Acquia Frequently Asked Questions

FAQ Topics

Acquia, the Company

Acquia Drupal

Acquia Network subscriptions

Acquia Support

 

Acquia, the Company

What is Acquia?

We are a commercial open source software company. We provide an incredibly valuable set of software and network services for the popular Drupal open source social publishing system. Our goal is to amplify Drupal and make it rock even better and louder for more audiences.

What does Acquia sell?

We sell annual subscriptions for our software and services.

What software products does Acquia offer?

Acquia Drupal is our first software distribution. It includes Drupal core, a collection of Drupal community contributed modules, Acquia Network modules, and potentially, non-Drupal software, assembled together to provide an advanced starting point to begin building Drupal websites. It also provides the foundation for our Drupal support offerings via the Acquia Network.

What services does Acquia offer?

The Acquia Network is an operations portal for managing Drupal web sites, offering site developers and administrators a suite of remote network services and professional technical support to operate and maintain Drupal websites. Subscribers to the Acquia Network gain access to these services as well as community forums and Acquia Drupal documentation.

Does Acquia claim to own or control Drupal in any way?

No. We do not claim to own or control Drupal in any way. Acquia is a member of the Drupal community, similar to any other organization. We want to see the Drupal community succeed and work with the community to advance Drupal. The Drupal Association continues to operate the drupal.org domain, Dries continues to own the Drupal trademark, and the Drupal community continues to set the technical direction of the Drupal project.

What is Dries' role at Acquia and how does his involvement in Acquia influence his project leadership?

Dries is the co-founder and CTO of Acquia, and he is obviously working to make the company successful.

However, the entire team at Acquia strongly believes that Dries **must** be able to effectively lead the Drupal project where the community wants it to go - and not negatively affect the project due to Acquia's needs. He must be able to continue to make technical decisions independent of Acquia's commercial interests to preserve the overall health of the community and the project.

Therefore, Dries is expressly permitted to make decisions within the Drupal project that may not always be in Acquia's best commercial interest. Additionally, a portion of Dries' time is spent on activities associated with the project at large (vs. Acquia's own software development). In essence, since the health and vitality of the Drupal project at large is extremely important to us, we've taken great pains to make sure that Dries continues to act for the best interests of the Drupal community at large as he has from the beginning.

What is the relationship between Acquia and the Drupal Association?

Acquia is an organizational member of the Drupal Association, but otherwise has no formal relationship with the Association. The statutes of the Drupal Association say that only individuals, not companies, can become a member of the Drupal Association's Board of Directors. Board members can't be a proxy for their company and are liable as individuals. Individuals in the employ of Acquia may be Board members of the Association but their fiduciary obligation is to the Drupal Association, not to Acquia.

How does Acquia participate in and give back to the Drupal community?

Our engineers work with the Drupal community to fix bugs, to implement missing features, to write documentation or to help sponsor and organize community events. We are in a unique position: our business requires Drupal to be a great software platform. Because Acquia’s success is driven by the overall success of the Drupal project at large, rather than the demands of any one customer, we are able to look broadly across Drupal to identify gaps we can fill that others are not. We hope in this way we can simply be a "strong contributor" within the community's overall effort to make Drupal better.

Furthermore, we provide commercial support to those users for whom Drupal is becoming mission-critical software infrastructure. This is important to help the Drupal community reach out to new and different users. To do this, we may have to dive deep into some particularly thorny issues. Fortunately, having engineers working full-time on Drupal means we can devote resources to hard problems without being constrained by the needs of a single website customer, and work to solve problems everybody needs addressed. But we rarely have either the resources or expertise to do this alone; we're always be seeking to work with the community on such hard problems.

Does Acquia compete with developers and consultants for web development projects?

Our main goal is to be a product company, not a professional services company. So, no - we do not compete with web development shops and consultants for site development projects. Instead, Acquia's professional services organization is focused in other areas: helping organizations get started with Drupal, integrating Drupal with other enterprise and web applications, and providing technical assistance on large Drupal implementations.

Will Acquia build my web site?

No, but we will provide services that can help you to get started on working with Drupal. To build out your site, we will refer you to one or more Acquia Partners who you can trust to complete your project on time, on budget, on Acquia Drupal.

What professional services are available to help me get started?

Acquia's services are described in the Products and Services section of this web site.

