The lifeblood of any cloud relationship is the Service Level Agreement (SLA) upon which it is based " the SLA sets the expectations of both parties and acts as the roadmap for change, whether planned or unplanned. Each SLA has a complex lifecycle that includes three distinct phases " negotiation where the original terms of the agreement are established, measurement where service is actively monitored to ensure agreed upon levels are achieved, and management where deficiencies from and adjustments to initial agreements are acted upon. IT Leaders must take an active role in all phases of the SLA lifecycle to ensure optimal protection for their enterprise.
Takeaways: