Terms of Service

1. Acceptance of Terms

These Terms of Service ("Terms") are an agreement between AetherStack Technologies ("AetherStack", "we", "us") and the company or person using our website or services ("Client", "you"). They apply when you browse this site, request a consultation, or engage us for paid work. If you do not agree with them, please do not use the site or request services.

If you sign a separate services agreement or statement of work, that document controls wherever it conflicts with these Terms. If you are agreeing on behalf of a company, you confirm you have the authority to do so.

2. Scope of Services

AetherStack provides cloud infrastructure and DevOps engineering services. Depending on the engagement, this may include:

• Cloud migration planning and execution on AWS and Azure
• Kubernetes platform design, deployment, and operations
• DevOps automation, including CI/CD pipelines and release workflows
• Infrastructure as Code, primarily with Terraform
• Cloud security work such as IAM review, network hardening, and compliance preparation
• Observability and monitoring setup with tools such as Prometheus, Grafana, and OpenTelemetry

We are an engineering consultancy — not a hosting provider, a cloud vendor, or a managed security service — and we do not provide legal, tax, or audit opinions. Compliance preparation helps you get ready for an assessment; it is not a certification and does not replace one.

Case studies and metrics on this website are general information. Figures from past projects describe those projects only and are not a prediction of results in your environment.

3. Engagements and Statements of Work

Paid work begins with a written statement of work ("SOW") or proposal that we both accept. Each SOW normally covers:

• The work to be performed and what is delivered
• Schedule, milestones, or an estimated duration
• Rates, fees, and the billing model (time and materials, retainer, or fixed fee)
• Assumptions and anything explicitly out of scope

Estimates rest on the assumptions written into the SOW. If those turn out to be wrong — undocumented systems, unexpected dependencies, delayed access — the schedule or cost may change. We will tell you before doing work beyond an agreed scope, and changes are handled through a written change order. An initial consultation does not by itself create an engagement.

4. Client Responsibilities

Our work depends on what you provide. You agree to:

• Give us timely access to the systems, repositories, accounts, and documentation the work requires
• Name a point of contact who can answer questions and make decisions
• Review deliverables and respond to approval requests within a reasonable time
• Maintain your own backups and disaster recovery for production systems
• Confirm that you have the rights to any code, data, or credentials you share with us
• Follow your own change management rules for anything we deploy on your behalf

Delays or missing information on your side may affect the schedule and cost. We are not responsible for problems caused by inaccurate information you supply, by changes your team makes outside the engagement, or by access we requested and did not receive.

5. Fees and Payment

Fees are set in each SOW. Unless the SOW says otherwise:

• Invoices are issued monthly, or at the milestones listed in the SOW
• Payment is due within 30 days of the invoice date
• Amounts are in U.S. dollars and exclude taxes
• Pre-approved travel and out-of-pocket expenses are billed at cost
• Third-party cloud usage, licenses, and subscriptions are billed by those vendors directly to you

Late invoices may accrue interest at 1.5% per month, or the maximum the law allows, whichever is lower. If an invoice is more than 30 days overdue, we may pause work after written notice. If you dispute a charge, tell us within 15 days of the invoice date and we will work it out; undisputed amounts remain payable.

6. Intellectual Property

Once the related invoices are paid, you own the deliverables we create specifically for you under an SOW — the infrastructure code, configuration, pipelines, and documentation produced for your environment.

We keep ownership of what we brought with us or developed independently: our internal tools, libraries, templates, reference architectures, and know-how. Where those are embedded in a deliverable, you receive a perpetual, non-exclusive, worldwide license to use, modify, and run them as part of it. Open-source components stay under their own licenses.

Nothing here stops us from doing similar work for other clients or using the general skills our engineers gain. We will not name you publicly or describe your project in marketing materials without your written permission.

7. Confidentiality

Each side may learn confidential information about the other — systems, architecture, credentials, business plans, pricing. Both sides agree to use it only for the engagement, protect it with reasonable care, and share it only with people who need it and are bound by similar obligations.

This does not cover information that is already public, that a party already had without a duty of confidence, that it develops independently, or that it receives lawfully from a third party. If a court or regulator compels disclosure, the disclosing party will give notice first where the law permits.

These obligations continue for three years after the engagement ends, and for as long as the law protects trade secrets. On request, we will return or delete your confidential material, except for copies kept in routine backups or required for our records.

8. Third-Party Cloud Services

Our work usually runs on platforms we do not control — AWS, Microsoft Azure, GitHub, and similar providers. Your use of those services is governed by your agreements with those vendors, not by these Terms.

You are the account holder, responsible for your vendor contracts, your cloud spend, and your compliance with their acceptable use policies. We do not control their availability, pricing, feature changes, or terms, and we are not liable for outages, deprecations, data loss, or billing disputes originating with them. When we recommend a service, that is an engineering opinion, not a warranty about the vendor.

9. Warranties and Disclaimers

We warrant that our services will be performed in a professional and workmanlike manner by qualified personnel, consistent with generally accepted industry practices. If work does not meet that standard, tell us within 30 days of delivery and we will re-perform it at no additional charge. That is your exclusive remedy for a warranty claim.

Beyond that warranty, services and deliverables are provided "as is". We disclaim all other warranties, express or implied, including merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement.

Software and infrastructure carry inherent risk. We do not warrant that any system will be uninterrupted, error-free, or secure against every attack. Security and reliability work reduces risk; it does not eliminate it.

10. Limitation of Liability

Neither party is liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, or for lost profits, revenue, data, or business interruption, even if advised such damages were possible.

Our total liability arising out of an engagement is limited to the fees you paid us under the SOW giving rise to the claim during the twelve months before the event.

These limits do not apply to a party's fraud, willful misconduct, gross negligence, breach of confidentiality, or your obligation to pay fees due. Some states limit certain exclusions; there, the limits apply as far as they legally can.

11. Term and Termination

These Terms apply while you use the site and for the duration of any engagement. Either party may terminate an engagement for convenience with 30 days' written notice, or immediately if the other materially breaches the agreement and does not cure it within 15 days of written notice.

On termination, you pay for work performed and expenses incurred through the termination date. We will hand over completed deliverables and work in progress for which you have paid, and support an orderly transition on a time and materials basis if you ask. Sections on intellectual property, confidentiality, fees due, disclaimers, liability, and governing law survive.

12. Governing Law

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Texas, United States, without regard to its conflict of laws rules. The parties agree to the exclusive jurisdiction of the state and federal courts located in Travis County, Texas. Before filing a claim, the parties will try in good faith to resolve the dispute through discussion between senior representatives for at least 30 days.

13. Changes to These Terms

We may update these Terms as our services change. The revision date at the top of this page shows when the current version took effect, and updates apply from the date we post them. If a change materially affects an active engagement, we will notify your point of contact. Terms already incorporated into a signed SOW keep the version in force when it was signed.

14. Contact

Questions about these Terms, an engagement, or an invoice can be sent to:

• AetherStack Technologies
• Austin, Texas, United States
• Email: [email protected]

Please include your company name and, if relevant, the SOW or invoice number so we can route your message.