Where can I see the roadmap for Acquia products and services?

See the Acquia Drupal Projects Discussion in the Community section of the website.

How do you offer both commercial-grade support for Acquia distributions while enabling people to benefit from Drupal's modularity and flexibility?

We recognize that this is a difficult challenge. On one hand, Drupal's flexibility is what makes it great. On the other, it's what makes it hard to swallow when a customer is first getting started, or requires stability above all else. Fortunately, we're not the first to address this issue. RedHat faced the same problem with Linux.

What we expect is that following the Acquia distro path will lead customers to make choices about what is most critical on their requirements list and how they can best meet those requirements. In some cases, stability and supportability will outweigh custom theming or use of a great new module. In the long term, these choices will become another set of data points for the Drupal community at large to consider when making development decisions.

How does Acquia make code contributions to the community and Drupal.org for modules it supports?

If Acquia determines a broad enough customer need to include a module in its distributions, but an available module does not meet Acquia's standards for functionality, stability, scalability and security, Acquia's engineering organization actively adds the code we believe is needed to fill any such gaps.

In practice, Acquia seeks to work with the module's maintainer to integrate these enhancements and fixes into the drupal.org code repository.

Alternately, if a module simply does not exist to meet a need, Acquia will create the needed module, and contribute it to drupal.org.

Acquia is NOT seeking to replace current module maintainers. Acquia seeks to provide help, code, and resources to selected modules and module maintainers to make these selected modules better for everyone.

To what degree are Drupal community members who become Acquia employees able to maintain their independence?

We've already described how Dries is able to continue to lead the community in the direction it seeks to go. As we hire other Drupal community members for various roles, their daily activities are generally devoted to meeting Acquia's business needs. However, any code we contribute, or any activities we perform, need to pass muster with the community in the same way any other community member's activities must be acceptable. We believe the Drupal community is healthy enough to be self-correcting.

What does Acquia mean for organizations who are using Drupal for critical projects?

It means that these organizations are able to get access to integrated Drupal configurations that are supported in the same manner as other software they rely on. They are able to leverage value-added services that make Drupal even more powerful, reliable, and easy to use. And they can look forward to us offering an increasing array of ancillary products or services that will make Drupal an even more effective tool for building great social publishing websites.

How do I pronounce the company's name?

Long-ah, accent on first syllable. AH-kwee-uh .

 

Acquia Drupal

What are the system requirements and supported platforms for Acquia Drupal?

See Acquia Drupal Supported Platforms.

What is the difference between Acquia Drupal and the software I can download from Drupal.org?

Acquia Drupal is the latest Acquia-supported version of the Drupal core, the latest Acquia-supported version of a number of contributed modules, the Acquia Network modules, and a number of high quality themes brought together in one integrated and commercially supported package. Some of these elements are individually available on Drupal.org, but finding and assembling the right versions of each package can be a time consuming process.

The role of Acquia is to provide a packaged Drupal distribution that is backed by commercial grade support. The role of Drupal.org is to continuously advance the leading edge of Drupal technology with new capabilities. Both roles are essential for bringing the power of Drupal to the broadest possible audience and strengthening the Drupal community.

Acquia works continuously to ensure that the versions of Drupal core and contributed modules that ship with Acquia Drupal are appropriately up-to-date without compromising stability, security, performance, and compatibility.

Is Acquia Drupal a fork of Drupal?

No, and Acquia works continuously to ensure that such a thing never occurs. All Acquia created patches are submitted back to the Drupal project in a timely fashion. Acquia engineers work closely with core maintainers and contributed module maintainers to ensure that there is little or no divergence between Acquia Drupal source code and the source code of available on Drupal.org. Given that source code divergence creates costly duplicated effort for the Acquia engineering team, Acquia is highly motivated to minimize or eliminate it.

The relationship between Acquia Drupal and Drupal.org Drupal is similar in many (but not all) regards to the relationship between Ubuntu Linux and Debian Project Linux or Red Hat Enteprise Linux and Fedora Project Linux. The former is a commercially packaged and supported distribution of the leading edge innovation coming out of the former.

Under what license is Acquia Drupal released?

Acquia Drupal is released under the GPL license. Acquia reserves all rights to the Acquia trademark, logo, and trade dress.

Is Acquia Drupal free?

