SLA – a negotiated contract between the customer and CSP; can be
legally binding or informal. Objectives:
• Identify and define the customer’s needs and constraints
including the level of resources, security, timing, and QoS.
• Provide a framework for understanding; a critical aspect of
this framework is a clear definition of classes of service and
the costs.
• Simplify complex issues;  clarify the boundaries between the
responsibilities of clients and CSP in case of failures.
• Reduce areas of conflict.
• Encourage dialog in the event of disputes.
• Eliminate unrealistic expectations.
• Specifies the services that the customer receives, rather than how
the cloud service provider delivers the services.