IT support and security
Service level agreement (SLA)
The part of an IT contract that commits a provider to answering and resolving problems within stated times, usually by severity.
What service level agreement (SLA) means in practice
A real SLA states two separate numbers per severity level: how long until a human responds, and how long until the problem is resolved or escalated. Most published SLAs only commit to the first, which is why a provider can meet their SLA while your server has been down since Tuesday.
The clause worth reading is the remedy. An SLA with no consequence for missing it is a statement of intent, not an agreement. The usual remedy is a service credit against the following month, and the usual catch is that you have to claim it. Also check how severity is decided, because a provider who classifies your outage is a provider who can classify their way out of the target.
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