By IT Brew Staff
less than 3 min read
Definition:
Service-level agreements (SLA) are a critical way for IT vendors and customers to define every element of their association. For example, a service-level agreement between a data center and a client might guarantee network uptime of 99.999% availability per month, along with an incident response time of no more than an hour; if the data center fails to meet those levels, the agreement might stipulate the client will receive a certain number of credits toward a future bill.
In general, there are three types of service-level agreements:
Customer-level SLA: This covers and describes all services used by a customer, and usually details elements such as availability and cancellation terms. In addition to customer-level SLAs between vendors and external customers, organizations may choose to draft SLAs between internal departments to ensure everyone is aware of deliverables and expectations.
Service-level SLA: These SLAs break down services utilized by multiple customers. For example, all customers of a particular cloud-based product would likely receive the same service-level SLA describing what to expect from the product’s vendor.
Multi-level SLA: These SLAs are designed for multiple parties within the same agreement who may expect different levels of pricing and service. For example, a vendor may issue a multi-level SLA describing uptime and escalation pathways for different versions of a product; a customer subscribing to the product’s “pro” tier is entitled to different service than their colleague relying on the free version.
In addition to describing the services (including what those services won’t do), an SLA may feature cybersecurity standards and service-level objectives (such as uptime), penalties and termination processes, and a breakdown of service tracking and reporting. For both vendors and customers, setting the right metrics for a service-level agreement is absolutely critical.
