Memorandum of Understanding and Terms of Service

This MOU is effective through June 30, 2025 and renews annually unless stated otherwise. Web Platform Services will review and update it as needed. See the Changelog section for a description of the updates.

Managed sites are typically created on our Open Berkeley platform. Open Berkeley is a complete turnkey solution that includes hosting, site spinup, training, site launch, security and maintenance updates, new features, and ongoing support.

As part of the managed program, Web Platform Services will handle all security, accessibility, and maintenance updates. New platform functionality will be rolled out to all platform sites. Customers cannot add their own contributed or custom modules/themes/code. If a campus group chooses to leave the Open Berkeley program, the group will be responsible for moving their site content to a separate, non-Open-Berkeley platform on its own and handling all future maintenance and support. Upon notification, Web Platform Services will retire the site and stop associated charges.

The scope of this service is outlined in the sections below. Any items not specifically mentioned are not included in this MOU.

Site Owners who opt to use this service will need writing, computer, and word-processing skills. No particular technical knowledge is needed, and Web Platform Services provides documentation, email support, and regular training and office hours sessions. See our Site Builders Guide and other guides.

Web Platform Services does not provide one-to-one support except as part of a Consulting agreement. Consulting or individualized support can be arranged based on our team availability, and will be billed at the current hourly rate.

Site owners are responsible for creating and organizing their own content.

Definition of Roles

• Site Owner: Refers to the functional owner(s) and other administrators for a managed Open Berkeley site.
• Web Platform Services: Team in Berkeley Information Technology - Campus IT Experience which manages Open Berkeley sites and Drupal distributions (aka "Drupal platforms") as well as UC Berkeley's relationship with Pantheon.
• Pantheon: External vendor that provides specialized hosting for Drupal sites. Managed Site Owners do not interact directly with Pantheon.
• DNS Administrator / IT Policy: The DNS Administrator is the UC Berkeley entity that manages the UC Berkeley domain name service (DNS). The DNS Administrator works closely with IT Policy, the entity that approves requests for subdomains of berkeley.edu (e.g. https://example.berkeley.edu). IT Policy oversees other UC Berkeley policies, such as Protected Data as well. Managed Site Owners should not contact the DNS Administrator directly.

Summary of Roles and Responsibilities

This chart indicates whether a given role has any hands-on responsibilities for an aspect of managed Open Berkeley sites. For more detailed information on the roles and responsibilities for each aspect, click on the individual links in the table, or see Details of Roles and Responsibilities for Managed Sites.

	Site owner	Web Platform Services	Pantheon	DNS Administrator / IT Policy
Setup	yes	yes	no	no
Site building	yes	no	no	no
Accessibility policy	yes	yes	no	no
Initial launch	yes	yes	no	yes
Domain name changes	no	yes	no	yes
Billing changes	yes	yes	no	no
Cancel site	yes	yes	no	no
Drupal technical support	yes	yes	no	no
Collaborator accounts	yes	no	no	no
Training	yes	yes	no	no
Applying code updates	no	yes	no	no
HTTPS	no	yes	no	no
Backups	no	yes	no	no
Protected data management	yes	no	no	no
Site outages	no	yes	yes	no
Large-scale outages	no	yes	yes	no

Details of Roles and Responsibilities

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SETUP

Site owner

To set up a new managed site, site owners must:

• Agree to the setup and maintenance proposal
• Agree to use a berkeley.edu domain as the primary domain for their site
• Provide a valid campus chartstring for billing of setup, hosting, and maintenance charges
• Provide an initial list of user accounts and basic site details (name, preferred domain, etc)

Web Platform Services

The Web Platform Services team will:

• Verify the chartstring and set up monthly billing
• Set up a test environment for initial site building
• Enable scheduled backups
• Create initial user accounts
• Provide group training (see Training below)

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SITE BUILDING

Site owner

Site owners are responsible for content management, information architecture, and routine ongoing maintenance. Site owners must:

• Create and manage their own content
• Manage user accounts
• Maintain the content of their site throughout its lifespan

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ACCESSIBILITY POLICY

The UC system has a policy stating that all websites and web-based products must be accessible to people with disabilities. Additionally, UC Berkeley is under a Consent Decree with the U.S. Department of Justice. Websites must be WCAG 2.0 AA compliant by June 2, 2024, and must maintain their accessibility going forward. See the Digital Accessibility Program for more information.

