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@squadcast ă» May 30,2024 ă» 3 min read ă» 156 views ă» Originally posted on www.squadcast.com
This blog post explains how to create Service Level Objectives (SLOs) that consider both user needs and business goals. Well-defined SLOs lead to a win-win situation for both users and businesses.
Here's a breakdown of the key points:
What are SLOs? SLOs are measurable targets that define the performance expectations of a system. They are used to ensure a balance between user experience and technical limitations.
Why are SLOs important? SLOs help improve user satisfaction by ensuring a reliable system, enhance system performance through a focus on continuous improvement, and streamline operations by guiding resource allocation and prioritization.
Building User-Centric SLOs: Involve users in the process by gathering data on their behavior and expectations. Analyze system logs and review business processes to understand performance capabilities and downtime requirements.
Defining SMART SLOs: Ensure your SLOs are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound.
Exceeding SLO Targets: Implement technical enhancements, improve monitoring practices, and establish a disaster recovery plan to optimize performance and minimize downtime.
Benefits of Effective SLOs: Improved customer satisfaction, enhanced system performance, and streamlined operations.
By following these steps, you can create SLOs that bridge the gap between technical operations and business objectives, resulting in a reliable and performant system that keeps users happy and businesses successful.
This blog dives into Service Level Objectives (SLOs) and how to create sustainable SLOs that benefit your users, technology platform, and business. By following these steps, you can build robust systems, keep your customers happy, and achieve business success.
SLOs are powerful tools that leverage metric-based targets to limit activities that might negatively impact users (like maintenance or failed deployments). Traditionally, SLOs were seen within Service Level Agreements (SLAs) as guarantees for IT platforms (SaaS, IaaS, PaaS). However, their applications extend far beyond that.
Hereâs a two-stage process to establish data-driven SLOs that deliver positive user outcomes:
Remember: The Pareto Principle (80/20 rule) applies here. Focus on establishing SLOs for the most frequently used system functionalities to deliver the most value.
Once youâve gathered your data, itâs time to define your SLOs. Hereâs a helpful framework:
Example:
Letâs say a system processes stock trades and requires finalizing all requests within 300ms as per regulations. The company aims to offer an SLO guaranteeing requests are completed in under 250ms on average over 30 days. Currently, the system responds to 98% of requests within 232ms on a 30-day rolling average. Hereâs a well-written SLO based on this data:
Over a 30-day period, at least 98% of user requests will be processed within 250 milliseconds.
Why This SLO Works:
Schedule maintenance downtime into your SLOs. If your system offers 97% availability over a month but requires 14 hours of maintenance (2%), then offer a 95% SLO.
If youâre not meeting your SLO targets or want to exceed them, here are some approaches:
By prioritizing user needs and aligning SLOs with business goals, you can achieve a win-win situation. Hereâs how:
In essence, SLOs bridge the gap between technical operations and business objectives. By establishing SLOs that are user-centric, measurable, and achievable, you can ensure a reliable and performant system that keeps your users happy and your business thriving.
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