Yes. Acquia Drupal is free as in "free beer" and free as in "free speech." You may download and use Acquia Drupal at no charge regardless of whether you have a paid Acquia Network subscription. Because the Acquia Drupal source code is released under a GPL license, you may modify or redistribute the source code as you see fit, as long as you comply with the terms of the GPL.

Acquia reserves all rights to the Acquia trademark, logo, and trade dress and their derivatives as they appear in Acquia Drupal. Other parties similarly reserve all rights to their respective trademarks and their derivatives as they appear in Acquia Drupal.

Can I get support from Acquia for Drupal 5?

No. Acquia provides commercial support for Acquia Drupal, which is based on Drupal 6.4 and higher. Acquia Professional Services and Acquia Solution Provider partners can provide expert assistance in migrating your site to the latest version of Acquia Drupal. The new features, improved usability, stability, and performance and the ability to obtain commercial support are well worth the investment. Please contact Acquia Sales for more information about how to get started with your migration.

How often will Acquia release Acquia Drupal?

Acquia plans to release incremental patched releases of Acquia Drupal approximately every two weeks and Long Term Support (a.k.a. “LTS") releases approximately once every six months.

How soon after a major release of Drupal.org Drupal will Acquia release a corresponding release of Acquia Drupal?

The interval will vary from release to release, but it may take several months to port contributed modules and provide a supported distribution. Acquia will coordinate with the core maintainer and work closely with module maintainers to help accelerate the porting and integration process.

How will Acquia keep up with the rapid evolution of Drupal core and modules?

It's simply our job to do it, and we'll make it work. That said, there are practical things that will help assure we can keep up. For example, testing. During the Drupal 7 development period Acquia will be actively participating in Dries' vision to develop a strong testing foundation for Drupal. For us, this means contributing as many core tests as we can. As the strong testing framework matures, our efficiency in examining (and testing) new patches / modules will increase many-fold, which will go along way towards this goal.

We'll also think carefully about what new modules we add to our distribution, examining data such as module popularity, module code quality, the depth of relationship we can form with a module maintainer, etc. All of these can help us focus our efforts where we, the maintainer, and our customer all win.

Will Acquia backport new functionality from newer releases of Drupal into older supported releases?

We have no plans to do so. Such a move would be inconsistent with the long-established Drupal Project development philosophy and culture. Our practice and strong preference is to align with, seek leverage from, and provide leverage to the Drupal community. Back-porting new features into an older version without the overwhelming support of the Drupal community would be tantamount to forking Drupal, with all the associated redundant effort and diffusion of scarce resources. Acquia opposes the forking of Drupal, so no back-porting is planned.

How does Acquia work with contributed module maintainers?

Acquia works hard to cultivate shared vision, strong working relationships, and a common development philosophy/discipline with the maintainers of the contributed modules included in Acquia Drupal. Acquia works closely with the maintainers to deliver timely patches to Acquia Network subscribers in the course of delivering support.

In order to preserve the spirit of volunteerism and integrity that is so essential to the health of the Drupal community, Acquia avoids direct compensation relationships with module maintainers who are not Acquia employees.

How does Acquia handle new security vulnerabilities in Drupal?

Acquia participates in the Drupal security team to continuously monitor and address a variety of sources for news of new security vulnerabilities.

When a new vulnerability is discovered, Acquia works closely with the Drupal community to verify and fix the vulnerability and disseminate information about countermeasures and patches that address the problem.

Does Acquia offer indemnification against third party claims of intellectual property ownership for the Acquia Drupal software?

In general, no. However, it may possible in some instance, depending on the specific details of your situation. Please contact Acquia Sales for assistance.

Will Acquia support contributed modules or third party themes that are not included in Acquia Drupal?

It depends. The quality and supportability of contributed modules varies widely. Some contributed modules or third party themes may cause serious functionality conflicts, instability, performance degradation, or security vulnerabilities when installed on Acquia Drupal.

If you would like Acquia to support one or more contributed modules not included in Acquia Drupal, the first step is to engage Acquia Professional Services to complete a feasibility assessment project. This assessment will be billable at standard Acquia Professional Services rates and will be customized to suit your situation. Based on the results of the feasibility assessment, Acquia will either provide you with a custom quote for an annual support contract for the module(s) in question, or decline to support the module(s) and provide a detailed explanation.

Will Acquia support my custom-developed module(s) or themes?

