SLA

ALSO CALLED: Service Level Agreements, SLAs
DEFINITION: A service-level agreement (SLA) is a contract between a network service provider and a customer that specifies, usually in measurable terms, what services the network service provider will furnish. Many Internet service providers (ISP)s provide their customers with an SLA. More recently, IS departments in major enterprises have adopted the idea of writing a service level agreement so that services  … 
Definition continues below.

SLA DEFINITION (continued): …  for their customers (users in other departments within the enterprise) can be measured, justified, and perhaps compared with those of outsourcing network providers.Some metrics that SLAs may specify include: What percentage of the time services will be available The number of users that can be served simultaneouslySpecific performance benchmarks to which actual performance will be periodically comparedThe schedule for notification in advance of network changes that may affect usersHelp desk response time for various classes of problemsDial-in access availabilityUsage statistics that will be provided. … 
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