ABSTRACT
Cloud computing has the potential to usher in a new age of computing in which users can access different computing resources as a commodity and pay only for what they use, rather than investing heavily in IT. The service level agreement (SLA) is a legal arrangement between the service provider and the service customer in cloud computing. The SLA is a structured document specifying the needs of the consumer and the commitment of the provider for such services under conditions, and thus contains a collection of mandatory terms that must be met in order for the services to continue. It guarantees the customer the quality of service (QoS) that will be given, as well as its monitoring and enforcement. However, a fast review of available cloud SLAs reveals that there is no corporate-level agreement on standard SLA for cloud services. Customers also concluded that SLAs of public cloud in their existing formats are of little benefit. This is due to ambiguities in cloud provider SLAs and serious implementation-level problems related to cloud failures. As a result, a proper SLA is required, and an adequately built SLA template will increase customer confidence and enable the cloud to reach its full potential. Most current frameworks are either web service-specific, in progress or lack key aspects of the SLA life cycle such as SLA negotiation. Furthermore, the services offered by web services and those provided by the cloud are vastly different. As a result, current static SLA models can’t handle the variety of cloud applications. Furthermore, it is superficial in the sense that it is restricted to web servers, grid computing and related technologies only, with no regard for cloud computing diversity.
