Uptime
SLA
Service Level Agreement
A service level agreement (SLA) is a contractual commitment between a provider and a customer specifying a measurable level of service — usually uptime percentage — and the financial penalties (service credits) if it is breached.
In depth
A typical SaaS SLA defines: the measurement window (monthly), the metric (uptime measured by the provider's own monitoring), what counts as downtime (excluding scheduled maintenance, force majeure, customer-caused issues), and the credit schedule (e.g. 10% credit if uptime drops below 99.9%, 25% if below 99%, 100% if below 95%).
SLA reports are usually self-reported by the vendor unless the customer runs independent monitoring against the same endpoints — which is why third-party uptime monitoring exists.
Why it matters
An SLA without independent measurement is just marketing copy. Running your own uptime monitor against your vendors gives you the evidence you need to claim service credits when they breach.
How Lemwatch helps with sla
Lemwatch monitors sla continuously and alerts you the moment something changes.
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Browse the full Lemwatch monitoring glossary (47 terms).