1. PURPOSE
This Acceptable Use and Fair Use Policy applies to hosting, cloud, infrastructure, storage, backup, networking, SaaS and related services provided by Wizzou.
The purpose of this Policy is to protect the availability, security and performance of Wizzou's infrastructure and to ensure that shared resources remain usable for all customers.
This Policy forms part of Wizzou's General Terms and Conditions and applies in addition to any service-specific agreement, quotation or service level agreement.
2. FAIR USE OF SHARED RESOURCES
Where a service uses shared infrastructure, the Customer must use computing, storage, network and platform resources in a reasonable manner consistent with the intended purpose of the service.
Fair use may include reasonable use of:
- CPU and processing capacity;
- memory;
- disk capacity and storage operations;
- network bandwidth and concurrent connections;
- database resources;
- backup and restore operations;
- API capacity;
- mail and messaging infrastructure;
- shared Kubernetes, virtualization or container resources.
Use may be considered excessive where it is sustained, abnormal or materially affects the stability, performance, availability or cost of the service or the services used by other customers.
The fact that a plan is described as unlimited, unmetered or similar does not permit use that is abusive, technically unreasonable or materially detrimental to shared infrastructure.
3. RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
Wizzou may monitor aggregate resource consumption for the purpose of capacity planning, security, abuse prevention, performance management and compliance with this Policy.
Where a workload consistently uses materially more resources than normally expected for the relevant service, Wizzou may contact the Customer to discuss an appropriate solution.
This may include:
- optimising the Customer's application or configuration;
- applying reasonable resource limits;
- moving the workload to dedicated resources;
- upgrading the Customer to a more appropriate plan;
- introducing usage-based pricing where agreed;
- temporarily throttling non-critical workloads.
Where practical, Wizzou will provide reasonable notice before applying non-emergency restrictions.
4. PROHIBITED USE
The Customer may not use Wizzou's Services for activities that are unlawful, abusive, harmful, fraudulent or that create an unreasonable security or operational risk.
Prohibited activities include, without limitation:
- sending unsolicited bulk email or spam;
- operating malware, ransomware, botnets or command-and-control infrastructure;
- phishing, credential theft or impersonation;
- unauthorised vulnerability scanning, port scanning or network probing;
- attempting to gain unauthorised access to systems, networks or accounts;
- hosting or distributing malicious code;
- using Services to launch or facilitate denial-of-service attacks;
- circumventing technical limits, rate limits or security controls;
- abusing shared IP reputation or mail infrastructure;
- using shared infrastructure for cryptocurrency mining unless expressly approved in writing;
- operating workloads that intentionally consume disproportionate shared resources;
- using the Services in violation of applicable law or third-party rights.
5. NETWORK AND TRAFFIC USE
The Customer must not generate traffic that materially disrupts Wizzou's network, upstream providers, peering partners or other customers.
Wizzou may apply rate limits, filtering, null-routing, traffic shaping or temporary isolation where necessary to protect network stability or respond to abuse, security incidents or denial-of-service attacks.
Where a Customer workload becomes the target or source of harmful traffic, Wizzou may take immediate technical measures without prior notice where delay would create a material risk to the infrastructure or third parties.
6. STORAGE AND BACKUP FAIR USE
Storage and backup services are intended for legitimate operational and business use associated with the Customer's Services.
Unless expressly agreed otherwise, shared backup or storage services may not be used primarily as:
- large-scale archival storage;
- personal media storage;
- public file distribution infrastructure;
- content mirroring;
- bulk backup storage for unrelated third-party systems;
- a replacement for dedicated object storage or archival services where usage is materially disproportionate to the subscribed service.
Wizzou may require unusually large or high-throughput storage workloads to be moved to a service designed for that purpose.
7. EMAIL AND IP REPUTATION
Customers using Wizzou infrastructure for email or other reputation-sensitive services must maintain appropriate security and sending practices.
The Customer must take reasonable steps to prevent compromised accounts, open relays, abusive automation and unsolicited bulk email.
If a Customer's activity causes or is reasonably likely to cause Wizzou IP addresses, domains or infrastructure to be blocklisted or reputationally damaged, Wizzou may temporarily suspend or restrict the affected service.
The Customer may be required to take corrective measures before the service is restored.
8. SECURITY RESPONSIBILITIES
The Customer is responsible for securing applications, credentials, accounts and systems under its control unless Wizzou has expressly agreed to manage those responsibilities.
The Customer must use reasonable security practices, including where appropriate:
- strong authentication;
- multi-factor authentication;
- timely software updates;
- secure credential storage;
- appropriate access controls;
- reasonable protection against malware and account compromise.
The Customer must promptly notify Wizzou if it becomes aware of a security incident that may affect Wizzou infrastructure or other customers.
9. CUSTOMER RESPONSIBILITY
The Customer is responsible for activity performed through its accounts, users, applications, virtual machines, containers, servers and other resources.
This responsibility applies whether the activity is performed by the Customer, its employees, contractors, customers or other persons authorised to use the Customer's Services.
The Customer is also responsible for taking reasonable steps to prevent unauthorised use of its account or infrastructure.
10. INVESTIGATION AND COOPERATION
Wizzou may investigate suspected violations of this Policy where reasonably necessary to protect its infrastructure, customers or third parties.
The Customer shall provide reasonable cooperation where Wizzou requests information needed to investigate an incident or resolve an abuse complaint.
Wizzou may preserve relevant technical logs and records in accordance with applicable law and its privacy obligations.
11. ENFORCEMENT
Where Wizzou identifies a violation of this Policy, it may take measures proportionate to the seriousness and urgency of the situation.
Measures may include:
- notifying the Customer and requesting corrective action;
- applying temporary technical restrictions;
- throttling or isolating affected workloads;
- suspending part or all of the affected Service;
- requiring migration to a more appropriate service;
- terminating the affected Service in cases of serious or repeated violations.
Wizzou will normally attempt to contact the Customer before taking restrictive measures where the situation allows.
Wizzou may act immediately and without prior notice where necessary to address a serious security incident, unlawful activity, active abuse, network instability or a material threat to Wizzou, its customers or third parties.
12. COSTS CAUSED BY ABUSE
Where a Customer's violation of this Policy causes Wizzou to incur material third-party costs, abuse-handling costs, emergency engineering work, excessive bandwidth charges, remediation expenses or similar costs, Wizzou may charge those reasonable and demonstrable costs to the Customer to the extent permitted by law.
13. REPORTING ABUSE
Suspected abuse involving Wizzou infrastructure may be reported to abuse@wizzou.com.
Reports should include sufficient information to identify the relevant system or activity, such as IP addresses, timestamps, URLs, message headers or other technical evidence where available.
14. CHANGES TO THIS POLICY
Wizzou may update this Policy from time to time to reflect changes in its Services, infrastructure, security requirements, supplier obligations or applicable law.
Material changes affecting ongoing Services will be communicated where required by the applicable Agreement or mandatory law.