The Art of CTO SLA Generator creates service level agreements with appropriate uptime targets, response time commitments, escalation procedures, and penalty terms.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the difference between SLA, SLO, and SLI?
SLIs (Service Level Indicators) are the actual measurements — request latency, error rate, throughput. SLOs (Service Level Objectives) are the internal targets you set for those indicators — "99.9% of requests will complete in under 200ms." SLAs (Service Level Agreements) are contractual commitments with customers that include consequences for missing targets — financial credits, contract termination rights. Your SLOs should be stricter than your SLAs to provide a buffer, and SLIs are how you measure compliance with both.
What uptime percentage should an SLA guarantee?
SLA uptime targets should reflect your actual architecture capability minus a safety buffer. 99.9% (8.7 hours downtime/year) is appropriate for most B2B SaaS. 99.95% (4.4 hours/year) is suitable for business-critical applications with redundant infrastructure. 99.99% (52.6 minutes/year) requires multi-region active-active architecture and is typically reserved for infrastructure providers. Never promise 100% — it is architecturally impossible and creates unlimited liability. Start with a conservative SLA and tighten it as your reliability track record improves.