Service-Level Agreement Negotiation in Cloud Computing Buying Organizations

Abstract

The cloud archetype is fundamentally dynamic for both service customer and service provider. From the provider's perspective, resources are removed and/or added irregularly and urgently together with updating of service level agreements (SLAs). However, this dynamical behavior makes contracting sophisticated. Yet, there is a lack of knowledge on how to handle these dynamics contractually. To address this knowledge gap, the authors have investigated “how to improve SLA management with dynamic SLA iterations.” For this reason, a model for cloud computing SLA negotiation is proposed to facilitate the buying organization in determining uncertainty by analyzing attributes of asset specificity and risks associated with them. Survey research has been used for testing the model. The respondents rationalized the SLA negotiation with a better cognitive understanding in all phases within the model. The study's findings could support cloud service buying organizations to minimize the risks with ever-changing requirements.