SLA (Service Level Agreement)

An SLA is a contract defining the expected level of service between a provider and customer.

What is an SLA?

A Service Level Agreement (SLA) is a formal contract between a service provider and customer defining the expected service levels, metrics, and remedies if targets aren't met.

SLA Components

Service description, Performance metrics, Availability commitments, Response times, Remedies/penalties.

Common Misconceptions

"SLA equals uptime only" - Many metrics possible
"Higher SLA always better" - Cost/value tradeoff
"SLA guarantees no outages" - Defines compensation for failures