content_image/804600.jpg content_image/804601.jpg
Think about the Service Level Agreement (SLA) for how and what services are provisioned. This can be complicated because your service provider may be giving you access to a virtualized image that you have little control over. The next time you work with a service, you may be provisioned a different image. This makes the issues of monitoring the service level complicated and difficult to track. There are issues that are more straightforward that you can monitor. Make sure you can access the following: 

✓ A dashboard that provides you with insights across the applications and services that are running in your server rooms and those that are running in the cloud. This dashboard should include a way to monitor when applications are running and whether there are incidents or problems. 

<img src='content_image/804600.jpg'>

<img src='content_image/804601.jpg'>

 Ask your service provider what kind of visibility you have from its systems. Then, determine the level of risk you’re willing to take in terms of what you can’t see. 

✓ An SLA across your own services and those provided by cloud providers to get a true picture of the services you’re providing to your internal and external customers 

Service-level decisions are always about tuning the environ- ment to the business purpose. It’s not sufficient to measure and monitor the performance of servers, networks, or virtual- ized images as individual components of your environment. You need to understand how they all work together to meet business objectives. In addition, you need to establish a pro- cess for monitoring and managing service levels that includes an awareness of the relative business priority of each of the business services supported by the environment. 

## Developing a Secure, Accountable, and Reliable Cloud Environment 

One of the first steps in creating a secure and reliable IT computing environment or cloud-computing environment is to assess your risks. At the end of the day, you’re responsible for security of the services you deliver to your customers, whether they’re delivered from your on-premises servers or utilizing a third-party cloud provider. 

