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 provider’s 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. A carefully crafted SLA is an essential element in effective monitoring of cloud governance and compliance.
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 you’re done. However, companies at any stage of cloud adoption will likely want to negotiate specific requirements into their SLAs, as the vendor SLA will be in favor of the provider. (For help choosing the cloud company that suits your business needs, read our comprehensive guide to cloud computing.) Be especially careful about general statements in the standard SLA, such as stating the cloud’s 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.
Protecting your company’s data is critical. Cloud storage with automated backup is scalable, flexible and provides peace of mind. Cobalt Iron’s enterprise-grade backup and recovery solution is known for its hands-free automation and reliability, at a lower cost. Cloud backup that just works.
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 shouldn’t be either. Your needs and the provider’s 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 won’t 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. Don’t 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.
Huawei’s AI Update: Things Are Moving Faster Than We Think
FEATURE | By Rob Enderle,
December 04, 2020
Keeping Machine Learning Algorithms Honest in the ‘Ethics-First’ Era
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | By Guest Author,
November 18, 2020
Key Trends in Chatbots and RPA
FEATURE | By Guest Author,
November 10, 2020
FEATURE | By Samuel Greengard,
November 05, 2020
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | By Guest Author,
November 02, 2020
How Intel’s Work With Autonomous Cars Could Redefine General Purpose AI
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | By Rob Enderle,
October 29, 2020
Dell Technologies World: Weaving Together Human And Machine Interaction For AI And Robotics
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | By Rob Enderle,
October 23, 2020
The Super Moderator, or How IBM Project Debater Could Save Social Media
FEATURE | By Rob Enderle,
October 16, 2020
FEATURE | By Cynthia Harvey,
October 07, 2020
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | By Guest Author,
October 05, 2020
CIOs Discuss the Promise of AI and Data Science
FEATURE | By Guest Author,
September 25, 2020
Microsoft Is Building An AI Product That Could Predict The Future
FEATURE | By Rob Enderle,
September 25, 2020
Top 10 Machine Learning Companies 2020
FEATURE | By Cynthia Harvey,
September 22, 2020
NVIDIA and ARM: Massively Changing The AI Landscape
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | By Rob Enderle,
September 18, 2020
Continuous Intelligence: Expert Discussion [Video and Podcast]
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | By James Maguire,
September 14, 2020
Artificial Intelligence: Governance and Ethics [Video]
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | By James Maguire,
September 13, 2020
IBM Watson At The US Open: Showcasing The Power Of A Mature Enterprise-Class AI
FEATURE | By Rob Enderle,
September 11, 2020
Artificial Intelligence: Perception vs. Reality
FEATURE | By James Maguire,
September 09, 2020
Anticipating The Coming Wave Of AI Enhanced PCs
FEATURE | By Rob Enderle,
September 05, 2020
The Critical Nature Of IBM’s NLP (Natural Language Processing) Effort
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | By Rob Enderle,
August 14, 2020
Datamation is the leading industry resource for B2B data professionals and technology buyers. Datamation's focus is on providing insight into the latest trends and innovation in AI, data security, big data, and more, along with in-depth product recommendations and comparisons. More than 1.7M users gain insight and guidance from Datamation every year.
Advertise with TechnologyAdvice on Datamation and our other data and technology-focused platforms.
Advertise with Us
Property of TechnologyAdvice.
© 2025 TechnologyAdvice. All Rights Reserved
Advertiser Disclosure: Some of the products that appear on this
site are from companies from which TechnologyAdvice receives
compensation. This compensation may impact how and where products
appear on this site including, for example, the order in which
they appear. TechnologyAdvice does not include all companies
or all types of products available in the marketplace.