{"id":4715,"date":"2014-07-09T07:00:42","date_gmt":"2014-07-09T15:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/formtek.com\/blog\/?p=4715"},"modified":"2014-06-15T20:59:47","modified_gmt":"2014-06-16T04:59:47","slug":"cloud-computing-understanding-the-limits-of-cloud-slas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/formtek.com\/blog\/cloud-computing-understanding-the-limits-of-cloud-slas\/","title":{"rendered":"Cloud Computing: Understanding the Limits of Cloud SLAs"},"content":{"rendered":"

While often businesses cite security as their most common worry about cloud services, the risk of downtime is another factor that’s not spoken of nearly as much.<\/p>\n

‘Standard cloud SLAs’<\/a> often provide little to the customer in \u00a0compensation if\/when things go wrong. \u00a0SLAs typically focus on uptime\/downtime and outline remuneration plans that happen in the event the service is down. \u00a0When downtimes occur, it is often up to the customer to complain and initiate a request for credit, and the credit that is provided \u00a0is often capped at some percentage of the monthly service cost and the credit is often only then applied against future billings. \u00a0Lydia Leong<\/a>, Gartner analyst, commented that “Customers should expect that the likelihood of a meaningful giveback is basically nil.”<\/p>\n

“A lot of companies simply don’t know what to look for when it comes to\u00a0SLAs<\/a>, and that means that a significant proportion of service provider customers just take whatever service level agreement they are offered,”\u00a0said\u00a0<\/a>Robert Mahowald<\/a>, a research vice president at IDC.<\/p>\n

Michael Masterson<\/a>, director of Cloud Services at Compuware, wrote on the Compuware blog<\/a>, “imagine a company selling a premium new car whose warranty includes 2M piston revolutions, 10k door latch cycles, and 20k window open and closes. And even then, with 99.5% availability, you might still be unable to start the car 2 days a year, or during winter there might be 2 weeks where the doors won\u2019t unlock until the sun melts the ice in the door locks. Ready to buy?”<\/p>\n

A Compuware Cloud White Paper<\/a> had the following findings:<\/p>\n