1. What is SLA Availability?

SLA (Service Level Agreement) Availability measures the percentage of time a service is operational and available for use. It's a key metric for assessing service reliability, especially for Canadian IT and cloud services.

2. How Does the Calculator Work?

The calculator uses the SLA availability formula:

Where:

• \( Total \) — Total time period in hours
• \( Downtime \) — Time service was unavailable in hours

Explanation: The formula calculates what percentage of the total time the service was available by subtracting downtime from total time and converting to percentage.

3. Importance of SLA Calculation

Details: SLA calculations are crucial for service providers in Canada to meet contractual obligations, assess system reliability, and identify areas for improvement in service delivery.

4. Using the Calculator

Tips: Enter total time period in hours and downtime in hours. Both values must be valid (total > 0, downtime ≥ 0 and ≤ total).

5. Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Q1: What is considered good availability in Canada?
A: Typically 99.9% ("three nines") or higher is considered good for most business services, with 99.99% or better for critical services.

Q2: How is downtime measured?
A: Downtime is usually measured from when an outage is reported until service is fully restored, excluding scheduled maintenance.

Q3: Are there Canadian regulations for SLA?
A: While no federal law mandates specific SLAs, many industries have standards and contracts often include SLA terms based on Canadian business needs.

Q4: How does this differ from uptime?
A: Availability accounts for partial outages and performance degradation, while uptime is simply binary (up or down).

Q5: Should planned maintenance be counted in downtime?
A: Typically no, if maintenance is properly communicated in advance according to Canadian business practices.