InformationWeek: The Business Value of Technology

August 28, 2000

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Host Provider Aims To Clear Up SLA Confusion

NaviSite bundles all application infrastructure guarantees into single contract

By Jennifer Maselli

More on service level agreements:

Network Computing: SLA: Just Another TLA (7/24/00) Computer Reseller News: ASPs Stretch Service Level Agreements (6/12/00)

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usinesses that trust their applications or Web sites to a hosting provider look to service-level agreements to ensure the availability of their software or Internet operations. Too often, however, companies find the agreements they've signed leave wiggle room for providers to avoid responsibility when service interruptions occur.

NaviSite Inc. says it's ready to stamp out confusion in its own SLAs. Rather than guaranteeing service by component--such as network access, Internet connectivity, and database clustering--in separate, sometimes inconsistent, documents, NaviSite will bundle all application infrastructure guarantees into one contract.

NaviSite's Application Infrastructure Availability SLAs offer staggered levels of application availability, based on contracted levels of redundancy. For example, the high-end agreement for large business and ASP clients includes dedicated backup on fully redundant systems, enabling up to 99.999% availability. A midrange package will support shared backup. Its uptime guarantee of 99% is less aggressive, ensuring no more than 7.6 hours of downtime per month.

Senior.com, an online community that offers products, services, information, and entertainment for senior citizens, is moving its hosting operations from Exodus Communications Inc. to NaviSite and signing on for the high-end SLA to ensure round-the-clock availability. The company chose NaviSite over other providers because it more clearly defines the terms of its agreement, says KC Choi, chief technology officer at Senior.com. "We wanted a managed co-location provider that would take responsibility for our site uptime," he says. "NaviSite offers substantial financial penalties if they don't adhere to their extensive SLA."

That up-front approach "shows that NaviSite understands an hour of downtime for customers doesn't mean someone can't reach them for an hour. It means a lot of money," says Harry Fenik, executive VP for Zona Research.

NaviSite also offers a Help Desk SLA that guarantees the time in which NaviSite will notify customers of an urgent problem--one that causes an operational impact--and the time needed to resolve it. Pricing for all the SLAs varies, depending on hardware configurations.

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