--- title: "Managed IT services SLA: what to demand before you sign" description: "Response is not resolution, and whoever classifies severity sets the deadline. The managed IT SLA clauses to check before signing. No-obligation proposal." language: en url: https://www.dataroad-it.com/en/managed-it-services-sla-clauses/ source: https://www.dataroad-it.com/en/managed-it-services-sla-clauses/ publisher: DataRoad IT (DataRoad - IT Services and Consulting), Portugal --- > Response is not resolution, and whoever classifies severity sets the deadline. The managed IT SLA clauses to check before signing. No-obligation proposal. # Managed IT services SLA: what to demand before you sign At a glance For decision-makers short on time. - 01 Demand a resolution time, not just a response time, for critical incidents. - 02 Whoever classifies severity decides the deadline: insist on objective criteria. - 03 From 99% to 99.9%, accepted downtime falls from 7 hours to 43 minutes a month. - 04 Without a written consequence, an SLA is not a commitment. ### In this article **A server down for three days may not breach your contract's SLA, as long as someone replied to the ticket within the first hour.** The SLA (*Service Level Agreement*) is the clause in a managed IT services contract that turns "good service" into numbers and states what happens when those numbers are missed. Before signing, confirm four things: there is a **resolution** time and not just a response time; who assigns **severity**; how **availability** is calculated; and what **consequence** a breach carries. ## What must a managed IT services SLA guarantee? - **Resolution, not just response** Most contracts promise the first, but the business only recovers with the second. - **Severity criteria** The clause fewest people read is the one that decides which deadline applies. - **Penalty** Without a written consequence, the SLA is a wish, not an obligation. - **The value of one hour of downtime** Anyone who does not know this figure negotiates blind. IT contracts almost always include an SLA, and it is almost never read before signing. It usually gets opened for the first time after an outage, in search of what can be claimed. ## What is an SLA actually for? An SLA makes the service measurable. Without one, quality is argued in impressions: the client feels they waited too long, the provider feels it delivered, and nobody has a ruler to settle it. ## What is the difference between response time and resolution time? **Response time** runs until someone confirms receipt of the request and starts working on it. **Resolution time** runs until the problem no longer exists. If the contract only sets "response within 1 hour", a server can stay down for three days without a formal breach, provided the first reply arrived on time. This is the ambiguity that most often works in the provider's favour. A serious MSP commits to resolution times for critical incidents and to targets for the rest. That is acceptable. What is unacceptable is a contract that blurs the two concepts. Ask: "Beyond response, what resolution time is guaranteed in writing, and for which type of incident?" An evasive answer reveals an equally evasive commitment. ## Who classifies the severity of an incident? That is the question that decides the deadline. SLAs sort incidents into tiers with different times, typically: - **Critical** The business is at a standstill or a vital service has failed for everyone. - **High** Heavy impact, many users affected or no workaround. - **Medium** Contained impact, with a way to keep working. - **Low** Day-to-day requests, questions, small changes. If classification rests solely with the provider, any short deadline becomes theoretical: it is enough to label as "medium" what the client sees as critical. A fair contract sets objective criteria and an escalation path for when the parties disagree. ## What does each nine of availability mean in practice? | Contracted availability | Accepted downtime per month (approx.) | | --- | --- | | 99% | 7 hours | | 99.5% | 3.5 hours | | 99.9% | 43 minutes | | 99.99% | 4 minutes | From 99% to 99.9%, permitted downtime drops to a tenth, and the price rises, because every extra nine requires redundancy that has to be paid for. Always read *how* it is measured: the reference period, whether planned maintenance counts and who measures. An annual 99.9% tolerates eight consecutive hours down without a formal breach. ## What happens when the SLA is not met? Normally, the client receives credits on the next invoice, proportional to the severity, and gains the right to terminate at no cost if failures recur. None of this pays for the real loss from an outage, but it puts the incentive on the right side. **Exclusions** define what cannot be attributed to the provider: telecoms operator faults, hardware not covered by maintenance, changes made by the client without notice, force majeure. Specific exclusions are normal; exclusions so broad that they void the agreement are not. ## How do you negotiate an SLA with numbers? Start by calculating **what one hour of downtime costs the business**: salaries without output, lost sales and the effort to catch up. With that figure, the negotiation becomes financial, if an hour costs X, it is worth paying Y a month to reduce expected downtime. - Which *resolution* times are guaranteed, and for which severity levels? - Who assigns severity, and how is that decision challenged? - What cover exists outside business hours, and who actually answers? - What is the concrete consequence of each SLA breach? A sign of confidence: a provider that offers to send the SLA compliance report every month, without being asked, believes in what it signed. ## How does DataRoad work with SLAs? DataRoad - IT Services and Consulting operates with [contracted SLAs, measured and reported to the client](https://www.dataroad-it.com/en/managed-it-sla-portugal/), calibrated to the criticality of each operation, within its [managed IT services](https://www.dataroad-it.com/en/managed-it-services-networks-security-cloud/) under the IT Unlimited model. Response is immediate, and cover for nights, weekends and public holidays is included in the Premium 365 plan. ## Next step: benchmark your current SLA Send us the SLA you have today and we will show you, clause by clause, what it is missing. Request a no-commitment proposal. **More than 10 workstations · support contract · remote, on-site and telephone support.** Call +351 211 459 950 * or write to sales@dataroad.pt. **Call to a Portuguese landline.* Chosen by respected and international companies ★★★★★ 5,0 · 52 Google reviews ★★★★★ 5,0 · 52 Google reviews DataRoad ## Related articles [IT UnlimitedHow to measure the quality of your IT provider’s supportAlmost every IT provider says it responds quickly. Few show how they measure it. These are the five signals a decision-maker can ask for and…3 November 2026 · 2 min read](https://www.dataroad-it.com/en/how-to-measure-it-support-quality-provider/)[IT UnlimitedFunding network and IT infrastructure in 2026/2027: a CFO guideThere is no grant open for equipment alone. 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