A service-level objective (SLO) is a measurable target for service performance, typically expressed through latency or availability and assessed over a defined compliance period. section 5.1.6 section 15.8
Use an SLO to connect service health with operational decisions:
- Choose the highest latency acceptable to users rather than an unrealistic best-case target. section 5.1.6
- Balance availability goals against cost; extremely high availability can be expensive and may exceed business needs. section 5.1.6
- Measure the objective over a stated period, such as a day, week, or month. section 5.1.6
- Use the measured result to prioritize bug fixes, slow development, apply a hotfix, or roll back a change. section 5.1.6
- Account for upgrade, scaling, rollback, and security-update risks when deciding whether the target is realistic. section 5.1.6
Example operational target
For a service whose users tolerate a specific response delay, define an acceptable latency threshold and availability target, measure both over a month, and configure service-health alerts. If the objective is breached, the team can prioritize fixes, slow releases, or roll back the change. section 5.1.6 section 6.4
