What is a service level agreement (SLA) and why it is important?
What is an SLA? A service-level agreement is essentially a contractual agreement containing terms and condition with regard to service delivery, thereby forming a legal agreement, between the client and service provider. What forms an SLA? An SLA basically comprises of components in two realms - services and management. Service elements include specifics of services provided (and what's excluded, if there's room for doubt), conditions of service availability, standards such as time window for each level of service (prime time and non-prime time may have different service levels, for example), responsibilities of each party, escalation procedures, and cost/service tradeoffs. Management elements should include definitions of measurement standards and methods, reporting process, contents and frequency, a dispute resolution process, an indemnification...