Compliance measurement is essential for any reseller who has purchased Webrnhosting services under the rubric of a service level agreement.rnrnMeasurement ensures that higher-level service providers are offering thernquality of service agreed upon under the SLA arrangement. While many hostsrnwill provide their own online mechanisms to assist customers monitor SLArncompliance, many of these tools will only measure server availability orrnuptime.rnrnFor resellers with their own demanding customer base, such narrowrnmeasurement parameters will not suffice. Resellers should thus retain theirrnown independent and comprehensive modes of SLA compliance measurement,rnespecially if they service a large or sophisticated customer base.rnrnConsumers of reseller services who are spending over $10K in hosting willrninsist that all services be monitored constantly to ensure the highestrnquality of service. Resellers who also deal in larger economies of scale,rnor who, in other words, host several hundred customers will also want tornensure that service levels are maintained. They can effectively monitor SLArncompliance by utilizing a new generation of hosted software services thatrnmonitor all aspects of server and network performance.rnrnNew “policy-based” service level compliance platforms are emerging,rnspecifically designed to monitor hosted applications from the end-userrnperspective. Providing both an inside-out and outside-in view ofrntransaction performance, such platforms enables users to define their SLArnpolicies and then monitor compliance, in real-time, across the multiplernnetwork boundaries of an outsourced supply chain.rnrnUtilizing policy-based SLA compliance measurement, resellers can monitor notrnonly server uptime, but also application performance and network latency.rnThese parameters are important because they enhance the evaluative scope ofrnservice level performance.rnrnAs a reseller responsible for managing outsourced application or servicernprovider relationships, you will want to establish performance-based SLAsrnwith your service providers that reflect how you actually use your services,rnrather than simply measure the availability and responsiveness of generic ITrncomponents.rnrnPolicy-based SLA measurement will allow resellers to first set targets,rnwhich hosting service providers will then be asked to fulfill. Obtainingrnyour own policy-based measurement system will allow you to independentlyrnverify real-time SLA compliance so that you have first-hand knowledge of howrnwell all IT components from your service provider are performing.rnrnSLA management should at a minimum provide: diagnosis and report the sourcernof application brownouts; report on application, database, server andrnnetwork transaction performance, with customized views of the individualrnrequirements of your customers; and provide verification of systems changesrnand upgrades.rnrnPolicy-based SLA management is available from independent xSP vendors.rnrnrn