Business services with an expiration date are considered “under contract” until the expiration date is reached. A business service under contract will not change price during the contract. In addition, you cannot make certain changes to business services that are under contract.
Changes to a business service are restricted if the business service is under contract. The following restrictions apply when the business service is under contract:
You can change the resources on the business service (that is, the number of CPUs, the amount of RAM, the number of NICs, and the total costable storage) only within the minimum/maximum limits defined on the associated package.
You can change the associated resource pricing package only if it is an “upgrade,” that is, the new package must require the minimum resources and/or contract length to be the same or greater value. A package “downgrade,” that is, changing the settings to the minimum resources and/or contract length, is not allowed.
You can only upgrade the service level of the business service to the same price or more expensive price. A downgrade of the service level is not allowed.
You cannot reduce or delete an expiration date on a business service.
You cannot delete a workload from the business service.
You cannot delete a contracted business service.
When the business service nears its expiration date, you will receive an email notifying you that changes to the business service are no longer restricted. During this “change period” you can make any change, including deleting the business service.
Some resource pricing packages have minimum contract lengths. When you choose one of these packages for a workload, the business service must have a contract that is at least as long as the workload’s minimum contract length. Some packages also include a contract renewal length. If a business service contains a workload with a contract renewal length, the business service’s contract renews for the specified length when it reaches the expiration date. In other words, when the business service’s expiration date is reached, the expiration date is extended by the renewal length.
You can expect the following behaviors for contract renewals:
If a business service has several workloads, the contract renewal length for the entire business service is derived from the workload with the longest contract renewal length.
If a business service has no number of days for contract renewal, the business service expires.
If a business service contract is renewed, the expiration date is extended. No cost changes occur.
If a business service undergoes a change request during the change period, the expiration date is extended.
If a business service change request is pending during a contract change period, its contract is not renewed until the change request is reviewed and approved.