What is SaaS SLA (Service Level Agreement)?

As such, when a company decides to adopt a certain software tool in the cloud, it becomes completely dependent on this vendor. For instance, when an email software breaks down during a large scale marketing campaign or an accounting software becomes unavailable during salary disbursement period, the company incurs some financial damage. To avoid such scenarios, a special document contained in the SaaS agreements comes in handy.

What is SLA (Service Level Agreement)? 

A service level agreement is a formal agreement between a software provider and a customer. This agreement sets the lowest required standard of performance for the software and what is to happen when the provider does not comply with those standards.

In other words, SaaS SLA is like a safety net that eliminates any uncertainty from software relationships by having everything clearly outlined in a legally binding document. 

Instead of trusting vague assurances about quality services provided, the customer gets to have corporate and technical performance standards clearly defined.

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Critical Elements of Service Agreements

In order for an effective protection of a company to be ensured, it is imperative for service agreements to include a few key metrics. These are necessary to guarantee that both sides know their rights and obligations:

• Uptime Guarantee: This is the most important metric. It determines the uptime rate of the software within the month of its functioning.
• Support Response Time: It should be indicated in the contract how fast technical support will respond to the client’s notice of bugs, depending on their priority.
• Service Credits: In case the application falls under the set standards, the compensation scheme should be described in the form of credits.
• Exclusions and Maintenance: There should be explained in the agreement of which events do not qualify as violations of the standards.

Understanding the Uptime Standard

One of the key aspects of any cloud deal is the uptime standard. Most vendors represent this number as a sequence of nines. Even though the 99.9% uptime standard may sound great, in reality, it implies that there are more than forty minutes per month when downtime occurs unexpectedly.

Since any minor failure can stop the work process, companies dealing with sensitive information usually insist on higher numbers, like 99.99% or 99.999%.

Conclusion

Using cloud software needs boundaries to avoid unnecessary risks. Checking SaaS SLA carefully before concluding any SaaS contracts makes sure that a company will not be left on its own in case of unexpected technical failures. Setting up a solid uptime standard and proper support policy helps create a safe relationship with the vendor.