What is an SLA, and why does it matter for your business internet?

An SLA — service-level agreement — is one of the least glamorous parts of a business internet contract, and one of the most important. It’s the part of the contract that determines what actually happens when something goes wrong, rather than what’s promised when everything’s working fine.

What an SLA actually is

An SLA is a formal, contractual commitment from your provider covering uptime, fix times, and often compensation if those commitments aren’t met. It’s the difference between a provider saying “we’re usually pretty reliable” and a provider putting a specific, enforceable number on the table — for example, 99.9% guaranteed uptime with a fix time of four hours, backed by service credits if that’s missed.

Uptime guarantees, and what the small print really means

Uptime percentages sound similar but add up to very different real-world outcomes. A 99.9% guarantee allows for roughly 8-9 hours of downtime a year; 99.99% allows under an hour. It’s worth checking exactly what the percentage translates to in real terms for your business, and whether planned maintenance windows are counted separately from the guarantee — some providers exclude scheduled maintenance from their uptime figures, which changes what the number actually represents.

Fix times matter more than the uptime percentage alone

Uptime tells you how rarely something should go wrong; fix time tells you how long you’ll actually be without service on the occasions it does. A four-hour guaranteed fix time is a very different proposition from a “next business day” commitment, particularly if a fault happens on a Friday afternoon. This is one of the clearest reasons a leased line — which typically carries a much stronger SLA than shared broadband — is worth the extra cost for businesses that genuinely can’t tolerate extended downtime.

What compensation actually means in practice

Most SLAs include service credits if the provider misses their own commitment — a partial refund or credit against the following month’s bill, calculated against how badly the guarantee was missed. It’s rarely enough to compensate for the actual business impact of downtime, but it does something valuable: it gives the provider a direct financial incentive to fix problems fast, rather than treating your outage as a low priority.

Questions worth asking before you sign

What’s the guaranteed uptime percentage, and does it exclude scheduled maintenance? What’s the guaranteed fix time, and does it apply around the clock or only during business hours? Is compensation automatic, or do you have to actively claim it? Getting clear answers to these before signing tells you far more about a provider’s actual reliability than their marketing material does.

SLA strength versus cost

Not every business needs the strongest possible SLA — a business that can comfortably absorb a few hours of downtime doesn’t need to pay a premium for a guarantee it will rarely test. But a business where downtime directly costs money or reputation should treat SLA terms as seriously as the monthly price.

Understanding what you’re covered for

If you’re not sure what SLA your current connection actually carries, or you’re comparing options for a new one, get in touch and we’ll explain exactly what’s guaranteed, in plain terms.