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CompTIA Security+ 5.3 NIST 800-53 SA-9 NIST CSF GV.SC-05
TechKnowSurge Catalog Interactives What Does the SLA Pay Out?
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What Does the SLA Pay Out?

Work out the downtime an SLA allows, the uptime a month really had, and the service credit owed.

⚑ Complete this interactive to capture a CTF flag worth 5 points.

About this interactive

A service level agreement (SLA) sets the level of service a provider promises and what happens when it falls short. Uptime is the usual measure. Allowed downtime. Take the time in the period and multiply it by the part not promised. A 30-day month has 30 × 24 = 720 hours, or 43,200 minutes. At 99.9% uptime, 0.1% may be down: 43,200 × 0.001 = 43.2 minutes a month. Over a 365-day year (8,760 hours) the same 99.9% allows 8.76 hours, the lesson's "about 8 hours a year". Measured uptime. Subtract the downtime from the period and divide by the period: 216 minutes down in a 30-day month gives (43,200 − 216) ÷ 43,200 = 99.5%. Service credits. The SLA's table sets bands. The questions here use one table: 99.9% or more, no credit; 99.0% up to 99.9%, 10% of the month's bill; 95.0% up to 99.0%, 25%; under 95.0%, 100%. Find the band the month's uptime falls in, then take that share of the bill. A band's lower edge belongs to it, so exactly 99.0% earns 10%. The lesson reads Amazon S3's SLA as giving 10% between 98% and 99.9%. In S3's published SLA for its standard storage class, the 10% band runs from 99.0% to 99.9%; the 98% edge belongs to the storage classes that promise 99%. That is why the table here uses 99.0%. An SLA you hold from a vendor gives you recourse if the service falls short. One you give your own customers sets their expectations, and gives them the same recourse against you.

What you'll learn

Aligned to

CompTIA Security+
5.3 Explain the processes associated with third-party risk assessment and management.
NIST 800-53
SA-9 External System Services
NIST CSF
GV.SC-05 Requirements to address cybersecurity risks in supply chains are established, prioritized, and integrated into contracts and other types of agreements with suppliers and other relevant third parties.

Key terms

Service Level Agreement
SLA
A formal commitment between a provider and customer that guarantees a defined level of service uptime, including terms for compensation if the standard is not met.
Service Credit
A partial or full refund issued by a service provider to a customer when agreed-upon service levels, such as uptime thresholds, are not met.
Uptime
The amount of continuous time a network device or service has been running without interruption, often expressed as a percentage of total time available. High uptime percentages (such as 99.9%) indicate a reliable network, while planned and unplanned downtime reduces this figure.
Availability
The assurance that systems and data are accessible and operational when needed by authorized users.

Topics

Service Level Agreement Uptime Service Credits Vendor Management Interactive Calculation

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