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Service Level Agreement (SLA) Monitoring and Reporting
There is a growing popularity of Service Level Agreements given their business value. Incentives for IT and the business to adopt SLAs include; IT alignment with business objectives, predictable business performance, improved cost controls and operational efficiencies, and much more – all of which translates into significant competitive advantages and business gains. To realize business gains requires full SLA compliance as non-compliance nullifies the many business benefits SLAs offer. To mitigate the risk of non-compliance and as a precursor to adopting SLAs as a business practice, NimBUS, a fully automated and cost effective SLA Monitoring and Reporting solution should be in place. Primary features:
Additional features:
Key Benefits:
Figure below: NimBUS SLM Architecture including SLA Monitoring and Reporting
Figure below: Verbal or written SLAs can be easily transposed into NimBUS SLA templates for automated compliance calculation, and web-based report generation and distribution.(Click for a larger image.)
Multi-point Data Aggregation and Analysis Critical to effective SLA monitoring and reporting is full access to status data representing the end-to-end service infrastructure; this also requires access to end-user quality of service metrics and service desk performance statistics. NimBUS Probes, Gateways, and Adapters provide this broad data access and consolidates this information into the NimBUS Quality of Service (QoS) database where the data becomes available for NimBUS SLA compliance calculation and reporting. Template-driven SLA Definition Graphical SLA templates included with NimBUS facilitate SLA definition – SLA configuration options include, and are not limited to; Compliance period (for example, 1 day, 1 week, 1 month, 1 year), Operating period (for example, “9am to 5pm, Mon-Fri”, or “7 x 24 except Sundays”), Compliance threshold (for example, 98.5%), and more. Web-based SLA compliance reports are automatically generated upon completion of the SLA definition. Figure below: NimBUS SLA template fully defined to monitor an end-to-end Cisco VoIP Service. (Click for a larger image.)
SLA Compliance Calculation Methods and Formulas The NimBUS SLA Compliance Calculation Engine uses mathematical formulas to analyze and summarize QoS data points according to users SLA definitions. SLA Compliance can have any number of definitions, each of which are determined through SLA negotiations – NimBUS’ array of compliance calculation methods and formulas accommodates unique compliance requirements, for example; SLA and SLO Compliance Formulas include; Best, Worst, Sequential, Average, Weight, AND, OR. QoS Compliance Formulas include; Interval, Median, Average. Note that all compliance methods and formulas can be customized (mixed and matched) to create and satisfy unique SLA compliance calculation requirements. Single and Grouped SLAs With Nimsoft SLM it’s possible to define single and or grouped SLAs – each with their own unique compliance thresholds/targets defined according to different types and or classes of service. The SLA grouping features allows for organizing SLAs by branch office, customer, business unit, geography, service, technology, application, and more. SLA Compliance, Operating, and Exclude Periods NimBUS SLM provides a calendaring function so users can specify various SLA compliance, operating, and exclude periods (i.e. for scheduled maintenance). This functionality ensures that the NimBUS compliance calculation engine analyzes data only within defined service hours. Automated Web-based SLA Report Generation SLA compliance calculation results are forwarded to the NimBUS QoS database and become immediately available for reporting and trend analysis. SLA report generation is an automated function within the NimBUS SLA monitoring and reporting solution – immediately upon completing the NimBUS SLA template an initial compliance calculation is performed and then a web report is auto-generated showing current compliance results. Figure below: NimBUS’ web-based service level reports display current SLA compliance and forecasted breach. Drill through the service level report to show individual SLO and QoS metrics against defined constraints. Select the ‘History’ tab to view SLA compliance history for past periods with visibility of developing trends. (Click for a larger image.)
To view live NimBUS SLA report examples go to: http://www.nimsoft.com/reports/sla-reports.php Predicting SLA Violations with Warning Alerts The NimBUS SLA reporting and monitoring solution will continuously perform calculations to determine if the current period SLA is safely in compliance, it will also determine if a SLA breach is imminent if a problem condition is allowed to persist. NimBUS SLA reports include color-coded SLA compliance/breach trend indicators with forecasted breach date and time – warning and critical level alerts can be generated when % compliance decreases to predefined thresholds. Figure below: NimBUS SLA reports include status indicators such as; current SLA period, current SLA compliance in period, SLA compliance trend analysis (breach forecast), and percent non-compliance remaining in SLA period. (Click for a larger image.)
Historical SLA Compliance Reporting NimBUS SLA reports also provide historical perspectives – selecting the ‘History’ tab in the web report will display SLA compliance results for past periods in graph and tabular format. The history report will reveal improved or degrading compliance trends, additionally past periods listed in the history report can be drilled into for analysis. An additional key feature of NimBUS SLA historical reporting is the ability to modify and recalculate past SLA periods (i.e. add forgotten exclude period). Figure below: NimBUS SLA compliance/breach history reports show past periods and status. NimBUS SLA reports support drill-down on past periods to review details for that period. (Click for a larger image.)
The NimBUS for SLA Monitoring and Reporting solution requires minimal effort for implementation, training, and will not require extensive ongoing maintenance. If you would like to request a free trial of NimBUS, please click here. For free white papers or additional information click here.
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"At IBBS, we are responsible for monitoring hundreds of service level agreements for our broadband/cable customers, said Cedric Brown, Vice President of Operations at IBBS."
"In the past, we have struggled with traditional management tools and had to supplement them with hours and days of manual effort, pulling together Excel-based reports. Now with NimBUS, we can put in place new customer SLAs in minutes, reducing our SLA administration down to virtually zero" Cedric Brown, Network Operations Director, IBBS.
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