The distinction between data recovery and service availability is critical in Service Level Agreements (SLA). Even if data can be recovered in a few minutes, making the application available for use by employees, customers and partners may take several hours. The resultant downtime has a guaranteed impact on productivity with consequential impact on business revenue, service level delivery and ultimately, reputation.

This paper discusses why it is imperative that SLA’s are defined from a business centric perspective and that the most appropriate solution is employed, to ensure that service availability can be delivered enabling compliance with the SLA.