Possibly. It depends on the Acquia assessment of the quality and supportability of the module(s). It may not be commercially feasible for Acquia support your custom developed module.

If you would like Acquia to support your custom in-house module(s), the first step is to engage Acquia Professional Services to complete a feasibility assessment project. This assessment will be billable at standard Acquia Professional Services rates and will be customized to suit your situation. Based on the results of the feasibility assessment, Acquia will either provide you with a custom quote for an annual support contract for the module(s) in question, or decline to support the module(s) and provide a detailed explanation.

If I make modifications to Acquia Drupal source code, can I still get support from Acquia?

If you would like Acquia to support your modifications, the first step is to engage Acquia Professional Services to complete a feasibility assessment project. This assessment will be billable at standard Acquia Professional Services rates and will be customized to suit your situation. Based on the results of the feasibility assessment, Acquia will either provide you with a custom quote for an annual support contract for the modifications in question, or decline to support the modifications and provide a detailed explanation.

If you decide to proceed with unsupported modifications, Acquia will still attempt to assist you with issues that are clearly unrelated to your modifications. When it is uncertain whether the issue is related to unsupported modifications, Acquia will attempt to assist you until it becomes clear that the issue is related to the unsupported modifications, at which point Acquia will disengage and close the ticket.

Can I use modules and themes not included in Acquia Drupal without losing support?

Yes. However, unless you make separate arrangements as explained elsewhere in this FAQ, modules and themes not included in Acquia Drupal are unsupported. In practice, this means that Acquia will still try to assist you with issues that are clearly unrelated to the unsupported modules and themes you are using. When it is uncertain whether the issue is related to unsupported modules and themes, Acquia will attempt to assist you until it becomes clear that the issue is related to the unsupported elements, at which point Acquia will disengage and close the ticket.

Does Acquia provide long-term support for Acquia Drupal?

Yes. For each release designated as a Long Term Support release (a.k.a. “LTS release”), Acquia provides several years of active maintenance for all current subscription holders and an additional year of extended maintenance for customers with premium subscriptions. Customers who use an LTS release may receive support throughout the Active Maintenance period.

What does Long Term Support release mean?

A Long Term Support release (a.k.a. “LTS release) is a release that Acquia has designated as being eligible for long-term support and maintenance. LTS releases are deemed to be stable enough for long-term production use and normally contain only Drupal core and contributed modules that are labeled "released" on Drupal.org (e.g. not Alpha, Beta, RC, etc.). Acquia provides active maintenance and extended maintenance for LTS releases to keep them functioning properly within their supported environments. Acquia may require certain patches to be applied to an LTS release in order to maintain its long-term support status.

LTS releases have the "LTS" designation in the version number of the release in the form "Acquia Drupal x.x.x LTS".

What is an Interim Support Release?

An Interim Support release (a.k.a. "IS" release) is a public release of Acquia Drupal that is supported, but is not designated as an LTS release. An IS release may include new functionality and patches that are not yet available in an LTS release and may also include Drupal core or modules not designated as "released" on Drupal.org. Current subscription holders may request and receive support for an IS release, but upgrading or downgrading to an LTS release may be the required in order to resolve the issue.

IS releases have the "IS" designation in the version number of the release in the form "Acquia Drupal x.x.x IS".

What does Active Maintenance mean?

For LTS releases that are within their active maintenance period, Acquia will deliver or coordinate the delivery of patches and updates as needed to keep the release functioning properly within its supported operating environment. The supported operating environment includes the specific combinations of specific versions of operating systems, databases, web servers, and PHP versions and configurations that are listed in the supported platform matrix at the time the LTS release in question was released and their follow-on patches, minor releases, and service packs.

As an example, suppose you are using an Acquia Drupal 1.x.x LTS release that lists MySQL 5.0 in the supported platform matrix. In order to address a critical security vulnerability discovered in MySQL 5.0, you decide to upgrade to MySQL 5.1. However, you quickly discover that the database upgrade causes Acquia Drupal to experience an unwanted 20% performance degradation.

You have an active Acquia Network Professional subscription, so you open a ticket to get assistance with the performance issue. In this case, Acquia would most likely work with Drupal core/module maintainers as needed to generate a patch for Acquia Drupal 1.x.x LTS that addresses the incompatibility with MySQL 5.1.

