What are the key factors in developing mechanisms and structures for multi-provider SLAs that are suitable for federated infrastructure and business services? This was the central question of the first FACIS workshop which brought together service providers from different backgrounds in Cologne.
“It is all about providing end-to-end service guarantees for consumers to take joint European innovation to a new level“, says Thomas Niessen, FACIS Work Package Lead for SLA Governance, as he welcomes participants to the first FACIS workshop on SLA (Service Level Agreement) Governance for service providers on 5th of March, 2025 in Cologne. From an application, infrastructure or compliance perspective, the attendees had the opportunity to share their expertise and define key requirements for the future of joint SLA provisioning. This topic is more urgent than ever, as federated environments – where multiple service providers collaborate – require addressing complex operational implementations as well as the management of related legal requirements.
For example, imagine an autonomous car driving across Europe without any technical interruptions. A company might rely on a multi-cloud infrastructure where provider A supplies computing power, provider B handles data storage, and provider C ensures network connectivity. In the event of a server failure at provider A, without standardised SLAs, differing incident management approaches between the three parties could result in a delayed recovery process and jeopardised operations. Another example: Who is liable for a data protection breach when sensitive data is processed across multiple providers?
SLA Management from a Legal Point of View
To prevent legal disputes and compliance risks by contractual gaps or conflicting liability clauses, a unified SLA Governance framework is essential for clearly defined responsibilities and liabilities. As a first step toward this goal, the FACIS project team, supported by the law firm Fieldfisher, developed initial thoughts on the topic, which were compiled into a draft paper. This preliminary paper served as a basis for discussion among workshop participants, helping to shape a more unified approach for infrastructure and service providers.
“An SLA never comes alone. Especially in highly regulated sectors like healthcare and finance, it must align with a complex network of international regulations and contractual agreements between various stakeholders in the ecosystem.” Dr. Bahne Sievers from Fieldfisher says and adds: “Moreover, an US-style ‘As Is’ warranty clause may be invalid under German law. The complexity increases even further when addressing responsibilities and penalties across the value chain.”
While some specific use cases require tailored services defined in an SLA, others involve more standardized services at different points in the value chain. In this context, Fieldfisher focused on SLA requirements most relevant to the FACIS community, particularly those related to Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Multi-Provider and Edge-Computing Services, Platform as a Service (PaaS) and Software as a Service (SaaS). The workshop participants agreed that a modular approach to an SLA Governance Framework would be the most effective solution.
Discussion: A unified roadmap for SLAs in Multi-Provider Ecosystems
Based on this, the participants dived deeper into the complex challenges from both technical and customer-focused perspectives together with experts from the Technical University Munich (TUM). They collaboratively developed a draft taxonomy diagram outlining the key elements and metrics an SLA should contain. Thereby, the participants brainstormed along the life cycle of a service on what specifics and key challenges are relevant when designing multi-provider SLAs. Because: “For consumers, there shouldn’t be a noticeable difference between using a hyperscaler or a combination of multi-provider-services”, emphasises Lawrence Cook from BIT B.V – also a member of ECOFED, encapsulating a core objective of SLA standardization.
A key discussion point was the difficulty of finding a common understanding of terminology within an SLA Taxonomy. For instance, the participants debated the definition of latency and the difference between availability, capacity and service response time. In addition, they explored which SLA elements are most critical – uptime, incident response time, service response time and security were widely recognized as essential. However, the participants agreed that the prioritisation depends on the specific use case.
There was also a consensus on the necessity of machine-readable SLAs throughout the value chain to enable automation. Nevertheless, participants emphasized the importance of a final, consolidated, human readable document for consumers – ideally one that also integrated other regulatory contracts.
What happens next
At the end of the workshop, Cook sums up: “It was definitely worth traveling from the Netherlands to Cologne. Although the topic is quite dry, I am really looking forward to continuing this work and cannot wait to see what FACIS will deliver.” The workshop group agreed that their next steps would involve diving deeper into the details, with an even greater focus on addressing the needs of the consumers.
The workshop results will be compiled into a paper, aiming to define an SLA Taxonomy that supports the clear categorization and structuring of key performance indicators. In a follow-up public online discussion, a wider audience will have the opportunity to engage with the workshop outcomes. As a next step FACIS is planning to focus on the consumer perspective in a soon following workshop. The common goal is to gather deliverables from both provider as well as consumer perspective for developing a joint SLA Governance Framework, SLA Sample Contracts as well as machine-readable SLAs, that ensure mutual benefits.
“With the first draft of a taxonomy diagram we have achieved far more than expected and I would like to thank all participants once again for their contribution to these first results”, Thomas Niessen concludes. ”With today’s workshop we have made a fantastic start to FACIS.”