Pre-defined cloud computing SLA requirements

Cloud computing services are becoming mainstream. They offer a resilient http://www.aliyun.com/zixun/aggregation/13695.html ">it infrastructure can respond quickly to new requirements such as business growth or new projects." The cloud computing model also achieves possible cost savings through the actual use of paid methods and the effects of economies of scale. However, in order to achieve cost savings using the cloud computing model, IT professionals have to elaborate SLAs.

Enterprises rely on service level agreements (SLAs) to require cloud computing providers to provide security for the services provided and to assert their rights in the event of a service failure. For example, the SLA clearly sets out the vendor's responsibilities, such as the time within which the vendor should be able to resolve the problem, and the responsibilities that should be borne by the vendor in the event of downtime and loss of business by the customer.

But when it comes to cloud computing SLAs, the crux of the problem is often the details. For example, there is a problem with the provision concerning customer refund. Should the customer repay the lost service, or does the SLA prescribe future credit? It is not surprising that establishing a reliable, practical and agreed SLA for both suppliers and users is a fairly complex task. As a result, companies look so cautious in the face of these beautifully printed documents.

For companies eager to wade into cloud computing services, they should carefully consider potential risks, including pricing, vendor responsibility, availability, data security, customer rights, risk, and penalties in choosing a cloud computing service provider.

Prepare a cloud computing SLA

Before you sign the signature of the contract, you must make sure that your application has a certain business need. Unless you can determine your maximum downtime to allow time and your company's potential business losses, you cannot specify the time that cloud computing vendors need to backup and run disaster recovery. This means that you need to run scenarios and digital support.

First, identify the data and applications that are relevant to the critical business requirements in the cloud computing environment. This requires the establishment of key performance indicators (KPIs) that are unique to your business needs, such as:

Accept delay Level

Measurable impact of downtime or data loss,

Regular access to business data, including current or archived requirements

A cloud computing service usage pattern.

If a business needs to use a cloud computing service and peak business load at certain times of the month, quarter, or year, then the average monthly latency in the SLA provided by the vendor does not indicate whether the vendor is able to meet your business latency requirements. At the same time, it is important to understand business requirements, including legitimacy, compliance, regulation, or other responsibilities related to key business, which the company's users should adhere to. These factors may involve data location, dataset size, access speed, or time to access archived/backed-up data.

Considerations should also include disaster recovery, availability Assurance, privacy, full deletion, encryption, and the ability to monitor, manage, and review cloud computing SLAs. We use an example to show that your company may need to physically store the data in a geographically restricted area for legal or regulatory reasons, but your service provider is a global entity, and the data center under its own economy is in many different countries. In this case, you need to ensure that the vendor SLA will not only address your data location requirements, but also provide the necessary data access review capabilities.

The supplier approach is another factor that should be taken into account. A forward-looking cloud computing provider should be able to demonstrate some of the best practices to ensure compliance requirements. As a neutral third party, it should be able to provide evidence for separation of responsibilities and provide a regulatory chain for critical business information to support compliance consistency.

In an outsourced or outsourced cloud computing environment, the assessment service level agreement should have a very clear understanding of the impact of conflict or violation of SLAs, and related problem-solving procedures. A typical commercial cloud computing SLA may not meet the needs of business users for critical business data.

Set responsibility for cloud computing providers and consumers

After you evaluate your business needs, you can consider these requirements from the perspective of the cloud services provider. How do you share responsibility between your company and your supplier in the event of an outage or problem? What is the level of transparency of the supplier and is it able to proactively inform the customer about the non-compliance and breach of the terms in the SLA? Is there a provision in the event of a disaster that restricts the supplier's liability to your company's data? What type of disaster recovery should vendors provide in the face of disaster events?

The answers to these questions may be quite surprising. Although you may have fantasies, I have to tell you that the onus of proof is not always borne by the supplier in the event of a failure. Customers may be required to determine service failures and related adverse effects.

Unless there is an SLA automatic violation recognition feature in its internal or private cloud computing settings, this feature can easily be extended and applied to hybrid cloud computing, otherwise monitoring and managing cloud services can result in additional work and cost to the company. The company should also make an assessment of the penalties to determine that these penalty clauses have properly covered all cases of lost business opportunities.

(Responsible editor: The good of the Legacy)