Service Level Agreements: An Evaluation from a Business Application Perspective

The vision of a worldwide computing grid evokes the scenario of electronic markets for grid services. For such a market, explicit formal statements of both obligations and guarantees regarding grid services in a business relationship are needed; these are referred to as service level agreements (SLAs). The objects of our investigation are current specifications and standards for SLAs. We address the problem that these approaches do not sufficiently fulfil requirements of business transactions, because they have been designed for other, technical objectives. We evaluate the most relevant SLA specifications and standards from an e-business transaction perspective, clarifying how they currently cover business transactions on e-markets, in particular which activities within market transactions they support. We assess the current state of SLA approaches and reveal room for possible enhancements.