An SLA is essential to protect your business and ensure a successful relationship with your supplier. Mutual understanding of performance standards is important to create a positive experience for everyone involved. Any service provider you choose should be more than happy to create an SLA with you. However, it is not enough to have an SLA. Never forget to review the contract as your business grows or changes. Your needs may change over time, and your SLA should always reflect the changing needs of your business. Before you sign, review the impact of the cloud SLA. For example, 99.9% availability, a common provision, means nine hours of downtime per year. For some business-critical data, this may not be enough. You should also check how the terms are defined.

Most public cloud storage services provide details about the service levels that users can expect on their websites, and these will likely be the same for all users. However, a company that sets up a service with a private cloud storage provider may be able to negotiate a more individual agreement. In this case, the Cloud SLA can include specifications for retention policies, number of copies retained, locations, and so on. This may include technical support services, such as. B the guarantee of an improved CSAT score, faster email response or the fact that 98% of customers who call receive a first call resolution (FCR). For example, deploying a read-only catalog for customers is pretty easy. Although the catalog can have a very high value, it is quite easy to restore it from the backup with minimal impact on the client. However, if the same service has an online purchase with financial transactions and customer data, then the level of risk and also the importance for the company has just increased. The type of service is an essential element in determining the right SLA. Data protection processes such as backup and disaster recovery should also be considered.

The agreement should include each party`s responsibilities, acceptable performance metrics, a description of the applications and services covered by the agreement, procedures for monitoring service levels, and a schedule for resolving outages. In a sense, the SLA defines the expectations of both parties and acts as a roadmap for changes in the cloud service – both expected changes and surprises. Just as any IT project would have a roadmap with clearly defined outcomes, an SLA is just as important for working with cloud infrastructure. This raises the following question of travel: what should there be in ALS? Finally, the cloud SLA should include an exit strategy that outlines the provider`s expectations to ensure a smooth transition. The bottom line is that the SLA is your contract with the service provider and sets the expectations of the relationship. It should be written to protect your cloud services based on the level of risk you are willing to accept. The goal is to have an SLA that the cloud consumer and provider can understand and agree on, including an exit strategy. The SLA should be seen as the document that establishes the partnership between the parties and is used to mitigate problems. In the event of a disaster, your cloud provider must have a plan in place to prevent the total loss of your data. Cloud providers must have a section of the SLA that details their disaster recovery and backup solutions. Depending on the provider, they can provide automatic backups and snapshots of your data.

If the user needs to configure backup and recovery systems, the SLA must describe this. It may not explicitly specify how to enable them, but you need to know whether or not you should enable them. The measures and responsibilities between the parties involved in the cloud configurations are clearly defined. B for example the specific response time to report or correct system errors. A cloud infrastructure can include both physical and virtual regions, networks, and systems. While the exact metrics of a cloud SLA may vary from service provider to service provider, the areas covered are consistent: volume and quality of work, including precision and accuracy, speed, responsiveness, and efficiency. The document aims to establish a mutual understanding of the services provided by the service provider, priority areas, responsibilities, guarantees and guarantees. Once a basic set of criteria has been established, the next step is to assess the criticality of the cloud service and its data. Almost all computer systems can be extremely reliable, but the cost can be too high. Not all systems require the same level of reliability as NASA, which was developed for the Space Shuttles, and few could afford the cost. Fines that a supplier must pay if they do not comply with the guaranteed conditions are also included. These penalties often take the form of credits for service time.

Who owns your data in the cloud? This issue prevents many companies from getting into the cloud, especially when they consider sensitive data. An SLA should specifically describe its data ownership policies so that everything is transparent and clear. Ideally, an SLA should specify that all proprietary rights remain with the user. However, if the provider does not explicitly state its data ownership policies in the SLA, you cannot guarantee the security of your information. Carol Sliwa, senior editor of TechTarget, interviews Terri McClure, a former senior analyst at Enterprise Strategy Group, about what users can expect from a cloud SLA. .