What is a Cloud Storage SLA?

Definition of Cloud Storage Service Level Agreement (Cloud Storage SLA)

Cloud storage service level agreement (SLA) is a formal binding contract between a cloud storage service provider and a customer. It defines the availability, uptime, redundancy and other service delivery assurance warranted by the provider to the customer and the monetary or service compensation to be provided in case of violation or failure.

Brief Description of Cloud Storage SLA

Cloud storage SLA is a documented agreement composed of operational, maintenance and fault tolerance claims / assurance a cloud storage service provider warrants for their storage infrastructure. Typically, a cloud storage SLA documents the maximum provisioned storage capacity, the quantity of API read/write calls, storage backup and recovery, security and data governance policies and the overall availability of the service.

Cloud storage SLA works well for cloud hosted storage models where data is stored on remote storage servers and locations, which are out of bound for the customer. The Cloud Storage SLA ensures a customer that the provider will deliver the agreed service level and reimburse / compensate the customer in case of non-compliance, as articulated in the agreement.