Service-Level Agreement (SLA) A service-level agreement (SLA) is a contract between a service provider and its internal or external customers that documents what services the provider will furnish and defines the service standards the provider is obligated to meet. Why are SLAs important? Service providers need SLAs to help them manage customer expectations and define the circumstances under which they are not liable for outages or performance issues. Customers can also benefit from S...

Cloud Computing Definition Cloud computing is a general term for the delivery of hosted services over the internet. Cloud computing enables companies to consume a compute resource, such as a virtual machine (VM), storage or an application, as a utility -- just like electricity -- rather than having to build and maintain computing infrastructures in house. Cloud computing characteristics and benefits Cloud computing boasts several attractive benefits for businesses and end users. Five o...