---
name: app-configuration-ac-responsibilities
title: Your responsibilities with using App Configuration
description: Learn about the management responsibilities and terms and conditions that you have when you use IBM Cloud App Configuration. For a high-level view of the service types in IBM Cloud and the breakdown of responsibilities between the customer and IBM for each type, see Shared responsibilities for IBM Cloud offerings.
last-updated: 2025-03-10
---

> ## Documentation Index
> The table of contents for this documentation set is at https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/app-configuration?format=markdown
> The index for all IBM Cloud docs is at: https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/llms.txt
> Use these files to discover more information as needed.

# Your responsibilities with using App Configuration
{: #ac-responsibilities}
{: help}
{: support}

Learn about the management responsibilities and terms and conditions that you have when you use IBM Cloud App Configuration. For a high-level view of the service types in IBM Cloud and the breakdown of responsibilities between the customer and IBM for each type, see [Shared responsibilities for IBM Cloud offerings](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/overview?topic=overview-shared-responsibilities&format=markdown).
{: shortdesc}

Review the following sections for the specific responsibilities for you and for IBM when you use IBM Cloud App Configuration. For the overall terms of use, see [IBM Cloud® Terms and Notices](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/overview?topic=overview-terms&format=markdown).

## Incident and operations management
{: #ac-incident-and-ops}

You and IBM share responsibilities for the setup and maintenance of your IBM Cloud App Configuration instance.

You are responsible for incident and operations management of your application and application data.

| Task     | IBM Responsibilities | Your Responsibilities |
|-------------|-----------------------|-----------------------|
| Incidents | Provide notifications for planned maintenance, security bulletins, or unplanned outages. | Set preferences to receive emails about platform notifications, and monitor the IBM Cloud status page for general announcements. |
{: caption="Responsibilities for incident and operations" caption-side="bottom"}

## Change management
{: #ac-change-management}

You and IBM share responsibilities for keeping IBM Cloud App Configuration service components at the latest version.

You are responsible for change management of your application and application data.

| Task     | IBM Responsibilities | Your Responsibilities |
|-------------|-----------------------|-----------------------|
| Applications | Provide infrastructure operating system (OS), version, and security updates. | Use the API, SDK, CLI, or console tools to apply the provided updates for the local entities (app code, CLI, and SDK). |
{: caption="Responsibilities for change management" caption-side="bottom"}

## Identity and access management
{: #ac-identity-and-access-management}

You and IBM share responsibilities for controlling access to your IBM Cloud App Configuration instances and resources.

You are responsible for identity and access management to your application and application data.

| Task     | IBM Responsibilities | Your Responsibilities |
|-------------|-----------------------|-----------------------|
| Applications | Restrict access to resources.	| Depending on your needs, restrict access to resources and service functions by using Cloud IAM access policies. For more information, see [Managing user access](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/app-configuration?topic=app-configuration-ac-service-access-management&format=markdown). |
{: caption="Responsibilities for identity and access management" caption-side="bottom"}

## Security and regulation compliance
{: #ac-sec-and-reg-compliance}

IBM is responsible for the security and compliance of IBM Cloud App Configuration.

You are responsible for the security and compliance of your application and application data.

| Task     | IBM Responsibilities | Your Responsibilities |
|-------------|-----------------------|-----------------------|
| Encryption | - Automatically apply security patch updates for infrastructure.  \n - Enable certain security settings, such as encrypted disks.  \n - Disable certain insecure actions, such as allowing users to SSH into the host.  \n - Encrypt communication with TLS.  \n - Continuously monitor IBM Cloud App Configuration entities to detect vulnerability and security compliance issues.  \n - Integrate IBM Cloud App Configuration with IBM Cloud Identity and Access Management (IAM). | Manage IBM Cloud credentials, and keep credentials secure. |
{: caption="Responsibilities for security and regulation compliance" caption-side="bottom"}

## Disaster recovery
{: #ac-disaster-recovery}

IBM is responsible for the recovery of IBM Cloud App Configuration components in case of disaster.

You are responsible for the recovery of the workloads that run IBM Cloud App Configuration and your application and application data.

| Task     | IBM Responsibilities | Your Responsibilities |
|-------------|-----------------------|-----------------------|
| Availability | \n - Provide high availability capabilities, such as IBM-owned infrastructure in multizone regions, to meet local access and, low latency requirements for each supported region.  \n - Run IBM Cloud App Configuration deployments with three replicas in the same region for high availability.  \n - Continuously monitor IBM Cloud App Configuration infrastructure to ensure the reliability and availability of the service environment by site reliability engineers.  \n - Maintain service availability across [worldwide regions](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/app-configuration?topic=app-configuration-ac-regions-endpoints&format=markdown#ac-regions) so that customers can deploy projects across zones and regions for higher DR tolerance. |  \n - Use the list of [available regions](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/app-configuration?topic=app-configuration-ac-regions-endpoints&format=markdown#ac-regions) to plan and create new instances of the service to meet performance and availability requirements beyond the default that is provided by IBM.  \n - Set up more IBM Cloud App Configuration instances across zones and regions to increase disaster recovery tolerance above the default provided by IBM.
{: caption="Responsibilities for disaster recovery" caption-side="bottom"}