A cloud SLA (service level agreement) is a contract written up by a provider which guarantees services such as reliability, uptime, and scalability. SLA’s can be specifically tailored to your company size, location, and goals, and are an important part of a Service offering.
1) Fit it around your company size
There are different types of SLAs that are tailored to the amount of users needing to be served simultaneously. Determine the maximum number of users that will need to use the cloud product at the same time and go from there. You don’t want your service to be limited.
2) Think about geography
If your firm operates on a global scale, you may need to choose a provider that offers a SLA supporting your employees in all regions and countries. The location of the provider’s physical infrastructure is a vital component in any IaaS deal, so the SLA needs to reflect that.
3) Be data aware
Operating in different locations? You need to have in-depth knowledge of regional data protection laws and make sure the SLA can help you adhering to these.
4) Hardware
When you are choosing your SLA, you also need to think about the machines that need to be supported. Are they brand new, reliable, or rather legacy equipment that might break down and need replacing? If so, your SLA should reflect this and make sure if anything goes wrong, support will be in place for you.
5) Stipulate exact downtimes
If there is going to be downtime for maintenance or upgrades, check which hours of the day it will be in and make sure they suit your business.
