What does SLA stand for?
SLA stands for Service-level Agreement. A service-level agreement: a commitment with measurable targets, such as fixing critical vulnerabilities within 15 days. Vulnerability reports track compliance against it.
An SLA is the part of a contract that states, in measurable terms, the level of service a provider commits to: availability, response and resolution times, support hours. It also says how the levels are measured and what happens if they are missed, usually service credits. An SLA only helps if the figures can be measured and are actually monitored.
SLA in practice: an example
A hosting contract promises 99.9% availability per month. In a 30-day month that allows about 43 minutes of downtime. The service is down for three hours, so the provider has missed the SLA and owes the credit the contract defines. Whether three hours hurt the business is a separate question, answered by the RTO.
What SLA is confused with
SLA vs SLO: what is the difference?
A service-level objective is a single target, such as 99.9% availability. The SLA is the agreement that contains such targets and the consequences of missing them.
SLA vs RTO: what is the difference?
An SLA is a promise from a provider. An RTO is your own business requirement; check that the provider's SLA is at least as strict. What RTO stands for
Which exams cover SLA?
SLA is on the official CompTIA acronym list for three of the four exams covered here.
- CySA+ CS0-004: 4.1 (Reporting and Communication).
- Network+ N10-009: 3.0 (Network Operations).
- A+ 220-1201 and 220-1202: 220-1202 4.0 (Operational Procedures).
Each number is a CompTIA exam objective and the name in brackets is its domain. The exam puts the term in a scenario; it does not ask you to recite the expansion.
Check yourself: two practice questions
Written by CertSprint for this page. They are not taken from any exam.
1. A cloud provider's SLA guarantees 99.9% monthly availability. Roughly how much downtime does that permit in a 30-day month?
- About 4 minutes
- About 43 minutes
- About 7 hours
- About 3 days
Show the answer
B. About 43 minutes. 0.1% of 43,200 minutes is 43.2 minutes.
2. Which item belongs in an SLA?
- The provider's internal salary bands
- Measurable response and resolution times and the remedy if they are missed
- The customer's password policy
- A list of the provider's competitors
Show the answer
B. Measurable response and resolution times and the remedy if they are missed. An SLA defines measurable service levels and what the customer receives when they are not met.
Sources: NIST glossary: service-level agreement. The acronym and its expansion come from CompTIA's official acronym lists, linked from each exam glossary above. The explanation, example and questions are CertSprint's own, checked against these sources on 11 November 2026.