A provider has committed to a customer that a service will be restored within four hours. Delivery depends on a hosting company outside the organization. What should the provider put in place with that hosting company so the commitment is realistic?
ITIL 4 Foundation, objective 7. Seven ITIL practices in detail hard
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The options
Not correct Nothing formal, provided the hosting company's published availability figures exceed the target
Published marketing figures create no obligation. Without an agreed commitment the provider has promised the customer something it has no means of enforcing.
Not correct An operational level agreement with the hosting company's support team
Operational level agreements are with internal parts of the same organization. With a third party, the commitment must be contractual.
Not correct A second service level agreement, with the hosting company as the customer
The roles are reversed: the hosting company is a supplier here, not a customer. An SLA in that direction would commit the wrong party to the wrong thing.
Correct An underpinning contract whose terms support the four-hour commitment
Correct. A commitment obtained from an external supplier to support an agreed service level is an underpinning contract.
Why
A customer-facing target is only credible if every party the delivery depends on has committed to something that supports it. Internally that commitment is an operational level agreement; externally it is an underpinning contract. Relying on a supplier's published figures leaves the provider carrying a promise nobody has agreed to keep.
Where this comes from
- Cited
- ITIL 4 syllabus clause 7
- What it says
- External suppliers whose work supports an agreed service level are committed through underpinning contracts.
Practise this
Reading one question is not practice. The trainer will draw a set from objective 7 and space the ones you get wrong.