Assignment on SLA for Cloud Computing

What is an SLA?

A service level agreement (SLA) is a documented agreement between a service provider and a
customer that identifies both the services required and the expected level of service. The
agreement varies between vendors, services, and industries.

Before subscribing for an IT service, the SLA should be carefully evaluated and designed to
realize maximum service value from an end-user and business perspective. Service providers
should pay attention to the differences between internal outputs and customer-facing outcomes,
as these can help define the service expectations.

Writing SLAs: an SLA template

The SLA is a documented agreement. Below is a sample SLA that can be used as a template for
creating SLAs. These documents are flexible and unique. Changes can be made as necessary, as
long as the relevant parties are included—particularly the Customer, considering additional
topics to add agreements on, such as:

 Review or monitoring. How often the Service Provider and Customer may review the
SLA, perhaps annually.

 Service credits. Something the Service Provider may offer in case SLA is not achieved.

 Rider. Used when amendments occur.

 End-of-contract or liquidation terms. Defining how and when Customer or Service

Provider can opt out of the SLA.

There are several ways to write an SLA. Below is a mock table of contents (TOC), which can be
used as a starting template for writing service level agreements.

1.0 Service Level Agreement

The first page of the document is simple yet important. It should include:

 Version details

 Document change history, including last reviewed date and next scheduled review

 Document approvals
Document details & change history

Version Date Description Authorization

… … … …

Document approvals

Name Role Signature Date

… … … …

Last Review: MM/DD/YYYY

Next Scheduled Review: MM/DD/YYYY

2.0. Agreement Overview

The next section, the agreement overview should include four components:

1. SLA introduction

2. Definitions, convention, acronyms, and abbreviations (A glossary)

3. Purpose

4. Contractual parameters

2.1. SLA Introduction

Include a brief introduction of the agreement, concerning parties, service scope and contract
duration. For instance:
This is a Service Level Agreement (SLA) between [Customer] and [Service Provider]. This
document identifies the services required and the expected level of services between
MM/DD/YYYY to MM/DD/YYYY.

Subject to review and renewal scheduled by MM/DD/YYYY.

Signatories:

2.2. Definitions, Conventions, Acronyms, and Abbreviations

Include a definition and brief description terms used to represent services, roles, metrics, scope,
parameters, and other contractual details that may be interpreted subjectively in different
contexts. This information may also be distributed across appropriate sections of this document
instead of collated into a single section.

Term Description

SLA Service Level Agreement

Degree of conformance between a result

Accuracy specification and standard value.

The characteristic representing performance of action

that leaves sufficient time remaining so as to
Timeliness maintain SLA service expectation.

IT Operations A unit of [Customer] responsible for internal IT

Department Operations.

… …

Service Description:

 An overview of digital business strategy and its importance in today’s business

landscape.
 Key themes and trends in digital business strategy.
  Insights into local business processes and digital design can influence an enterprise’
customer side response capabilities and digital strategy.
 Case studies and examples of successful digital business strategies.
 Recommendations for formulating and excusing organizational strategy by leveraging
digital resources to create differential value.

The service description may also include information about the authors of the report, their
credentials, and other relevant details.

Key Findings:

 The importance of understanding the nature, role and emergence of digital business
strategies.
 4 key themes emerged from discussions with academic and industry thought leaders are:
1. Digital innovation and transformation
2. Digital platforms and eco systems
3. Data driven decision making
4. Digital governance an leadership
 Success metrics that could serve as a starting point for developing research questions to
guide debate and discussions within the academic community and for guiding practicing
managers and executives.

Services mentioned in the publication:

Various services related to digital business strategy, including telemetric for automobiles,
retailing through mobile apps, publishing and advertising on tablets and health care.

The publication focuses on outlining 4 themes that can be used to develop affective digital
business strategies:

1. Customer engagement
2. Digitalization of products and services
3. Business ecosystem transformation
4. Data monetization.

The publication also suggests that the researches should develop metrics reflecting these themes
to assess the impact of digital business strategy on firm performance.

Objectives:

The main objective of the publication is to provide a framework for understanding and
developing effective digital business strategies. To achieve these objectives, the publication
outlines 4 key themes that can guide
 1. The scope of digital business strategy
2. The scale of digital business strategy
3. The speed of digital business strategy
4. The source of digital business strategy value creation and its
capture.

Goals:

The goal is to provide insights and guidance on digital business strategy. The publication aims to
help readers understand the importance of digital business strategy for the success of business,
and to provide a framework for developing effective digital business strategies. The six research
papers included in the publication examine various aspects of digital business strategy, including
its alignment with business objectives, its impact on organizational agility and its role in creating
differential business value.

