Smart Hands Service Scope

About this service

UKCloud offers a Smart Hands service, available for customers using our Cloud Enablement service. You can use this service for a number of different requirements, such as a physical 'push-button' task, replacing hardware or checking the status of equipment.

This service is subject to the availability of UKCloud engineers to perform the work. UKCloud reserves the right to turn down or reschedule requests where they conflict with other planned or emergency work, or are outside the scope of the Smart Hands service. We'll communicate with you if this happens.

Inclusions

The following are examples of the core tasks that Smart Hands can be requested for:

  • Visual inspection or verification of status, for example checking and relaying whether an equipment LED is lit, or information a display panel is presenting

  • Install customer hardware

  • Physical power cycle of equipment

  • Toggle a switch or push a button

  • Replacement of existing equipment

  • Check and/or re-seat cables

  • Confirm a serial number or other printed information on equipment where visible

  • Connectivity testing

  • Supervising customer provided third-party installations and visits

  • Basic troubleshooting of customer equipment

Note

The Smart Hands service is available only within the data centre halls and cannot be used for transportation of hardware between different areas of the data centre. UKCloud can assist with uninstalling and moving equipment to loading bays but cannot transport equipment between different areas of the data centre.

How do I use Smart Hands?

Step 1: Raise a Service Request/Incident

For routine non-urgent requirements, raise a Service Request in the My Calls section of the UKCloud Portal providing your detailed needs of the activity you would like us to perform and if there are any specific needs to be co-ordinated with you.

For urgent requirements following raising a Service Request and contact UKCloud Support on 01252 303300, option 2. We will treat your urgent request as a Service Down event and act to help resolve as quickly as possible.

Step 2: Confirm requirements

If the instructions in the Service Request are unclear, you will be contacted by an Engineer to confirm your requirements before the activity is performed or in the case of hardware being installed or replaced, to establish when the hardware will be delivered and the potential installation date subject to the hardware arriving on time.

All hardware deliveries must be co-ordinated with us to ensure they are accepted by the data centre.

Your non-urgent requirements such as installing new hardware, will be carried out during our business hours - 9am to 5pm Monday to Friday and won't be possible during public holidays or our published Change Freeze periods.

An estimation of the time it will take to complete the activity will be provided.

Step 3: Carry out task

A Data Centre Engineer will carry out the task based on the instructions received. The length of time that the activity takes is dependent on the task being undertaken, and the Data Centre Engineer may call the requestor on their registered number if any further information is required.

Step 4: Confirm task completion

Once the task requested has been completed, the Engineer will contact you to confirm the work is completed successfully.

The Service Request will be updated to show that that the task has been completed and the duration of the activity before closing the ticket.

Smart Hands Standby

If you need to reserve a UKCloud engineer to perform Smart Hands work during a time window, but do not know specficially when the engineer will be required within that window, you can use Smart Hands Standby. For example, you may need to power-cycle colocated hardware at random times during an overnight upgrade.

With Smart Hands Standby, you can reserve a UKCloud engineer for an 8-hour window to be on call to perform tasks as required. Smart Hands Standby is charged at the SFIA Rate 'Follow – Client Interface'. This is in addition to the standard Smart Hands hourly rate, which is applied when the engineer is performing the activities.

In the event that the reserved engineer is required to perform emergency maintenance for UKCloud during the Smart Hands Standby window, this will take priority over the on-call reservation. In the event this happens we'll communicate this to you and we'll make best efforts to accomodate your work during the emergency maintenance.

How much does Smart Hands cost?

The cost for Smart Hands is charged in hourly increments at a rate of £85 per hour with a minimum of 1 hour.

You will be charged to cover the time the engineer is on site to carry out the required activity and this charge will appear on your next invoice.

Feedback

If you find a problem with this article, click Improve this Doc to make the change yourself or raise an issue in GitHub. If you have an idea for how we could improve any of our services, send an email to feedback@ukcloud.com.