Making Cloud SLAs readily usable in the EU private sector
Cloud SLA lifecycle
The Cloud SLA lifecycle is an important part of the provision of Cloud services. There is a tight correlation between the phases of the Cloud service lifecycle (Acquisition, Operation, Termination) and the 7 phases of the Cloud SLA one.
Cloud service lifecycle: Acquisition
A prospective cloud customer can use service offerings published by the cloud service provider to check whether it meets her/his requirements, for example, security, personal data protection, performance etc., and see how one offering compares with another in the market. Why is it important? This phase is crucial for establishing an SLA between the cloud customer and the cloud service provider.
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Any relationship starts with pre-assessing what one would like, why, when and with whom (for instance one or more CSPs), so does the first Cloud SLA lifecycle phase, Assessment. This includes for instance doing market intelligence, checking specific needs, offerings, CSPs, performance of CSPs and setting up a business case... |
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This second Cloud SLA lifecycle phase, includes for instance, the first contact and conversation with possible CSPs, further assessment, pre-evaluation and fine-tuning goals and assumptions... |
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This phase can include preparing for negotiation and the actual negotiation and deal making with one or more CSPs, including sharing concerns, discuss in-scope and out-of-scope (cloud) services, debating about trade-offs and finding common grounds, reaching agreement, double-checking needs, goals and assumptions, and of course documenting the contractual arrangements, and signing thereof... |
Cloud service lifecycle: Operation
This phase determines whether a cloud service meets the committed service level objective (SLO) during the provisioning of the cloud service. This might imply that cloud service providers taking corrective actions to avoid SLA violations. Why is it important? SLAs can be used to monitor the cloud service provider in order to assess the correct fulfilment of the cloud service, or detect potential violations in which case remediation may take place.
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This phase includes the actual start of setting up the cloud services, populating the respective cloud service with relevant data, on boarding and training users, setting up communication channels and further operational activities while using the respective cloud services... |
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This phase includes updated or otherwise amended needs, goals and assumptions by the Cloud Service Customer during the term of the ongoing cloud services arrangements, as well as improved or added cloud services by the CSP there under. It also includes optimisation of the respective cloud services by CSP as per (contractual or other) non-compliance, breaches and other incidents during that term... |
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This phase deals with contractual or other) non-compliance, breaches and other incidents during the term of the ongoing cloud services arrangements that have resulted in a dispute that needs escalation, (perhaps even litigation as a last resort), negotiation and resolution, either by parties themselves or by arbitration, court or otherwise... |
Cloud service lifecycle: Termination
Why is it important? You should already think about termination in phase 1, as an SLA can be used to arrange the conditions under which the Cloud customer’s data (including but not limited to for instance Personal Identifiable Information or PII) will be exported and returned to the cloud customer, and not retained by the cloud service provider (to the extent mandatorily possible).
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This phase deals with the end of the relationship between CSP and CSC, including the end of the legal relationship even though the latter will generally continue for several years after any termination as per mandatory laws and legislation. This last phase for instance includes the assessment of alternatives, settlement and termination arrangements, cloud services transition projects and services, data export, customer and (end)use care and diligence, and adequate data deletion... |