Site Owner

Site Owners must:

• Ensure that any content creators on their Open Berkeley sites follow accessibility best practices for content they feature on their sites, including but not limited to text, images, audio and video, and widget content

Web Platform Services

The Web Platform Services team will:

• Embed accessibility into the development process of the Open Berkeley platform
• Test platform functionality regularly for accessibility
• Ensure that any new features are vetted for accessibility before they are deployed
• Include accessibility tips and guidance in training and documentation

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INITIAL LAUNCH

Site owner

To launch a managed site, site owners must:

• Ensure that their content is ready for launch
• Ensure that their stakeholders approve the launch
• Notify Web Platform Services at least two weeks before the desired launch date
• Respond to the offsite hosting email from IT Policy

Web Platform Services

The Web Platform Services team will:

• Request domain names for the site using IT Policy's Offsite Hosting form
• Promote content and files from the test environment to the live environment
• Prepare the live environment for launch
• Notify the site owner when the site is live

IT Policy

The campus IT Policy team will:

• Review and approve the Offsite Hosting request
• Forward the request to the DNS Administrator

DNS Administrator

The campus DNS Administrator will:

• Make the necessary changes to campus DNS records
• Notify the site owner and Web Platform Services when the domain will be live

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DOMAIN NAME CHANGES

Site owner

To add, change, or remove any domain names (hostnames) associated with the site, the site owner must:

• Notify Web Platform Services of new, changed, or removed domain names
• Notify Web Platform Services of any new domain redirects that are required
• Approve the one-time charges for domains requested after initial site launch

Web Platform Services

The Web Platform Services team will:

• Notify IT Policy of the domain name changes using the Offsite Hosting form
• Add or remove the domain names on the live Pantheon environment
• Set up any new domain redirects

IT Policy

The campus IT Policy team will:

• Review and approve the Offsite Hosting request
• Forward the request to DNS Administrator

DNS Administrator

The campus DNS Administrator will:

• Make the necessary changes to campus DNS records
• Notify the site owner and Web Platform Services when the domain changes will be live

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BILLING CHANGES

Billing is on a monthly basis. It is not prorated and cannot be refunded. Changes to chartstrings will take effect for the next monthly billing cycle after the request. Changes to hosting plan levels can be applied to the site immediately, but will be billed at the previous level until the next monthly billing cycle after the request.

Site owner

To change a billing chartstring or choose a new level of hosting service, site owners should:

• Use the self-service Telecom Catalog to update their chartstring; and/or
• Contact Web Platform Services to request a different hosting plan

Web Platform Services

The Web Platform Services team will:

• Enable the site owner's new hosting plan choice
• Verify the new chartstring and set up monthly billing
• Ensure that billing is stopped on the previous chartstring

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CANCEL SITE

Billing is on a monthly basis. It is not prorated and cannot be refunded.

Site owner

To cancel billing for a paid site, site owners should:

• Provide Web Platform Services the name of the site to be canceled and the requested cancellation date
• If desired, request an archive of the site's uploaded files and data. Note: Archives are provided as-is; site owners are responsible for maintaining the security of the data archives; access to source code will not be provided.
• Notify Web Platform Services if there are any domain names associated with the site that will no longer be used or will be moved to a new host
• Contact Socreg and the DNS Administrator to transfer the security contact and update DNS information for any domains that will remain in use

Web Platform Services

The Web Platform Services team will:

• Cancel billing for the site, effective the next billing cycle after the requested cancellation date
• If requested, provide an archive of the site's uploaded files and data
• On the requested cancellation date, delete the site from Pantheon
• Notify the DNS Administrator of domain names that will no longer be used after the cancellation

