SLOs
SLA vs SLO vs Uptime: What to Measure and Why
Translate uptime targets into SLOs and SLAs your customers can accept.
By Priya DesaiPublished November 15, 20256 min read
Start with user journeys
Define SLIs that describe availability from the user point of view, not the host metrics.
Tie each SLI to a single status page component and owner.
Common SLIs
- HTTP 200 rate over last 30 days
- p95 latency under 500ms
- Background job success rate above 99%
Draw the contract lines
Use SLOs to run the team and SLAs to set refunds; keep SLA numbers looser than SLOs.
Show both on the same dashboard to avoid misalignment.
When SLO burn hits 50% mid period, lock deploys and review runbooks.
Review with stakeholders
Publish monthly reports that show uptime, SLO attainment, and incidents in one shareable URL.
Keep a FAQ that clarifies maintenance windows and excluded events.