Understanding Cloud Agreements

It is important to understand the components of the Cloud Agreement.

There are majorly two important cloud service agreements which are as follows

1. Acceptable Use Policy (AUP)

2. Service Level Agreements (SLA)

1. Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) :-

Acceptable use policy should be implemented in on-premise solutions to educate the users regarding the accepted and prohibited actions which can be taken for those systems.

AUP thus can be used by the cloud service provider, to release of any legal liability in the case that unlawful actions are carried out in the cloud environment by the customer.

AUP policies mostly describe about the violations to the AUP policy itself and describes about the punitive actions which can be taken if the AUP is not implemented or practiced. Usually if the AUP is violated than it may negatively impact the reputation of the CSP(Cloud service provider).

For eg:- Any type of vulnerability scanner software can't be run in the cloud.

2. Service Level Agreement(SLA):-

This document outlines all the services which are provided by the CSP to their customers and could include vital information which may affect the solutions deployed in the cloud directly like Availability, Serviceability, Performance. These SLA would usually provide the thresholds and financial repercussions associated with not meeting those thresholds. Well designed SLA would help resolve conflicts between the provider and the customer.

These can be created and identified by collecting and monitoring the key metrics. Usually CSPs doesn't provide this by default and customer needs to ask for them specifically , the burden of proof is on the customer if they want to push against SLA violations.

SLAs are  often non-negotiable documents that strictly limit the liability of the provider.