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DRUPAL TECHNICAL SUPPORT

Site owner

To resolve issues related to site building, site owners may:

• Use the documentation provided in the Site Builders Guide and related guides
• Attend training or office hours
• Submit questions to the Web Platform Services support email

Web Platform Services

The Web Platform Services team will:

• Maintain the Site Builders Guide and related guides
• Answer in-person questions at training and office hours
• Respond to questions posted to the Web Platform Services support email

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TRAINING

Site owner

Site owners may:

• Attend group training provided by Web Platform Services
• View recorded group training sessions
• Request one-on-one training from Web Platform Services at current consulting rates

Web Platform Services

The Web Platform Services team will:

• Provide regularly-scheduled group training sessions
• As time and resources permit, provide one-on-one training at current consulting rates

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COLLABORATOR ACCOUNTS

Site owners may collaborate with people who are not affiliated with Berkeley. These people will need to get CalNet IDs in order to have user accounts on a managed site.

Site owner

To allow non-Berkeley affiliates access to their sites, site owners should:

• Do due diligence before allowing access to their sites
• Sponsor all individuals for a the appropriate CalNet Guest (unpaid collaborators) or Affiliate account (paid collaborators)
• Set user roles appropriately
• Exercise oversight over third-party activities
• Revoke third-party accounts when needed

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APPLYING CODE UPDATES

Web Platform Services provides for the security and performance of managed sites by keeping up with security and other code updates.

Web Platform Services

The Web Platform Services team will:

• Monitor Drupal core and all included modules, plugins, themes, and libraries for updates
• Review Open Berkeley custom code for security issues and other bugs
• Apply security updates to Open Berkeley as needed
• Apply other code updates to Open Berkeley as needed, including accessibility improvements
• Using a standardized testing environment, test code updates
• Deploy updates on all live managed sites

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HTTPS

Web Platform Services

The Web Platform Services team will launch all Open Berkeley sites on the HTTPS protocol.

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BACKUPS

The Pantheon platform supports backups of site databases and files for all sites and environments (test and live). Backups for managed sites are scheduled daily. In most cases, backups are retained for a month.

Site owner

To take advantage of the backup system, site owners may:

• Request that a backup from a particular day be restored (understanding that any work since the last backup would be lost)

Web Platform Services

The Web Platform Services team will:

• Enable scheduled backups on all environments
• Restore available backups as requested

Pantheon

The Pantheon team (external hosting partner) will:

• Maintain the backup system
• Store backups for the time period specified in the backup schedule

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PROTECTED DATA MANAGEMENT

Protected data is not allowed on Pantheon sites. All data stored on Pantheon sites, whether available to anonymous visitors or only logged-in visitors, must be PL1.

Site owner

Site owners must:

• Ensure that their Pantheon site does not store or transmit any protected data
• Contact IT Policy with any questions about protected data

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SITE OUTAGES

Web Platform Services monitors live managed sites for downtime and will notify site owners of extended downtime.

Site owner

Site owners should:

• Notify Web Platform Services if extended downtime on their test environment interferes with initial site building
• Notify Web Platform Services if they experience extended downtime on their live site

Web Platform Services

The Web Platform Services team will:

• Monitor all live managed sites for downtime
• Troubleshoot the cause of the downtime
• Check Pantheon's status notifications
• File a support ticket with Pantheon if needed
• Notify the Site Owner of extended downtime

Pantheon

The Pantheon team (external hosting partner) will:

• Provide timely notification of issues that might cause downtime
• Respond to support tickets according to their own SLA

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LARGE-SCALE OUTAGES AND MAINTENANCE

Web Platform Services

In case of large-scale maintenance or outages of multiple UC Berkeley sites on Pantheon, the Web Platform Services team will:

• Follow its notification procedure to inform the campus and managed site owners
• Work with Pantheon to resolve the outage
• If the outage is DNS-related, work with the DNS Administrator to resolve the issue
• Review and document the outage
• Make recommendations to prevent or mitigate similar incidents in the future