Aquia will post an end of life schedule for each LTS release of Acquia Drupal when the first LTS release becomes available. This schedule will contain precise dates for the Active Maintenance and Extended Maintenance periods.

What does Extended Maintenance mean?

Extended maintenance is a premium entitlement for owners of premium Acquia Network subscriptions. Extended maintenance provides an extended window of support beyond the active maintenance period for LTS releases of Acquia Drupal.

For LTS releases that are within their extended maintenance period, Acquia will deliver or coordinate the delivery of patches and updates as needed to address defects that occur on supported platforms and are the root cause of tickets classified with Critical or High Urgency level. The supported operating environment includes the specific combinations of specific versions of operating systems, databases, web servers, and PHP versions and configurations that are listed in the supported platform matrix at the time the LTS release in question was released and their follow-on patches, minor releases, and service packs.

As an example, suppose you are using an Acquia Drupal 1.x.x LTS release that lists PHP 5.0 in the supported platform matrix. It has been several years since this application went into production and Acquia Drupal 1.x.x LTS is out of the active maintenance period. You have seriously considered upgrading the system to a newer version, but have decided it is not feasible to do so.

One day you notice a high load instability issue in PHP 5.0 that is affecting a custom PHP application running on the same server as Acquia Drupal, so you decide to upgrade to PHP 5.1. However, you quickly discover that the PHP upgrade causes your Acquia Drupal site to white screen, making it totally non-functional.

You have an active Acquia Network Enterprise subscription, so you call the Technical Assistance Center to open an urgent ticket to get your site back online. In this case, assuming a suitable patch does not already exist, Acquia would work with Drupal core/module maintainers to generate a patch or workaround for Acquia Drupal 1.x.x LTS that addresses the incompatibility between your implementation of Acquia Drupal and PHP 5.1.

Aquia will post an end of life schedule for each LTS release of Acquia Drupal when the first LTS release becomes available. This schedule will contain precise dates for the Active Maintenance and Extended Maintenance periods.

 

Acquia Network Subscriptions

What kind of site would be a good match for the Elite subscription?

If your international brand reputation, more than a million dollars of revenue, or company-wide employee productivity rely on Drupal, you should probably have an Elite subscription. As the open source equivalent of an enterprise-wide site license, the Elite subscription gives you 24X7 high priority access to senior Drupal experts with custom options tailored to meet the specific needs of your organization.

What kind of site would be a good match for the Enterprise subscription?

If you invest more than $100,000 (approx. two half time employees) annually on the design, development, administration, and hosting of your Drupal site, you should protect your investment and maximize your return by having an Enterprise subscription. Most organizations using Drupal to power an online business, all or part of a corporate/organizational web site, or a large-scale internal application would fall into this category.

The Enterprise subscription gives you quick telephone and chat access to world-class Drupal expertise and services to eliminate development roadblocks and reduce the risk and impact of system downtime.

What kind of site would be a good match for the Professional subscription?

A Professional subscription offers electronic access to the Drupal expertise and services you need to rapidly get your site into production and operating with maximum efficiency and uptime.

If your organization uses Drupal to power departmental social publishing applications such as document sharing, team blogs, wiki collaboration, policy portals, knowledge management, and e-learning, the Professional subscription is a great fit. These applications may not be mission critical, but they do have significant internal visibility and can have a large impact on employee productivity.

Beyond internal applications, the Professional subscription is also an excellent fit for medium sized small web businesses, local governments, and blogs and online communities with 10,000-25,000 unique visitors per month.

What kind of site would be a good match for the Standard subscription?

If you are a small organization reliant on a Drupal site with less than 10,000 unique visitors per month and no full-time professional web staff, you can make your life much easier with a very affordable Standard subscription. The Standard subscription will give you a basic support lifeline to guide you to safety when you get stuck and help you prevent trouble before it puts your site at risk.

What kind of site would be a good match for the Community subscription?

Personal blogs, micro-communities, family sites, small non-profit groups and religious organizations would benefit from a Community Subscriptions. These sites often operate on a small budget and suffer no significant business impact from downtime. But they are still at risk for security vulnerabilities, upgrade incompatibilities, and user-generated content spam and abuse that can consume scarce resources and frustrate site visitors.

