a 36-month Minimum Service Period, contracted under Schedule 2. Renewing or exiting requires Written Notice before the Service Period ends; without it, the arrangement automatically extends three months at full list price with Service Levels switched off. At exit, blueAPACHE removes its own equipment and deletes customer data from its environment at no cost — the customer is solely responsible for taking a copy of any configuration data, scripts or documentation it needs beforehand.

Defining the managed infrastructure estate

Specify the actual servers, storage, virtualisation and data-centre assets and versions, change authority and the boundary with application support. Record who accepts capacity risks and supplies replacement equipment or licences at end of support. Identify backup and recovery explicitly rather than inferring them from managed infrastructure. At handover, reconcile the asset list with the systems monitoring can actually see, so an inventory omission does not become a responsibility gap.

Which document defines the commitment

The published General Terms v3.6 give the Service Order precedence over the General Terms, followed by the Schedules and then the Acceptable Use Policy (clause 2.3). Record the agreed scope, exclusions and negotiated departures in that document set. A brochure or a procurement discussion does not, by itself, define the customer-specific commitment. Keep the versions supplied at signing with the executed order and signed variations. Two offers with the same service name can cover different systems, operating hours or responsibilities.

Evidence available during the engagement

The General Terms provide standard monthly performance reports within five Business Days of month end and a formal service review every six months. Performance Records must be kept through the term and for seven years afterwards. The customer audit provisions allow access to relevant Records, premises for audit purposes and personnel interviews, with five Business Days’ notice normally or one Business Day where a regulator requires the audit. This records obligation is not a seven-year backup-retention promise for customer workloads. Agree additional report formats and audit-cost arrangements before depending on them; the general audit clause does not clearly allocate every audit cost.

Responsibility across the delivery chain

The published terms allow blueAPACHE to subcontract all or part of the Service Agreement without customer consent or a notification requirement. Clause 27.5 nevertheless makes blueAPACHE liable for its subcontractors’ acts and omissions to the same extent as for its employees. This differs from a third-party supplier contracted directly by the customer. Identify which arrangement applies to each dependency in the design. Where supplier identity, delivery location or change notification matters, request a documented supplier list and put any agreed notification or approval requirement in the Service Order; the general clause does not supply that visibility automatically.

Continuity when an external event interrupts service

Clause 23 addresses force majeure separately from normal incident management. Performance is suspended to the extent a qualifying event causes delay or failure. The definition includes specified events outside reasonable control; it is not a blanket classification of every outage. If the delay exceeds 20 Business Days, the other party may terminate by written notice. The clause also requires payment for services to termination and the applicable Early Termination Payment. A continuity plan should cover operational recovery and the commercial consequences of prolonged interruption. Confirm the Schedule’s exit calculation rather than assuming an externally caused outage creates a cost-free exit.

How liability differs from service performance

Clause 19 separates performance obligations from financial liability. The general cap per claim is the greater of the fees paid in the preceding three months or $25,000, with exclusions and specific categories governed separately. Confidentiality, information security, privacy and the IP indemnity have a $1 million per-event and $2 million aggregate cap. Data-loss liability depends on whether blueAPACHE had, and breached, a contracted backup or disaster recovery obligation; the relevant measure is restoration cost to the applicable recovery point, not the value of every business consequence. Read these provisions alongside the negotiated Service Order and Schedule; an availability statement does not describe the liability regime.

Sources and scope

The contractual detail above summarises the published General Terms and Conditions v3.6, using the KB documents on service agreement formation and document precedence; reporting review and audit rights; subcontracting and assignment; force majeure; liability and indemnity. The customer’s Service Order, Schedules and agreed variations determine the specific engagement. See the terms and conditions guide and Service Agreement.

Frequently asked questions

What infrastructure does blueAPACHE manage?

Servers, storage, virtualisation and data centre environments, with lifecycle management from provisioning through maintenance to performance reporting. The specific supported platform matrix is not published — request it.

Does this include our applications?

Application management is listed within the wider managed services ecosystem, but the boundary between platform and application should be written into your Service Description explicitly.

Who patches the operating systems?

blueAPACHE, through remote monitoring and management tooling covering automated patching and compliance. Anti-virus on customer-managed equipment remains the customer's responsibility unless stated otherwise.

How much notice do we get for maintenance?

Maintenance runs within the windows in your Schedule, or with at least three Business Days' notice outside them. Emergency maintenance can occur without that notice and is a Reasonable Excuse against Service Levels.

Is backup included?

Only where the Schedule expressly includes it. Otherwise you must keep your own backups, and blueAPACHE's liability for data loss is excluded.

Can blueAPACHE change our platform without asking?

On shared infrastructure, yes — clause 5.1 permits software updates and component replacement with similar or superior items without prior consent. On your own equipment, scheduled maintenance follows manufacturer recommendations and the notice provisions.

Does blueAPACHE run this kind of infrastructure itself?

Yes — emPOWER Cloud runs on HPE Synergy, HPE Primera and HPE BladeSystem with VMware, consumed through HPE GreenLake.

What reporting do we get?

Monthly performance reports within five Business Days of month end, a six-monthly service review, and access to the same monitoring toolset blueAPACHE uses.

What is the contract term?

A 36-month Minimum Service Period by default, under Schedule 2, emPOWER Managed Services. Renewal follows the same 36-month pattern unless blueAPACHE advises otherwise.

What happens if we do not renew in time?

Continued use without Written Notice automatically extends the service three months at blueAPACHE's then-current full list price, with Service Levels switched off for that period.

Can we exit before the 36 months are up?

Only where a termination right exists, and doing so triggers an Early Termination Payment calculated under Schedule 2, which is not published. Ask for the calculation method before signing.

What happens to our infrastructure data when we leave?

blueAPACHE removes its own equipment and deletes customer data and software from its environment at no cost. The customer is solely responsible for taking a copy of configuration, scripts and documentation before the Service Period ends — there is no published post-termination retrieval window.

Where does the managed infrastructure physically sit?

Where it runs on blueAPACHE's own platform, in Australian-based data centres under Australian legal jurisdiction, with role-based access, multi-factor authentication and audit logging. Where it runs on customer-owned equipment on the customer's site, location is whatever the customer has deployed.

Related

Managed Services · Managed Service Bundles · Field Services and Staff Augmentation · emPOWER Cloud · Cloud · Disaster Recovery as a Service · Connectivity · Glossary · Contact

Source

Drawn from blueAPACHE's Managed Services pages, the emPOWER Managed Services and emPOWER Cloud brochures, the HPE GreenLake case study, the ISO/IEC 27001:2022 certificate 202507-118, and the General Terms and Conditions v3.6 (scheduled maintenance and emergencies, shared services and infrastructure control, customer obligations, backup obligations, service delivery and service levels, and reporting and review). Schedule 2 is not in blueAPACHE's published material, so the supported platform matrix, response targets and credits are not stated here. Also drawn from the General Terms and Conditions v3.6 (service term, renewal and minimum service period; transition in and disengagement services; consequences of termination; data protection and privacy) and blueAPACHE's data sovereignty and residency statement.

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