2.3. Purpose
This section defines the goals of this agreement, such as:

The purpose of this SLA is to specify the requirements of the SaaS service as defined herein with
regards to:

 Requirements for SaaS( software as a service) service that will be provisioned to

[Customer]

In one of the papers include in the publication, discusses how major cloud service
providers such as Amazon web services, sales force.com and VM ware tout their pay as
you go elastic resources for software, infrastructure and platforms that allow their
customers to dynamically adjust their digital resources as competitive pressures may
demand. The paper argues that SAAS provides need to offer flexible and scalable
services that can meet the changing needs of their customers in a rapidly evolving digital
market place. This requires a deep understanding of customer requirements and
preferences, as well as the ability to rapidly develop and deploy new features and
functionality.

Another paper on the publication touched on specific requirement on SAAS services

related to different aspects of digital business strategy such as e-commerce or digital
marketing.

 Agreed service targets

Agreed service targets refer to the specific goals or objectives that are outlined in a
service level agreement (SLA) between a service provider and a client. These targets
typically include metrics such as uptime, response time and resolution time. These are
 designed to ensure that the service provider is meeting the needs of their client. Agree
service targets are important because they provide a clear understanding of what is
expected from both parties in terms of service delivery. By establishing specific targets
and metrics, the client can hold the service provider accountable for meeting their
obligations under the SLA.

 Criteria for target fulfillment evaluation

In one of the papers included in the publication discusses how specific intermediate
metrics can be used to track and assess the success of digital business strategies. These
metrics can be used to set agreed service targets from different aspects of a firm’s digital
business strategy, such as customer acquisition, retention and engagement. The paper
agrees that the metrics should be aligned with the 4 key themes of digital business
strategy - scope, speed, scale and source of value creation and capture.

The criteria for target fulfillment evaluation will depend on the specific metrics that are
being tracked and assessed. In another paper, specific criteria for target fulfillment
evaluation have been mentioned related to different aspects of digital business strategy.

 Roles and responsibilities of [Service Provider]

This publication notes that major cloud service providers such as Amazon web services,
sales force.com and VM ware offer pay as you go elastic resources for software,
infrastructure and platforms that allow their customers to dynamically adjust their digital
resources as competitive pressures may demand. The service providers have a
responsibility to ensure that their services are reliable, secure and scalable to meet the
needs of their customers. They are also responsible for providing support and guidance to
their customers on how to use their services to achieve their digital business objectives.

 Duration, Scope and Renewal of this SLA contract

Duration: The duration of a digital business strategy depends on a variety of factors,

including the specific goals and objectives of the strategy; the resources available to
implement the strategy; and the competitive landscape in which the firm operates. Some
digital business strategies may be short term initiatives designed to address specific
challenges or opportunities, while others may be long term efforts aimed to transform the
entire organization.

Scope: One of the papers discuss how the fundamental question in strategic
management relates to corporate scope which defines the portfolio of products and
businesses as well as activities that are carried out within a company’s direct control and
ownership. It gives the patterns of corporate scope and the logic of diversification shown
to impact firm performance. Strategic research has been concerned with how firm
 optimally uses their core competencies, key assets and resources to extend their product
and market reach.

In another paper it discusses how digital business strategy extends the scope beyond firm
boundaries and supply chains to ecosystems that crop traditional industry boundaries.

Renewal: In one paper it is discussed how firms need to continuously renew their
digital business strategies to remain competitive in a rapidly evolving market place. It
also mentions how to develop capabilities that allow them to adapt quickly to changing
market conditions and customer needs. The paper also suggests that firms should adopt
an experimental approach to innovation, testing new ideas quickly and treating based on
customer feedback.

 Supporting processes, limitations, exclusions and deviations.

Supporting processes: One of the papers included in the publication discusses how
digital technologies are fundamentally reshaping traditional business strategy as modular,
disturbed cross functional and global business processes that enable work to be across
boundaries of time, distance and function.

The paper suggests that the firm should focus on developing 3 key supporting processes
of digital business strategies:

1. Governance: policies, procedures and decision making.

2. Architecture: design principle and technical standards.
3. Innovation: Identifying new opportunities.

In another paper it discusses how firms can use data analytics as a supporting process for digital
business strategy by giving insights into customer behavior ad market trends.

Limitations:

1. Technical challenges
2. Security risks
3. Resistance to change
4. Cost
5. Data privacy concerns

Exclusions: It didn’t focus much on:

1. Industry specific limitations

2. Resource constraints
3. Customer preference
4. Lack of expertise
5. Organizational culture
 Deviations:

1. Changing market conditions

2. Technical challenges
3. Resource constraints
4. Customer feedback

2.4. Contractual Parameters

In this section, define the policies and scope of this contract related to application, renewal,
modification, exclusion, limitations and termination of the agreement.

This section specifies the contractual parameters of this agreement:

1. Contract renewal must be requested by [Customer] at least 30 days prior to expiration

date of this agreement.

