Once in a while, we witness a scientific marvel.
Remember back in 2024 when the remains of a 50,000-year-old baby mammoth were found in the Yakutian permafrost? In cases like these, the skin is intact and the organs are still in place. Even the remnants of their last meal are still there!
But then the cogs start turning. Despite all that detail, some start to wonder if it’s possible to bring them back to life. The answer is almost always no, and their dream of kickstarting their own Jurassic Park is ended there and then.
No matter how well it’s preserved, the world has moved on. The climate has changed, and the context is drastically different. The mammoth, though magnificent, is an artefact of another age.
The same goes for many of the legacy service level agreements (SLAs) that IT leaders are still working with today.
SLAs: Designed for a world that no longer exists
Originally, SLAs were created to bring discipline and accountability to IT services. In the early days, this meant focusing on availability, uptime, incident response, and recovery times. All vital stuff, but it was mostly about keeping the lights on.
That was fine when IT was just a back-office function, and stability was the main priority. But today, your IT environment is no longer frozen in time.
You’re working across hybrid cloud, edge, on-prem, APIs, and SaaS. You’re constantly adapting to user demands and regulatory shifts, all while trying to meet business priorities.
Your SLA? It still says ‘On. Off. Up. Down.’ There’s your very own mammoth.
The problem with legacy agreements
Legacy SLAs often look impressive on paper. They’re thorough and detailed, built for both performance and predictability. But they’re also:
- Static: They’re written for technologies and conditions that no longer apply.
- Reactive: They’re focused on fixing issues, not enabling progress.
- Disconnected: They’re rarely aligned with today’s transformation-led goals around user experience (UX) and agility.
They reflect yesterday’s version of value. In a world where IT is becoming increasingly strategic, they risk preserving the status quo at the expense of evolution. The mammoth is still in play.
Time for a new kind of SLA?
Modern IT leaders need agreements that are:
- Agile: It’s integral for them to be flexible and able to easily evolve as business priorities shift.
- Multi-dimensional: They still need to measure uptime, obviously, but also UX and collaboration.
- Forward-focused: SLAs can’t just be there to document responsibilities; they need to shape behaviours and outcomes.
We aren’t saying that you have to throw away the entire structure. It’s about redefining value, and how SLAs need to do more than just protect continuity. They should enable transformation.
SLAs shouldn’t be stalling your strategy
It’s time to ask yourself some key questions. Have a think about:
- Are your current SLAs helping you drive change, or just maintain the past?
- Do they reflect the future you’re trying to build?
- Whether your SLAs, just like the mammoth, is perfectly preserved, yet utterly extinct?
Here’s the reality of it all. You can’t lead from the sharp end of the arrowhead if you’re tied to cold, hard layers of legacy.
The truth is, no matter how well-written, an SLA built for a different era won’t move you forward. If it’s static, reactive, or entirely disconnected from your goals, it’s not protecting value. All it’s doing is preserving the past.
Transformation doesn’t start with new tools. It starts by redefining what ‘good’ looks like. So, take a fresh look at your herd of mammoths, and ask whether it’s time to let them go.
Want to see how else you can affect change? Read our blog on the Managed Services Provocateur, and see why it’s time to drive change and move from maintenance to provocation.