RE: [soa-rm-ra] definition of SLA

["Jones, Steve G" <steve.g.jones@capgemini.com>]

There is probably a question here of the difference between a consumers SLA with a service and a producers SLA with its environment.  Taking our outsourcing business as an example there tends to be a difference between the SLA that applies to end-users (consumers) and the one that we give to the client around the hosting and support.  The hosting and support element includes specific details around number of calls, what type of calls, DR policy, backup policy etc etc which I guess could be called the service owners SLA, or you could consider the infrastructure et al as being a service in its own right and the DR et al being its SLA for providing hosting services to the business service.  The consumer SLA will have availability, response times and not much else.

 

The amount of content in an SLA is massively dependent on the business value and the business impact of a service.  So taking something like a production line management service that directly impacts the company financially when it fails then the SLA will be pretty complete, something around monthly HR reporting will have a best endeavours style of SLA.

 

Steve

 

 

From: Ken Laskey [mailto:klaskey@mitre.org]
Sent: 24 January 2007 05:19
To: Danny Thornton
Cc: soa-rm-ra@lists.oasis-open.org
Subject: Re: [soa-rm-ra] definition of SLA

 

Danny,

 

Thanks for the pointer.  I was out of the office today and didn't have a chance to look at this beyond your summary below, but my first impression is that definition includes every possible aspect of a service, and that doesn't make sense.  Do you really expect the SLA of every service (or even a significant number) to go into the details of disaster recovery?  I may want some assurance a critical service will be there during times of extreme duress, but I probably do not care (and would not appreciate) the details of how the provider will do it.

 

But let me read this and the other responses to my SLA definition question and let me see if I migrate to a more enlightened view.

 

Ken

 

On Jan 23, 2007, at 12:47 AM, Danny Thornton wrote:

The following link is one description:

 

http://www.sla-zone.co.uk/index.htm

 

It lists the following pieces to the SLA:

 

Definition of Services

Problem Management

Performance Management

Customer Duties and Responsibilities

Warranties and Remedies

   Service quality

   Indemnities

   Third party claims

   Remedies for breaches

   Exclusions

   Force majeure

Security

   Information Security Policies

   Security Audit and Internal Audit

Disaster Recovery

Termination

 

Several parts of the SLA can translate into policies

and configurables for services and devices.  The

policies created from the SLA can result in automated

run time adjustments to services and devices to meet

the requirements in the SLA.  A failure in ability to

meet the SLA in the SOA results in an elevation of the

problem which might have legal ramifications.

 

In terms of the service description, we could state

that Interactions Policies and Contracts can contain

an aggregation of one or more SLAs.  We could then

extend the SLA to include the above types of

information in a separate diagram.

 

Danny 

 

--- Ken Laskey <klaskey@mitre.org> wrote:

 

This will probably need to be tackled at some point

and I have the  

question biting me now.  Is there an accepted

definition of a service  

level agreement?  How would we define it?  For what

purposes is it  

used?  When should someone care?

 

Answer these and I have more questions?

 

Ken

 

 

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------------------

Ken Laskey

MITRE Corporation, M/S H305     phone:  703-983-7934

7515 Colshire Drive                        fax:     

  703-983-1379

McLean VA 22102-7508

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Ken Laskey

MITRE Corporation, M/S H305     phone:  703-983-7934

7515 Colshire Drive                        fax:        703-983-1379

McLean VA 22102-7508

 

 

 

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