The right choice when
- Your application is live and people rely on it every day.
- The team that built it has moved on, or has no time for upkeep.
- Small fixes and changes keep piling up with nobody to do them.
Support and maintenance
Keep your live software running. Fixes, updates and small changes.
Software needs looking after once people depend on it. We monitor it, fix what breaks, keep its dependencies current and make the small changes that never justify a project. That includes software another team built.
- Something is reported
By your team, your users or a monitoring alert.
- We triage and fix
Reproduced, prioritised with you, fixed and tested before release.
- You get a record
What happened, what changed and what would prevent it next time.
Releases go out at the quiet hours you choose.
01 / Is this the one
Is a support plan what you need?
Support keeps a working system working. It is not the way to rebuild one, or to decide what to build.
Look elsewhere when
- The system needs replacing, not patching. See app modernisation.
- You want new features every sprint. Dedicated developers are a better fit.
- You are still deciding what to build. That is a consulting question.
02 / What the work covers
What a support plan covers.
The plan is sized to your system. These are the usual parts.
- 01
Takeover and audit
We read the code, set up access and environments, and write down what we find before we change anything.
- 02
Monitoring
Uptime, errors and performance are watched, so a problem is often seen before a user reports it.
- 03
Bug fixes
Issues are reproduced, fixed, tested and released, with a note of the cause.
- 04
Updates and patches
Frameworks, libraries and servers are kept on supported versions, including security patches.
- 05
Small changes
Minor features and adjustments from an agreed monthly allowance of hours.
03 / Limits and risks
What a support plan cannot promise.
No system is never down
Hosting providers, third-party APIs and app stores fail too. We agree response times with you in writing. We do not promise zero downtime.
Inherited code takes time
With software we did not write, the first weeks go on learning it. Early fixes are slower than later ones.
Some systems are past patching
When a platform is out of support, each fix costs more than the last. We will say when modernising is cheaper.
04 / What we can show
We keep our own products running.
The habits a support plan depends on are the ones we use on software we operate ourselves.
What this does not show
A support contract for a named client. That work is not published, so we quote no response times or uptime figures from it.
05 / What to do next
Start small, or look at the alternatives.
The first step is a free call about the system and what worries you about it. We then look at the code and send a written plan and price.
A little clarity
Before support begins.
Can NSDBytes take over the support and maintenance of existing applications?
Yes, including applications another team built. We start with an audit: we read the code, set up environments and write down what we find. Expect the first weeks to be slower while we learn the system.
What types of support services does NSDBytes provide for applications?
Bug fixes, monitoring, performance work, dependency and security updates, and small changes from an agreed allowance of hours. Larger features are quoted as their own piece of work.
How does NSDBytes ensure minimal downtime during application support and maintenance?
By releasing at the quiet hours you choose, testing each change before it goes live and keeping a way to roll back. We tell you before a release and after it. No one can promise a system will never be down, so we agree response times in writing instead.
Is support included after NSDBytes builds something?
Every build comes with 30 days of free bug fixes after launch. Ongoing maintenance after that is optional, not a condition of the handover.
How much does application support cost?
It depends on the size of the system, how many hours of change you want each month and the response times you need. The price is agreed after a free call and a look at the code.
Start wherever you are
Tell us about the system you rely on.
We’ll look at what it needs to stay healthy, and say plainly if patching it is no longer the sensible option.