2. Modifications, amendments, extension and early termination of this SLA must be agreed
by both signatory parties.

3. [Customer] requires a minimum of 60 days’ notice for early termination of this SLA.

3.0. Service Agreement

This section can include a variety of components and subsections. into the following
components:

1. KPIs and metrics

In pg 11 the author states that they are not at a stage of either theoretical development or
management proactive to offer generic metrics of firm performance from an effective
digital business strategy. They suggest 4 themes:

 Scope of digital business strategy

 Scale of digital business strategy
 Speed of decision making
 Source of value creation and capture
In pg 4, a list of key external digital trends; their potential impact on firm’s performance
is seen. This highlights some areas where firms may want to focus their measurement
efforts in order to assess the effectiveness of their digital business strategies.

2. Service levels, rankings, and priority

 The publication discusses the importance of cloud computing services as a strategic
dynamic capability of firms to scale u or down its infrastructure. Cloud computing
sources typically offer various service levels with different features and pricing options to
meet the needs of different customers.

3. Service response
The author notes that the speed of response is becoming increasingly important in the
context of customer service requests through social media platforms such as twitter and
face book. Slow response time can lead to customers moving away from companies
perceived as being out of touch with new reality. To address this challenge companies are
experimenting with multi functional integrative command centers to organize information
flow from within the company and outside to increase organizational ability to sense and
respond faster than ever before.

4. Exceptions and limitations

5. Responses and responsibilities

6. Service Management

The authors note that digital platforms are enabling firms to break traditional industry
boundaries and operate in new spaces that were earlier only defined through those digital
resources.

To effectively manage the new digital service, firms need to develop new service
management capabilities that can help them deliver high quality services to their
customers. This may involve developing new processes and tools for managing
customer’s interactions through social media platforms or other digital channels.

Additionally firms may need to invest in new technologies such as artificial intelligence,
machine learning to help them better understand customer needs and preferences an
deliver more personalized services.

3.1. KPIs and Metrics

Key performance indicators (KPIs) and other related metrics can and should support your SLA,
but the achievement of these alone does not necessarily result in the desired outcome for the
customer.
Metric Commitment Measurement

Availability MTTR
Reliability MTTF

Issue Recurrence

… … …

3.2. Service Levels, Rankings, and Priority

Severity
Level Description Target Response

1. Outage SaaS server down Immediate

2. Critical High risk of server downtime Within 10 minutes

3. Urgent End-user impact initiated Within 20 minutes

Potential for performance impact if

4. Important not addressed Within 30 minutes

Issue addressed but potentially Within one

5. Monitor impactful in the future business day

6.
Informational Inquiry for information Within 48 hours

… … …

3.3. Service Response

3.4. Exceptions and Limitations

Include any exceptions to the SLA conditions, scope, and application, such as:

This SLA is subject to the following exceptions and special conditions:

 [Service Provider] must ensure Cloud Service A availability of 99.9999% during holiday
season dated MM/DD/YYYY to MM/DD/YYYY.

 [Service Provider] may not be liable to credit reimbursement for service impact to data
centers in Region A and Region B due to natural disasters.

 Response to requests of Severity Level 6 or below by [Customer] can be delayed up to 24

hours during the aforementioned holiday season.

 Requests for special arrangements by [Customer] may be expedited as per pricing

structure specified in Appendix A.1.

3.5. Responses and Responsibilities

Here, you’ll define the responsibilities of both the service provider and the customer.
[Customer] responsibilities:

 [Customer] should provide all necessary information and assistance related to service
performance that allows the [Service Provider] to meet the performance standards as
outlined in this document.

 [Customer] shall inform [Service Provider] regarding changing business requirements

that may necessitate a review, modification, or amendment of the SLA.

 …

[Service Provider] responsibilities

 [Service Provider] will act as primary support provider of the services herein identified
except when third-party vendors are employed who shall assume appropriate service
support responsibilities accordingly.

 [Service Provider] will inform [Customer] regarding scheduled and unscheduled service
outages due to maintenance, troubleshooting, disruptions or as otherwise necessary.

 …

3.6. Service Management

Include service management and support details applicable to the service provider in this section

3.6.1. Service Availability

Service coverage by the [Service Provider] as outlined in this agreement follows the schedule
specified below:

 On-site support: 9:00 A.M. to 6:00 P.M, Monday to Friday between January 5, 2020 to
December 20, 2020.

 Phone Support: 24-Hours as per Section 3.2. of this agreement.

 Email Support: 24-Hours as per Section 3.2. of this agreement.

 …

References and Glossary

Include reference agreements, policy documents, glossary and relevant details in this section.
This might include terms and conditions for both the service provider and the customer, and any
additional reference material, like third-party vendor contracts.
Appendix
The appendix is a good place to store relevant information that doesn’t fit elsewhere, such as
pricing models and charges.