SLA Basics

An uptime SLA is a contractual guarantee of availability. The difference between nines is larger than it appears.

Downtime Allowance

SLA Downtime / year
99.9% ~8.7 hours
99.99% ~52 minutes
99.999% ~5 minutes

What to Look For

Check whether maintenance windows count against SLA, how credits are calculated, and whether network edge protection is included.