SLA Definitions. Xxxxxx et. al. (2004) define an SLA as: “An explicit statement of expectations and obligations that exist in a business relationship between two organizations: the service provider and customer”. Since SLA has been used since 1980s in a variety of areas, most of the available definitions are contextual and vary from area to area. Some of the main SLA definitions in Information Technology related areas are summarised in Table 1. Table 1: Summary of SLA definitions classified by the area. Area Definition Source Web Services “SLA is an agreement used to guarantee web service delivery. It defines the understanding and expecta- tions from service provider and service consumer”. HP Lab (Jin et. al. 2002) Networking “An SLA is a contract between a network service pro- vider and a customer that specifies, usually in mea- surable terms, what services the network service pro- vider will supply and what penalties will assess if the service provider can not meet the established goals”. Research Project Internet “SLA constructed the legal foundation for the service delivery. All parties involved are users of SLA. Ser- vice consumer uses SLA as a legally binding descrip- tion of what provider promised to provide. The ser- vice provider uses it to have a definite, binding record of what is to be delivered”. Internet NG (Xxx et. al.2001) Data Center Management “SLA is a formal agreement to promise what is possi- ble to provide and provide what is promised”. Sun Microsystems Internet Data Cen- ter group (2002)
SLA Definitions. Any term used as a defined term in connection with a Service Level Agreement and not otherwise defined in this Master Agreement shall have the meaning set forth in the applicable Service Level Agreement.
