Wednesday, December 13, 2017

Service Level Agreement for Cloud Computing setup

SLA for Cloud Computing Service Provider
As a standard practice,  the customer and service provider enters into a service based agreement before commencing of any project. The agreement is a way to determine and note down the requirement from the customer, commitment by the vendor, and pricing for the entire project. The Service Level Agreement (SLA) in case of cloud migration from traditional infrastructure includes cloud carrier, provider, broker, and list of services required to make the upcoming solution operable.
Besides, the SLA mentions the model (Iaas, Saas, or Paas), method, and ETA from start to complete the migration.
The SLA is a legal entity and involves the law. Although, practically, SLAs are only for the formality and both sides keep enough room to manage extra requirements and additional time taken to develop the system. But, in case if the matter reaches the court of law, the SLA helps. In case of any organization, the SLA is not just a legal document; it also states the details of the entire project as the federal system seeks.

Method

A core SLA team initiated the SLA. This team consists of experts from the organization. The idea is to recognize the focal point of creating an interface with the service vendor on SLA.
Once the team is set up, and visions are straight the team chalks out the main agreement points. The experts who write the terms and conditions in the form of bullets ensure that they write down every single detail concisely. A very well written SLA forms the base of a trustworthy relationship between the vendor and service provider.
In case of any organization, moving its structure from traditional to cloud-based model like Iaas, multiple things must be part of SLA. Non-disclosure commitment of the data, adherence, and compliance with the government policies about the information handling, service commitment, output expectations, storage plans, backup plans, and total control on the system from access to destroyable rights are few of the points must be added to the SLA.
First of all, there has to be a Single Point of Contact (SPOC) from the organization to Cloud vendor. The SPOC helps to clear any chances of communication gaps. A vendor cannot say that they had informed about a possible downtime unless they write to the SPOC.
During the entire development process, the vendor should be asked to share the report of key functionaries, test cases, expected test results, and achieved results. Deviation beyond a certain level must be considered as a breach of the SLA.

Discussion

An SLA is shared in electronic form for review between both the parties must be on physical, and court notified paper. Each of the terms must be read, understood, and committed by both the parties.

Conclusion


When there are many small and large services being worked upon, an SLA becomes an important document. It has to be abided by both the parties for a smooth transition ad business operation.
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Service Level Agreement for Cloud Computing setup

SLA for Cloud Computing Service Provider As a standard practice,  the customer and service provider enters into a service based agree...