Service Level Agreement
The Service Level Agreement (SLA) is the basic contract between the consumer (organization or individual) and the spatial ASP. This contract provides all of the typical contract issues as well as several that are unique to the spatial ASP model. It is also necessary to understand that, unless the spatial ASP operates their own hosting center, they will have corresponding SLAs with their respective data center partners and communications providers. The terms and conditions of those SLAs will be passed on to the end-users.
There are several features that are recommended in any SLA between the consumer and the spatial ASP. First, and perhaps most imperative, is the stated and guaranteed network availability metric. This is frequently referred to as “up-time” and can range from 98% to 99.999% total time. While it is arguable that “Five 9’s” (99.999% up-time) may theoretically be possible, practicality calls for recognition that this figure is very narrowly defined in most SLAs. It is important to recognize that this guarantee only refers to the network up-time, not the particular application solution that is being accessed. The reasoning behind this important detail is that the spatial ASP has no control over the reliability of a third-party application that they are hosting and delivering as part of their solution. For those spatial ASPs that create their own web-only GIS or mapping applications and deliver them to consumers, there is likely no “product quality” guarantee available. Despite every best effort, application “bugs” still persist and often display themselves at the most critical of times, even in a spatial ASP.
Other aspects of the SLA that should be included and explicit are the details on any technical support / customer service provisions, upgrades for applications, network and hardware, training, integration, credit, ownership and customization services. Many spatial ASP hosting providers will offer these services as additional items, while some may have included them in a packaged solution. The consumer is simply advised to consider these points during the evaluation and comparison of SLAs.
Quality of Service
With respect to data integrity, loss and consistency, the SLA should contain specific and sufficient details on how the spatial ASP provider will ensure Quality of Service (QoS) for the contracted solution. This is a significant issue, especially for those spatial ASP providers that intend to deliver their products and applications over the public domain Internet. The basic foundation for QoS is being able to:
- Minimise the delay in IP packet delivery
- Minimise variations in IP packet delays
- Provide capacity with consistent data throughput
QoS becomes a mission-critical aspect in a spatial ASP, especially in an environment that is “always-on” and that provides real-time, focused data. High QoS should be evident to the user by the transparency of the data transmission network. In other words, a spatial ASP that has acceptable QoS should be able to deliver, in a consistent manner, the same or better service as the consumer would get if the application and data were in an local computing environment.
Security
This issue receives a considerable amount of attention and rightfully so considering the stream of well-publicized security breaches at major corporations in recent months. While it is important, security should not have a paralyzing effect on the decision-making process in considering a spatial ASP. The reason is that there is sufficient strategies to implement both physical facilities security and network security and those strategies need to be implemented correctly and effectively.
Physical security for the data center hosting facility is relatively straightforward and very sophisticated. Such preventive measures would include continuous video surveillance cameras and 24x7 guard patrols, electronic security system including fire, smoke and water detection, motion detection and compartmented authorisation and access locks for internal and external doors. Independent power supplies and a rigorous maintenance regime are also necessary to ensure continuity of service in the event of power failure or natural catastrophe.
Network security, while very sophisticated as well, continues to evolved and adapt at incredible rates as technology continues to develop and be compromised. To begin, a combination of hardware and software security measures, at various points of entry to the system should be employed. There are several hardware encryption devices that can deployed at the point of departure from the network firewall. In addition, the standard SSL 128-bit encryption protocols provide sufficient bit-stream security for transmitting data from the spatial ASP to the appropriate consumers. This, combined with a Virtual Private Network (VPN) and a robust authentication and authorisation scheme, most spatial ASP data center hosting facilities will be more secure than a customer’s LAN.
All of this security is focused on ensuring that only those authorised to gain access to data and/or applications are specifically allowed to do so, and then only those areas that have been determined by the customer organisation. This security regime is not unlike most corporate WAN/LAN architectures, for example – a clerical employee may not have access privileges to the corporate accounting and salary information but can still gain access to email and other intranet information pertinent to their particular job.
Total Cost of Ownership
All of the hardware, software and latest technology are of little consequence if the strategy for implementing a spatial ASP does not have a compelling economic reality. Notwithstanding recent activities in the dot-com world, there continues to be solid, financially viable strategies to pursue a spatial ASP model, particularly in the telecommunications industry.
One of the most attractive aspects for telecom operators in adopting a spatial ASP is the reduced cost of capital expenditures for location services. By adopting an outsourcing strategy through a spatial ASP, the telecom company can eliminate a significant portion of the overhead costs associated with spatial support services. This includes the costs of software licensing, upgrades, maintenance, technical support, hardware, IT support and high-end desktop PCs. It also includes eliminating the need for backup, archiving, storage and restoration infrastructure because the spatial ASP provider is likely to offer those services. This reduces the telecom operators’ capital expenditures budget to service contracts, a very important distinction.
Finally, an outsourced spatial ASP approach to managing a utility’s spatial data helps to eliminate the redundant costs so common within an organisation. In a spatial ASP, one landbase dataset can service the telecom engineering group, the marketing departments and the maintenance department, rather than having multiple versions and copies of the same geography maintained in multiple departments. Likewise, the telecom company can leverage both economies of scale and economies of skill. Because the spatial ASP hosting vendor maintains a core staff that services multiple accounts, each individual consumer can benefit from shared resources (data center hosting facilities, expert IT and GIS staff, technical support, etc.), and at the same time, reconfigure their internal staffing requirements to take full advantage of the outsourced spatial ASP.