I have been at Berkeley for a number of months and have heard more than a few concerns about service commitment and service abatement. It is well understood that IST, departments, and other units on campus are all struggling to deal with a landscape of constrained resources. All of you face considerable difficulties in this climate of resource contraction and we do not want uncertainty about IST services to contribute to your operating challenges.
New recharge services
Effective immediately, when IST launches a new recharge service, we will commit to a two- or three-year run with an unchanged rate unless the service makes money, in which case we will lower the rate. We will not increase the rate during this defined period and IST will manage any downside risk internally. Subsequent to this, we will adjust rates in a fashion consistent with University recharge policies. We hope this preliminary assurance of price continuity will allow you to consider and participate in new IST services.
Abatement of recharge services
In addition, IST will give minimum notice of one year before abating any recharge service. You will not need to be concerned that one of IST's recharge services is going to suddenly disappear. Our goal is to give you ample time to make suitable adjustments for any service abatement in your budget planning. We hope that a longer lead time will give you sufficient opportunity to explore options and consider migration alternatives.
We sincerely hope that these two modest adjustments to our operating practices will be helpful to you and will contribute to making IST services more useful to the Berkeley community.
Please do not hesitate to contact me at if you have comments, questions, or concerns.