Service Level Objectives
Service Level Objectives (SLOs) are measurable goals that define the reliability and performance targets for a service, typically expressed as a percentage of time a service must meet specific conditions (e.g., availability, latency, or error rate). They are a key component of Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) practices, used to set clear expectations for service quality and guide operational decisions. SLOs help teams balance feature development with reliability by providing data-driven thresholds for when to prioritize stability over new functionality.
Developers should learn and use SLOs when building or maintaining production services to ensure they meet user expectations and avoid reliability issues that could impact business outcomes. They are crucial in microservices architectures, cloud-native applications, and DevOps environments where services must be highly available and performant. By defining SLOs, teams can make informed decisions about incident response, capacity planning, and technical debt reduction, ultimately improving service resilience and user satisfaction.