The Community subscription provides smaller sites with access to peer-led guidance and assistance through the Acquia Subscriber forums. It also offers a full range of Acquia Network services to help these smaller sites keep up to date, secure, and spam free. When a need for more complete support emerges, a quick upgrade to the Standard or Professional subscription is always available.

At what point in my site's life cycle should I buy a subscription?

In order to get the most value, you should purchase a subscription as early as possible in the site life cycle. The emergence of issues that require support is unpredictable by its very nature, so attempting to artfully time the purchase of a subscription is a futile exercise that can lead to costly and wasteful delays.

Most Drupal web sites are never truly “done”. They iterate continuously through user story creation, experience design, development and content creation, testing, staging, release to production, and optimization. And even if development were theoretically declared to be “complete”, original content and user-generated content are always growing and interlinking in an organic fashion. This can impact site performance and stability and create new intersections with previously dormant software defects.

In this dynamic environment, there is no one point in time which is more likely than any other to generate the need for support and network services. Though the complexion of emerging issues may change over time, there is always a flow. The need to isolate and resolve software defects, upgrade the Drupal core and contributed modules, and implement best practices for security, performance, and architecture is continuous.

Why would I need Acquia Network subscriptions if I have considerable Drupal expertise in my organization?

The Acquia Network subscriptions have two essential elements of value. The first element is technical support to help you efficiently resolve problems that inevitably occur while building and operating your site. The second element is the network services that streamline maintenance tasks and add valuable new functionality to your site.

If you have considerable Drupal expertise in your organization, you may be able to self-support instead of relying on Acquia for support. However, you owe it to yourself to examine whether internal technical support is the best use of time for your limited internal resources. It may be that their time is better spent building new functionality to delight your users rather than troubleshooting defects, isolating root causes, and finding or developing patches.

The subscriptions are priced on a per site basis. How do you define a "site" for subscription pricing purposes?

We define a site the same way Drupal does. When you set up a Drupal site, you give the site a name. Each such site needs a separate subscription so that it can be referenced and supported individually. This is true even if Drupal core and contributed module code, databases, content, user bases, etc. are configured to be wholly or partly shared across multiple sites on the same server.

The reason that we price our subscriptions on a per site basis is that the cost of support increases in rough proportion to the complexity of the supported environment and that complexity increases as the number of sites increases. We recognize that this is not strictly true in all situations, and there will certainly be edge cases were this pricing model breaks down. Our direct sales team offers substantial volume discounts for organizations who desire Acquia Network subscription coverage for multiple sites and we are very willing to structure custom subscription pricing tailored to meet the needs of special situations. If you feel that our standard pricing approach doesn't work well for you, please call our sales team to explain your situation. Chances are good that we will be able to find a mutually agreeable solution.

Why does your subscription price vary by the number of servers?

Our costs go up as the complexity and operational criticality of the supported environment increases. Sites running on more servers are inherently more complex and are most often more operationally critical than sites running on fewer servers. This is only true up to a point, however. Supporting a cluster running 5 servers is not qualitatively different than supporting a site running 15 servers. In order to reflect this reality, rather than pricing on a strictly per-server basis, we've created three price bands that correspond to substantial increases in support burden: a single server, a two or three server cluster, or a cluster of four or more servers.

Pricing the subscriptions based on the number of servers allows us to charge lower prices for sites that cost less to support, expanding the aggregate accessibility of support to include more sites.

Which servers do I count and which do I exclude in selecting a subscription level?

You count all Acquia Drupal servers that are delivering the site associated with the subscription. You exclude all other separate servers, including database servers, email servers, video servers, directory servers, or any other kind of server that is associated with the site but is not running Acquia Drupal.

Some low to medium traffic sites run Acquia Drupal and their database and other servers all on one box. In this case, since there is only one server running Acquia Drupal, you would purchase a single server subscription. Sites with high traffic or high up-time requirements may run Acquia Drupal on 2 or more cluster servers and have a separate cluster of servers for their database and a number of other separate ancillary servers. In this case, you only need subscriptions for the servers running Acquia Drupal.

Because Acquia Network subscriptions are priced in only three bands, you need only determine the band that corresponds to your number of servers: a single server, a two or three server cluster, or a cluster of four or more servers. This is usually not an overly difficult task.

How does Acquia subscription pricing apply to cloud computing environments like Amazon EC2 and similar services?

