An Exploratory Study of Cloud Service Level Agreements - State of the Art Review

• Saravanan K,
• Rajaram M,

Vol. 9, No. 3, March 30, 2015
10.3837/tiis.2015.03.001, Download Paper (Free):

• Cloud Service Level Agreements
• SLA Life Cycle
• SLA Negotiation
• Types of Cloud SLA
• SLA Characteristics
• Semantic SLA.

Abstract

Cloud computing evolve as a cost effective business model for IT companies to focus on their core business without perturbing on infrastructure related issues. Hence, major IT firms and Small & Medium Enterprises (SME) are adopting cloud services on rental basis from cloud providers. Cloud Service level agreements (SLA) act as a key liaison between consumers and providers on renting Anything as a Service (AaaS). Design of such an agreement must aim for greater profit to providers as well as assured availability of services to consumers. However in reality, cloud SLA is not satisfying the parties involved because of its inherent complex nature and issues. Also currently most of the agreements are unilateral to favour the provider. This study focuses on comprehensive, 360-degree survey on different aspects of the cloud service agreements. We detailed the life cycle of SLA based on negotiation, different types of SLA, current standards, languages & characteristics, metrics and issues involved in it. This study will help the cloud actors to understand and evaluate the agreements and to make firm decision on negotiation. The need for standardized, bilateral, semantic SLA has also been proposed.

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