Long the standard in the world of enterprise IT, SLAs set out the service parameters in which a solution is guaranteed to perform. In the world of the web, for example, it might define service uptime or server response time. Whatever parameters are important to the purchasing business can be defined in an SLA and failure by the supplier to meet the terms of that SLA can be counted as breach of contract and punishable by financial penalties. SLA is the part of a service contract where the level of service is formally defined, in order to guarantee quality of the promised service.
