Every service has a level that indicates:

• How vital its availability is to the university
• The timescale it takes for an interruption of the service to become critical or a crisis for Cornell.  

Service level also informs the amount and speed of support, expected time to respond and resolve as outlined in service level agreements with customers, and helps in allocating other resources devoted to the service.

Essential

Service disruption becomes critical in the scale of minutes. May have a life and safety component.

Primarily capabilities required to provide the university's most essential business operations and ensure the life and safety of the Cornell community, including faculty, staff, students, animals, research subjects, hospital patients, etc. Essential service offerings should be highly available and staffed with 24x7 support. An architecture review should ensure that all key technologies used to deliver the service also match the criticality of the service.

Critical

Service disruption becomes critical in the scale of hours.

Primarily capabilities that enable or support the university's teaching, research, outreach and administrative needs.

Important

Service disruption may not reach critical state, or may become so some hours to days after the disruption has occurred.

Primarily capabilities that enhance the university's teaching, research, outreach, and administrative needs.

Best Level of Effort

Support provided at the discretion of a service support team, in situations where there is no contractual agreement with CIT to provide support, but in the spirit of goodwill, it is in the best interest of both parties to provide limited-scope assistance.

Unsanctioned

Any support request that is not sanctioned by the university. This may be due to safety, security, policy, legal, ethical, or other concerns.