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A service level agreement (SLA) is a technical services performance contract. SLAs can be internal between an in-house IT team and end-users, or can be external between IT and service providers such as cloud computing vendors. Formal and detailed SLAs are particularly important with cloud computing providers, since these infrastructures are large scale and can seriously impact customer businesses should something go awry. In the case of cloud computing, SLAs differ depending on a specific providers set of services and customer business needs. However, all SLAs should at a minimum cover cloud performance speed and responsiveness, application availability and uptime, data durability, support agreements, and exits.

Customers will provide their key performance indicators (KPI), and customer and provider will negotiate related service level objectives (SLO). Automated policies enforce processes to meet the SLOs, and issues alerts and reports when an agreed-upon action fails. Cloud computing providers will usually have standard SLAs. IT should review them along with their legal counsel. If the SLAs are acceptable as is, sign it and youre done. However, many companies will want to negotiate specific requirements into their SLAs, as the vendor SLA will be in favor of the provider. Be especially careful about general statements in the standard SLA, such as stating the clouds maximum amount of customer computing resources, but not mentioning how many resources are already allocated. Not every cloud computing provider will automatically agree to your requirements, but most customers can make good-faith negotiated agreements with providers. Quality of service depends on knowing what you need and how they will provide it.

This example of a cloud computing SLA details numerous technical details of the cloud agreement.

A service level agreement is not the time for general statements. Assign specific and measurable metrics in each area, which allows both you and the provider to benchmark quality of service. SLAs should also include remediation for failing agreements, not only from the cloud provider but from the customers as well if they fail to keep up their end of the bargain. Cloud computing users should specifically review these items in a cloud computing SLA:

Service credits are the most common way for a cloud computing provider to reimburse a customer because the provider failed an agreement. The reason for the failure is an issue, since the provider will rarely issue credits if the failure was out of their control. Terrorist acts and natural disasters are common exclusions. Of course, the more data centers that a service provider has, and the more redundant your data is, the less likely that a tornado will affect your data.

Your computing needs are not static, and your SLA shouldnt be either. Your needs and the providers capabilities will change over time. Your provider will periodically revisit their standard and custom SLAs considering new procedures and technologies. You should do the same. Periodically review your SLAs, especially when there are changes to your business needs, technology, workloads, and measurements. Also review your SLAs when your cloud computing provider announces new services. You wont take advantage of every offer that comes down the pike. But if a new service will improve your customer experience, then adopt it and modify the service level agreements to reflect the new product.

SLAs are a critical part of any service offering to an internal or external client, and are particularly important between a business and its cloud computing provider. Dont let the cloud SLA be a battleground of assumptions and mistaken expectations. Negotiate and clarify agreements with your provider. Be reasonable without being blindly trusting, and the SLA will protect both of your businesses as it is meant to do.

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Cloud Computing and Service Level Agreements (SLAs) - Datamation