Glossary
Service level objective (SLO)
Also called SLO.
Definition
A service level objective is a target for how reliably a service should perform from its users’ point of view, such as the share of requests that succeed within a given time.
Why it matters when you’re buying
SLOs turn reliability into a number teams can plan around, and the remaining error budget helps decide when to ship features and when to fix stability. They work best when they are few, user-facing and agreed with the business.
How it relates to other terms
Observability data measures SLOs. RPO and RTO set targets for recovering from disaster, while SLOs set targets for everyday reliability.
Where to go next
- Observability: news, companies and community questions
- How to evaluate Observability vendors: criteria, questions to ask and red flags
- Observability and monitoring: the latest stories and threads on this topic
Written by Techarda editors · Updated . Think a definition is wrong or missing something? Email engage@techarda.com. All terms.