Exchange SLA Scorecard Released

Microsoft recently released the long-awaited SLA scorecard, designed to help IT organizations measure service levels of Exchange messaging deployments of all sizes. Download the bits here. Download the Exchange SLA Scorecard User, Installation and Configuration Guides here. While a valuable tool, this does require some ground rules have been documented as standard policies within the IT organization, maintenance windows defined, as well as a mechanisms for classification of outages as approved or unapproved.....but definition of a Service Level Agreement is another issue entirely. Hopefully the SLA Scorecard will provide some visibility into Exchange availability for IT executives that may prompt organizations to launch efforts to develop the necessary operating level agreements (OLA) between IT support units required to successfully deliver on an SLA with the business. Now that I've said this much, I should point out that guidance in development of an SLA is available from MS in the Exchange High Availability Guide here.