Buying information technology is tricky. Too often, I've seen folks buy an expensive technology product only to discover it doesn't really deliver the functionality they need. If it's happened to you, don't despair — you can minimize your vulnerability.

Start by understanding that technology product sales reps are there to sell you — their goal is to escalate their product into the top spot on your list of IT projects. So if at the end of a sales presentation you find that your IT project list has been re-ordered so that now their product sits at the top of your list, stop and ask why.  

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In my experience, poor network performance can cause outages that cascade unpredictably through the business and cost you plenty. Are you experiencing any of these signs of trouble?

1. 1 Network-dependent applications have become sluggish — and your employees, customers, and suppliers are letting you know how unhappy they are.
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A service-level agreement works best when it’s the result of a collaborative effort between you and a service provider you can trust. This kind of trusted collaboration will uncover the most cost-effective ways your provider’s IT capabilities can be put to work for your business.

Part of that trust involves the fifth and last Essential SLA Element on my list: Procedures for the safe and prompt return of your data upon service termination.

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A good service-level agreement looks simple — but that’s because it’s been conscientiously negotiated to meet the buyer’s needs. Of the five essential SLA elements that every managed and cloud services customer should focus on, I’ve described two — specifying service functionality and describing the infrastructure and standards to be maintained by the provider.

Essential SLA Elements #3 concerns SLA changes. Your SLA should include a mechanism by which you can regularly tune it in response to changing business conditions or new technologies. You’ll benefit from building in a formal review of your SLA (at least annually) in order to use experience and new information to revise it.

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I’ve already blogged about the importance of negotiating a service-level agreement that specifies the functionality of the managed and cloud services you engage.

Now I’m going to focus on Essential SLA Element #2: Including details about the system, network, and security infrastructure and standards to be maintained for your services by the provider.

In addition to the functional description of the services you’re using, your SLA should describe the infrastructure on which they’re based in detail so you know and can rely on what supports the services you’re buying. This description should include — and commit your service provider to maintain — system, network, and security infrastructure and standards.

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Why specifying each service to be provided is critical

I see five essential elements that you absolutely need to pay attention to in your managed and cloud services SLAs. I’ll review each of them in my blog, starting with: Specifying each service to be provided. 

This may seem obvious, and, in fact, it is. Yet too many service-level agreements are surprising vague about what exactly you’re buying.

When it comes to describing the services you’re signing on for, you want specifics. There are two chief ways your SLA should include those specifics:

1. Make sure your SLA includes a sufficiently detailed functional description of each service — what the service actually does and how the service does it —, rather than just the provider’s current name for the service.
   
   This protects you when updates to the provider’s underlying infrastructure happen to alter the functionality of your service, which might cause a capability you depend on to be deleted.


2. Your SLA should also codify all service parameters and establish minimum performance levels required for each service. 
   This enables you to get a guarantee from your service provider about service performance levels, such as transaction throughput time, service availability/uptime, mean-time-to-respond to/resolve a trouble call, and mean-time-to-restore should problems with the service occur.

To get the most out of your managed or cloud service, you need to invest the time in negotiating a good service-level agreement. 

The SLA is a key part of the contract between you and your provider, since it describes the levels of service being provided and the metrics used to ensure your provider delivers full value. And the right SLA with the right service provider can mitigate cloud risks and help your business flourish.

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Since the arrival in 2002 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) as well as other more stringent financial accountability standards, the role of SAS 70 Type II audit and certification has grown. My company takes SAS 70 Type II audits very seriously.

That's because both SOX and SAS 70 Type II use the same model of controls — so a SAS 70 Type II certification is the best way third parties (like our customers) can be assured of acceptable, SOX-compliant service organization controls.

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