Critical Support Lite
Right-sized cloud cover that grows with you.
No dedicated ops team. An on-call rota you cannot staff. A platform that mostly behaves, until it does not. Critical Support Lite is the improvement work you never get to, done every month: engineers finding and fixing latent defects across reliability, security, cost and governance, so your platform becomes safer to run over time. Beneath it sits incident cover in the windows you choose, with a contractual 15-minute response for SEV-1. Fewer hours than Critical Support. The same SRE-driven, Datadog-native model.
- Start-ups with a single AWS or Azure environment and no dedicated ops team
- Scale-ups that need after-hours cover without a full 24×7 commitment
- Product teams that want proactive improvement but not the cost of Advanced
- Teams on a growth path to Critical Support as their platform matures
A single resignation should not remove your ability to run production. One engineer, however good, is one engineer. When they go, the capability goes with them. Critical Support Lite is a team: continuity that does not have to be re-procured at the worst possible moment, and everything we build, runbooks, standards and knowledge, stays in your environment.
24×7 cover available as an add-on. Step up to Critical Support at any time.
Lite also suits teams running apps built with AI tools on Vercel, Netlify and Supabase, once real customers depend on them: see production support for AI-built apps.
Three plans, Monitor + Fix, Engineer Assist, Partner Plus
All plans cover a single cloud (AWS or Azure) with a single landing zone, or an app running on Vercel, Netlify and Supabase. Response times are contractual commitments. Recovery targets are targets. Talk to us for pricing.
| Feature | Monitor + Fix | Engineer Assist | Partner Plus |
|---|---|---|---|
| Coverage hours | 09:00-17:00 Mon-Fri | 17:00-09:00 Mon-Fri + 24×7 weekends | 17:00-09:00 Mon-Fri + 24×7 weekends |
| Severity covered | SEV-1 | SEV-1 & SEV-2 | SEV-1 & SEV-2 |
| Response time | 15 min (SEV-1) | SEV-1: 15 min · SEV-2: 30 min | SEV-1: 15 min · SEV-2: 30 min |
| Recovery target (SEV-1) | 2-hr target | 90-min target | 90-min target |
| Improvement hours/month | 8 hrs | 16 hrs | 24 hrs |
| Monitored endpoints | 1 endpoint | 2 endpoints | 2 endpoints |
| Out-of-hours callouts | None | 2 per month | 2 per month |
| RCA & reporting | Basic RCA + monthly summary | Basic RCA + SEV review | Enhanced review + backlog follow-up |
Recovery times are targets, not contractual guarantees. Response times are the firm commitment. 24×7 cover is available as an add-on on all Lite plans.
The same operational model, right-sized
- Improvement engineering, monthly hours spent on the improvement pillars most relevant to your environment: reliability, security, cost, and governance.
- Incident management, detection, triage, response, escalation, and recovery within contracted hours. Blameless RCA for SEV-1 incidents.
- Datadog instrumentation, we set up and maintain your Datadog environment; you retain full access at all times.
- Monthly reporting, service review covering incidents, improvement work completed, and next priorities.
- SRE-driven, not traditional MSP, engineers who understand modern cloud architecture, not ticket-handlers.
- AI-augmented triage, Bits AI SRE and Watchdog assist our engineers. Humans approve all production changes.
- ISO 27001 and Cyber Essentials Plus, our security posture applies to every customer environment we operate.
- Customer retains admin control, IAM, access approvals, and material change decisions stay with you.
The same principles, whether you're on Lite or Advanced
01Transparency & OwnershipYou keep full access to your Datadog environment at all times.
You keep full access to your Datadog environment at all times. When something breaks, we own it to resolution, not to the first handoff opportunity.
02Collaboration & EnablementShared backlog, visible work.
Shared backlog, visible work. Runbooks and governance standards stay in your environment, you should be less dependent on us over time, not more.
Critical Support, the full 24×7 service
Critical Support adds full 24×7 coverage, 15-minute response for both SEV-1 and SEV-2, more improvement engineering hours, and support for multi-account and hybrid environments.
Read the full context
Critical Support adds full 24×7 coverage, 15-minute response for both SEV-1 and SEV-2, more improvement engineering hours, and support for multi-account and hybrid environments. The Datadog instrumentation, runbooks, and governance standards you built on Lite carry straight across.
FAQ
What is Critical Support Lite?
Critical Support Lite is a right-sized cloud managed service for start-ups and smaller single-cloud environments. It combines incident cover (daytime or evening/weekend) with a smaller improvement engineering allocation, using the same SRE-driven, Datadog-native model as the flagship Critical Support.
Does Lite cover AWS and Azure?
Each Lite plan covers a single cloud, either AWS or Azure. If you need multi-cloud cover, Critical Support is the right service: its Advanced plan covers AWS and Azure together. Apps running on Vercel, Netlify and Supabase are covered too, on the platforms they already use.
Is 24×7 cover available on Lite?
Yes: 24×7 coverage is available as an add-on on all Lite plans. Alternatively, stepping up to Critical Support gives you native 24×7 coverage plus more improvement engineering hours.
What are "recovery targets"?
Recovery targets are working objectives, not contractual guarantees, because recovery depends on the nature of the incident, not just our speed. Response times, the time to first engineer contact, are the contractual commitment. Each plan states its own targets in the table above.
Right-sized cloud cover for where you are today.
Tell us about your AWS or Azure environment, or the app you run on Vercel, Netlify or Supabase, and we'll recommend the right Lite plan or tell you honestly if Critical Support is the better fit.