In a cloud computing environment, virtual servers (sometimes called "instances") can be brought online and taken down quickly, affording additional flexibility in scaling and administering server infrastructure. As far as Acquia Network is concerned, cloud computing instances are equivalent to servers, and are counted the same way as described elsewhere in this FAQ. Because Acquia Network subscriptions are priced in three bands, you just need to determine the band that corresponds to your number of instances running your site: one, two or three, or more than four.

Some cloud computing environments can be configured to automatically add servers when load exceeds the capacity of the baseline server infrastructure. This typically occurs during temporary and sometimes unpredictable spikes in traffic. In order to accommodate short-lived and unplanned spikes in traffic that create the need for more servers, we offer a 30 day grace period for clusters that exceed the number of servers or instances supported by your subscription. You do not need to upgrade your subscription as long as the number of servers returns to the number allowed by your subscription within 30 days.

If your site naturally grows to exceed the capacity of your current servers, and you add servers that are going to be running for more than 30 days, you need to upgrade your subscription in order to remain supported and eligible to receive network services. The best strategy is to purchase the appropriate subscription in advance of the actual need in order to ensure continuous access to support and network services.

Can I get a refund if I decide I don’t want my subscription any longer?

No. But you can choose to not renew.

Can I transfer my subscription to another site or another organization?

You may transfer a subscription to another site owned by you or your organization if the original site is no longer operational. You may not transfer a subscription from one live site to another live site during the subscription period. You may not transfer your subscription to a site owned by another individual or another organization.

Can I upgrade to a higher level subscription?

Yes. You will pay the difference between the full price of the new subscription and the unused portion (rounded to the nearest day) of your current subscription. The expiration date of your subscription will be reset to one year from the date of your upgrade. You may purchase your upgrade in the Acquia Online Store or through Acquia Sales.

Can I downgrade to a lower level subscription?

Not during the current subscription period. However, you may choose to let your subscription lapse instead of renewing and purchase a new subscription at a lower level. In doing so, you will lose the data history from your previous subscription.

Can I consolidate my subscriptions purchased at various times to make them end on the same date?

Yes. Contact the Acquia sales team for assistance.

Do you offer volume discounts?

Yes. Contact the Acquia sales team for assistance.

Do you offer subscriptions that are shorter than one year?

In general, we do not offer subscriptions shorter than one year. If you have a special situation that requires a shorter subscription period, please contact Acquia Sales for assistance.

Do you offer subscriptions that are longer than one year?

Yes. We offer a two or three year subscription term to qualified customers purchasing Enterprise and Elite subscriptions. Please contact Acquia Sales for assistance.

Can I roll over unused support tickets at the end of the subscription period?

No. Unused tickets expire at the end of the subscription period. Doing otherwise creates accounting complexity that we must avoid.

How do I renew my subscription?

Your subscription will automatically renew unless you upgrade or cancel at the end of your term. You will receive an email message 30 days prior to the end of your term notifying you of the renewal of your subscription. The message will also provide instructions for upgrading your subscription and for canceling your subscription.

What kinds of things does Acquia do under the optional Custom Software Engineering?

Acquia Professional Services can complete custom software engineering engagements to implement and maintain customer-specific software modifications that fall outside normal defect resolution. These engagements are handled on a case-by-case basis and are billable at standard Acquia Professional Services hourly rates.

What’s the relationship between Mollom and Acquia?

Acquia and Mollom are separate companies, both co-founded by Dries Buytaert. Acquia distributed and resells Mollom spam-blocking services through Acquia Network subscriptions.

How accurate is Mollom?

On average, Mollom blocks more than 98% of attempted spam. The more people use Mollom, the more accurate the service becomes. We believe that Mollom accuracy compares favorably with other spam blocking services.

What does Mollom mean for my site privacy policy?

You must include appropriate information about Mollom in your privacy policy and inform your users and secure their permission in order to comply with applicable laws. Mollom intercepts, analyzes, and stores the content types you specify before it is posted to your site. This may include private information associated with member profiles including names, addresses, telephone numbers, email addresses, etc. The Mollom Terms of Service clearly specify the ways that Mollom handles this information.

 

Acquia Support

What is the scope of coverage for technical support under Acquia Network Subscriptions?

