Thus spake "Spolidoro, Guilherme" <guilherme.spolidoro@unisys.com>
Since they don't own the backbone, their SLAs apply only to their
PNAPs,
i.e. they cannot guarantee performance, packet loss, delay, outages, etc over somebody else's backbone (e.g. Sprint, UUNet, AT&T, etc).
Nor can anyone who peers with the above; InterNAP theoretically has a better chance of getting good service, since they're a paying customer. That's how their business model goes, at least.
Many large enterprises are leveraging on the Internet to deploy VPN connectivity between company sites as a replacement for Frame Relay or ATM PVCs. In such cases, it's very important to make sure that the service comes with the right SLAs.
SLAs are rarely worth the paper they're printed on. If you do not design your network/services/whatever around the *expectation* that your carrier will fail, you're in for a rough ride. What consolation is a prorated refund when your circuit is down for 2+ days? S | | Stephen Sprunk, K5SSS, CCIE #3723 :|: :|: Network Design Consultant, GSOLE :|||: :|||: New office: RCDN2 in Richardson, TX .:|||||||:..:|||||||:. Email: ssprunk@cisco.com