Making sense of cloud-based SLAs

Evaluating SLAs can be uncomfortable for many IT managers; after all, most SLAs are filled with legalese and contractual language that can make it difficult to quantify what exactly a vendor is offering. Further complicating things is that most SLAs are written to protect the vendor, and not so much the customer. Most vendors create SLAs as a defensive shield against litigation, while offering customers minimal assurances. That said, SLAs can still be a powerful tool for IT managers looking to choose a cloud vendor and arrange for the best services available.

IT managers need to focus on three areas with SLAs: Data protection, continuity and costs. Arguably, data protection is the most important element to understand. IT managers will want to make sure that who has access to the data and what protections are in place be clearly defined. At first blush, determining levels of protection seems rather straight forward, but there are some hidden issues to be aware of and IT managers must perform due diligence and address those issues.

Many of these questions could raise thorny issues about how intellectual property is protected. It all comes down to who ultimately has control of the customer's proprietary data.

An IT manager will need to understand how the vendor's infrastructure and services are utilized to provide persistent access to needed applications and data sets. Continuity is important. In a perfect world, a vendor could guarantee access 100 percent of the time, but in r...