Google will no longer differentiate between scheduled and unexpected downtime for its web-based enterprise apps and Gmail.
Previously, Google didn’t include scheduled downtime in its service level agreement (SLA) with customers, only paying out for downtime caused by faults.
“Unlike most providers, we don’t plan for our users to be down, even when we’re upgrading our services or maintaining our systems,” said Matthew Glotzbach, enterprise product management director, in a post on the Google Enterprise blog. “For that reason, we’re removing the SLA clause that allows for scheduled downtime.”
We don’t plan for our users to be down, even when we’re upgrading our services or maintaining our systems
“Going forward, all downtime will be counted and applied towards the customer’s SLA,” he said. “We are the first major cloud provider to eliminate maintenance windows from their service level agreement.
Google is also tightening up its downtime window, so it will count all instances when its web-based services can’t be accessed by customers. “Previously, a period of less than ten minutes was not included,” Glotzbach said. “We believe any instance that causes our users to experience downtime should be avoided – period.”
Last year, Gmail posted an average seven minutes of downtime each month for businesses and consumers, working out to 99.984% availability – a shade shy of Google’s goal of 99.99%.
The new self-imposed rules may make that target a bit harder to achieve, but Google posted no planned downtime for Gmail during 2010.
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