Service Level Agreement

Service Level Agreement (SLA) is a formal written agreement made between two parties: the service provider and the service recipient. The SLA itself defines the basis of understanding between the two parties for delivery of the service itself. The document can be quite complex, and sometimes underpins a formal contract. The contents will vary according to the nature of the service itself, but usually includes a number of core elements, or clauses. SLAs are most common for provision of IT services, particularly Internet services.

Generally, a SLA should contain clauses that define a specified level of service, support options, incentive awards for service levels exceeded and/or penalty provisions for services not provided. Before having such agreements with customers the IT services need to have a good quality of these services, Quality management will try to improve the Quality of service, whereas the SLAs will try to keep the quality and guarantee the quality to the customer.

Typical Service Level Agreement Contents:
Services Delivered
Performance
Problem Management
Customer Duties
Warranties & Remedies
Security
Disaster Recovery
Termination

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