1. Scope and definitions
This Service Level Agreement (SLA) applies to production services of the Pitbull Secure Gateway email security and delivery platform for enterprise, hosting and MSP customers. The SLA covers components under our control: MX gateway, Security Engine, outbound relay, management panel, API and NOC infrastructure.
Uptime: Percentage of time the gateway service is reachable via customer MX records in a calendar month.
Scheduled maintenance: Maintenance window announced at least 48 hours in advance via email and panel, excluded from SLA calculation.
Incident: Service fully or partially unavailable.
MTTR: Time from incident report to service restoration.
2. Availability commitment
| Metric | Target | Description |
|---|
| Monthly uptime | 99.99% | Excluding scheduled maintenance; ~4.32 min max downtime budget/month |
| Maintenance notice | ≥ 48 hours | Announced via customer panel and email |
| Maintenance duration | ≤ 4 hours/month | Total scheduled maintenance monthly cap |
How is it measured? Uptime is calculated from external synthetic checks to Pitbull-operated gateway endpoints (MX and relay) combined with internal NOC monitors. Downtime counts from first alert to restoration.
3. Performance commitments
| Metric | Target | Description |
|---|
| Inbound filter latency (P95) | < 200 ms | Policy decision after SMTP DATA; heavy sandbox off hot path |
| Panel response (P95) | < 2 sec | Management panel and API health endpoint |
| Outbound relay delivery rate | ≥ 98% | Assuming healthy IP reputation and correct DNS/MX config |
| Queue processing | < 5 min | Stuck message detection and alert under normal load |
Performance metrics do not apply when caused by customer misconfiguration (wrong MX, SPF, relay AUTH).
4. Support priorities and response times
| Priority | Definition | First response | MTTR target |
|---|
| P1 — Critical | All gateway traffic stopped or 50%+ customers affected | 1 hour | 4 hours |
| P2 — High | Major feature unavailable (quarantine, outbound relay, panel) | 4 hours | 1 business day |
| P3 — Normal | General questions, configuration, reporting | 1 business day | 3 business days |
| P4 — Low | Feature requests, documentation | 2 business days | Planned |
Support hours: 24/7 (P1/P2); P3/P4 business days 09:00–18:00 TRT. Critical incidents also use Telegram and webhook alert channels.
5. Service credits (SLA breach)
If monthly uptime falls below target, enterprise contract customers receive:
- 99.99% – 99.0%: 10% monthly service fee credit
- 99.0% – 95.0%: 25% monthly service fee credit
- Below 95.0%: 50% monthly service fee credit
Credit must be requested in writing within 15 business days after the month. Credits are applied to the next invoice, not cash refunds.
6. SLA exclusions
- Customer or third-party DNS/MX/SPF misconfiguration
- Relay AUTH, TLS or quota violations from customer servers
- DDoS or volumetric attacks
- General outages at third-party providers (Microsoft, Gmail)
- Force majeure and data center events per facility SLA
- Emergency changes with customer written approval
7. Reporting and transparency
Enterprise customers may request monthly SLA summary reports: uptime percentage, incident count, average MTTR, scheduled maintenance log and performance metrics. Live status dashboard available 24/7 via NOC screens.
8. Effective date
This SLA is an integral part of the applicable service agreement. Updates are published on this page; material changes are notified to enterprise contract customers at least 30 days in advance.
Last updated: June 2026