Customers with active subscriptions to the Acquia Network are entitled to technical support for Acquia Drupal and the Acquia Network itself as described elsewhere in this FAQ. Support channel access and response times are determined by the subscription and any additional services purchased. See the Acquia Network Subscriptions matrix for coverage details on each subscription level.

What are the hours of operation for the Technical Assistance Center?

The Technical Assistance Center operates Monday through Friday from 8am to 8pm Eastern Time (UTC -5) except for United States national holidays. The Technical Assistance Center accepts new tickets electronically from all regions at all hours of day and responds during normal business hours. Live phone support is provided during normal business hours.

We plan to expand our team to eventually provide global coverage during the normal business hours of each major geographic region. In the interim, we encourage customers in under-served geographic regions to seek telephone support during the hours that mostly closely match their normal business hours and to utilize electronic support as their primary channel for accessing support.

In what languages can I get technical support?

Acquia technical support is currently available in English only. We have the DNA of a thoroughly international organization with employees who are fluent in Dutch, German, French, Hungarian, Italian, and Japanese. However, we do not have sufficient coverage to guarantee sustained support in these languages at the present time. We plan to add additional support languages over time.

What’s the difference between posting a question in the Acquia Subscriber Forums and submitting a ticket to the Technical Assistance Center?

Submitting a ticket to the Technical Assistance Center guarantees that you will get a response within your response time window and that the issue will be worked through to resolution. There is no such guarantee with the Acquia subscriber forums. Although Technical Assistance Center staff members do participate in the Subscriber Forums, they do so on an as-available basis based on the condition of their ticket queue, so their responsiveness will vary.

Fellow subscribers may also provide assistance in the Subscriber Forums, but they do so on a voluntary basis so there is no guarantee that they will respond in a timely fashion or that the topic thread will continue to resolution. It’s best to think of the Subscriber Forums as a place to seek general advice and assistance with issues that are not time-critical.

Where do you draw the line between the “Advisory support” subscription entitlements and what I would get through a separate professional services engagement?

Advisory support entitles you a live conversation with an expert about best practices for specific topic areas including security, migration, performance tuning, module development, and architecture. Advisory support is limited to existing knowledge that can be transferred in the moment in a live conversation. Customer-specific background research and/or creation of any new deliverable are out of scope for advisory support. Additionally, advisory support is limited to 8 hours per subscription per year.

Professional services engagements offer services that lie beyond the scope of the standard Acquia subscription offerings. These engagements may be completed by Acquia Professional Services or by Acquia Partners through referral. These engagements are billed on an hourly basis with no pre-set time limit, may cover an unlimited range of topics, and may include customer-specific background research and deliverables.

How does the optional 24X7 support work?

Optional 24X7 support provides Enterprise subscription customers with access to the Technical Assistance Center outside normal business hours, including weekends and national holidays. Optional 24X7 support is available only for tickets that are classified with Critical or High Urgency. If you purchase this option, you will receive instructions for reaching senior Technical Assistance Center staff members who are assigned to be “on call” and available outside normal business hours. Upon submission of a ticket classified with Critical or High Urgency, the Technical Assistance Center staff member on call will be contacted and will call you back within your defined initial response window to begin working toward a resolution.

What is Technical Account Management and how does it work?

A Technical Account Manager (TAM) is a senior support engineer who is dedicated to providing personalized enterprise-grade support to a handful of customers. A TAM can take the time to learn the details of your operating environment and function as a virtual member of your team. Your TAM may join your team conference calls and/or make regular on site visits to build relationships with your team, review your environment, and share information in person.

All web tickets submitted for subscriptions with an active Technical Account Management option will be immediately routed to your assigned TAM. When you contact the Technical Assistance Center via chat or telephone, your session will automatically be routed directly to your assigned TAM.

Specific entitlements for Technical Account Management are tailored to match your particular requirements and the pricing scales in parallel with your expected time commitment for your TAM. Contact Acquia Sales for details.

What are the Urgency Levels for support tickets?

Critical - Customer's system is down; or customer’s business operations or productivity are severely impacted with no available workaround; or is critical security issue.
High - Customer's system is operating but issue is causing significant disruption of customer's business operations; workaround is unavailable or inadequate.
Medium - Customer’s system is operating and issue’s impact on the customer’s business operations is moderate to low; a workaround or alternative is available.
Low - Issue is a minor inconvenience and does not impact business operations in any significant way; issues with little or no time sensitivity.