Pantheon

The Pantheon team (external hosting partner) will:

• Provide timely notification of planned maintenance and other issues that might cause downtime
• Work with Web Platform Services to resolve the outage
• Review and document the outage
• Provide additional information to Web Platform Services if requested
• Report on their actions to mitigate or prevent similar incidents in the future

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A valid chart string is required to pay for Pantheon hosting and site owners are responsible for monitoring the chart string's fund sources to ensure that the chart string will continue to work. If a chart string becomes invalid (e.g., if a fund source expires), the site's billing administrator must update the chart string directly in the Berkeley IT Billing system (Telecom Catalog). If an invalid chart string is not updated in the Berkeley IT Billing system, then the site will be suspended until the chart string is updated. 

Web Platform Services offers multiple levels of hosting service. Higher levels of service provide faster performance and improved availability in case of scheduled or unscheduled outages. Plan details are available at Web Hosting (Pantheon). Site Owners with mission-critical websites should choose a plan that meets their business needs.

Site Owners are billed monthly for hosting. Current rates are available in the IT Service Catalog. Rate changes will be posted at this URL and announced to Site Owners via email.

Site Owners are also billed monthly for maintenance. Charges cover testing and deployment of security and other code updates. Maintenance is billed at the standard hourly rate and may vary from month to month. Recharge rate is subject to change.

Site Owners may terminate service at any time. Terminations and other billing changes will take effect in the next monthly billing cycle after Web Platform Services receives the request. Requests made within 5 business days before the end of the billing cycle may require one more cycle to take effect.

Charges are not prorated and cannot be refunded.

From time to time Pantheon may schedule maintenance to improve service or conduct repairs. Web Platform Services will announce major scheduled maintenance to Managed Site Owners via email, and will post notifications on the campus System Status page.

If a large-scale unscheduled outage occurs, Web Platform Services will work with Pantheon to resolve it. Notifications will be posted and sent as described above for scheduled outages.

See Roles and Responsibilities for more information about outages.

The expected response time for routine requests is within 2 business days. Depending on the nature of the request, resolution may take longer.

Request	Initial response	Expected resolution
Routine support	Within 2 business days	Within 2 business days
Bug report	Within 2 business days	Depends on scope
Feature request (not sponsored)	Within 2 business days	Depends on scope
Sponsored feature	Within 2 business days	As outlined in separate Sponsored Feature agreement
New site spinup	Within 2 business days	Within 1 week after Site Owner acceptance of contract
Site launch	Within 2 business days	Within 3 weeks after Site Owner request
Site downtime or outage	As soon as possible within normal business hours	As soon as possible within normal business hours

Web Platform Services strives to provide the best possible service, but circumstances beyond our control may interfere. We apologize for any disruption in service. Neither Web Platform Services nor its vendors are responsible for loss of data or business, security breach, or other damages.

History of changes to this MOU:

• 2024-07-03: Update effective date. Add information about support channels and consulting agreements. Add information about Consent Decree.
• 2023-07-31: Update effective date. Add post-launch hostname request information.
• 2023-05-04: Update Plans, Rates, and billing section.
• 2023-04-20: Update link to Accessibility policy.
• 2023-03-07: Add row headers to table.
• 2022-07-06: Update effective date.
• 2022-01-20: Update for organizational name change.
• 2022-01-18: Add changelog section. Update site cancellation process.
• 2021-12-13: Update effective date. 
• 2021-08-13: Update effective date. Add response time section.
• 2021-05-26: Update title and terminology for DNS Administrator.
• 2020-09-16: Update effective date.
• 2020-02-05: Update terminology and links for Protected Data.
• 2018-09-18: Add recharge rate subject to change.
• 2018-09-06: Update sections: Launch process; Site cancellation process; Support options.
• 2018-03-06: Update effective date. Update to reflect standard HTTPS setup.
• 2017-09-08: Fix misspellings.
• 2017-02-16: Add information on accessibility policy.
• 2016-11-29: First published version on Open Berkeley website.