| A service level agreement is an integral part in | | | | great way of measuring application performance. |
| any business partnership, as it defines the | | | | Administrators can also undertake IT service |
| relationship between the vendor and the client. A | | | | management by utilizing the appropriate |
| SLA is a written contract which determines the | | | | monitoring tools to ensure that the services meet |
| parameters for services including responsibilities, | | | | SLA criteria. |
| deliverables, priorities and guarantees/warranties. | | | | Service level agreements are customized |
| Clients looking for IT services generally prefer IT | | | | according to the client's requirements and |
| vendors who make service level agreements with | | | | essentially differ from case to case. However, it is |
| a clear roadmap of how to achieve goals of the | | | | worth examining here what an SLA generally |
| project along as well as clarity regarding the | | | | consists of. Some of the important aspects of a |
| terms and conditions of the service. Any IT | | | | SLA are: |
| company seeking the services of an outsourcing | | | | - Description of the services being promised |
| company would prefer to sign a SLA with the | | | | - Methods through which the services will be |
| vendor company. | | | | delivered |
| Service level agreements make IT service | | | | - Criteria through which delivered services will be |
| management very easy, especially in the IT | | | | measured |
| industry, wherein clients are concerned about any | | | | - Quality standards of the services promised |
| downtime in mission-critical softwares supporting | | | | - Line of action in case of failure of delivery |
| their business. One small malfunction in IT | | | | Having a service level agreement is applicable and |
| operations can affect the bottom line of | | | | advantageous to both the client as well as the |
| businesses. To prevent such malfunctions, clients | | | | vendor. IT administrators strive to ensure |
| as well as vendors prefer to sign service level | | | | application availability and application performance |
| agreements in order to define the rules and | | | | so that it meets the SLA criteria. It lays down the |
| regulations and ensure the delivery of promised | | | | basic rules for both parties concerned and |
| IT services. | | | | becomes a point of reference in case of |
| A SLA gives the network administrator the | | | | discrepancies. |
| complete details on application availability and is a | | | | |