Vendor SLA Risk Calculator

Calculator Inputs

Enter values, then submit to compute a 0–100 vendor SLA risk score. Higher scores indicate more exposure from weak commitments or limited assurance.

Formula Used

This calculator converts each input into a normalized risk value between 0 and 1, where 1 represents the worst-case exposure for that dimension.

How to Use This Calculator

1. Collect your vendor’s uptime, response, resolution, and recovery commitments.
2. Choose criticality and sensitivity based on business impact and data type.
3. Record assurance evidence and any recent incident history.
4. Enter subcontracting reliance and whether audit rights exist.
5. Click Calculate Risk to get a score, tier, drivers, and actions.
6. Export to CSV for reporting, or download a PDF for stakeholders.

SLA metrics that change risk outcomes

Availability percentages hide operational exposure. At 99.50% uptime, maximum downtime is about 3.6 hours per 30-day month, while 99.90% allows roughly 43 minutes and 99.99% about 4 minutes. For cyber vendors, confirm whether “uptime” excludes security events, planned maintenance, or third-party outages. Document measurement points, reporting cadence, and how partial degradation is counted.

Why response and resolution targets matter

Response time should cover acknowledgement, triage, and containment start. Resolution time should specify restoration or mitigation, measured by severity. A two-hour response with a 72-hour resolution can still create extended exposure during active exploitation. Use tiered targets, for example: Sev1 response 1-2 hours, mitigation 8-24 hours, and full remediation within 72 hours. Require status updates every 60 minutes for Sev1, and define escalation to executive contacts.

Assurance evidence reduces hidden exposure

Assurance artifacts reduce uncertainty only when scope aligns. SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001 can indicate control maturity, but check the report period, system boundaries, and any qualified opinions or exceptions. Ask for penetration testing frequency, vulnerability SLAs, and evidence of secure development practices. Track recurring findings year over year and treat repeated exceptions as quantitative risk drivers.

Recovery objectives align with business impact

RTO and RPO translate technical failure into business loss. An RTO of 24 hours may be acceptable for analytics, but authentication, payments, and incident response tooling often need 1-4 hours. An RPO of 4 hours implies potential data loss across that window; validate backup frequency, replication method, encryption, and restore test results. Confirm whether recovery objectives apply during ransomware scenarios and regional failures.

Turning scores into negotiation actions

Use the score to prioritize clauses that measurably reduce exposure. Strengthen service credits, add security breach notification timelines, and require audit rights or independent attestations. Limit subcontracting, or enforce flow-down controls, notification duties, and approval rights. If incidents trend upward, require root-cause analysis within 10 business days and a corrective action plan with dated milestones, owners, and verification evidence.

Recalculate after renewals, major incidents, or architecture changes. Store monthly scores to spot drift. A ten point increase is a warning sign that performance, transparency, or resilience is weakening for your program.

FAQs

What does the risk score represent?

It summarizes contract and operational exposure across uptime, incident handling, assurance, recovery, and governance factors. Scores range 0–100, where higher indicates weaker commitments or limited verifiability that could increase security and continuity impact.

How should I set criticality and sensitivity?

Rate criticality by business disruption if the service fails. Rate sensitivity by the most confidential data the vendor can access, process, or store. When uncertain, choose the higher value and document assumptions for review.

Can I compare two vendors with different services?

Yes, if you keep criticality and sensitivity consistent for the same use case. For different service types, compare within each category and prioritize vendors supporting mission‑critical workflows or regulated data.

Why are penalties and audit rights included?

Strong credits and audit rights create accountability and faster remediation. They also improve transparency through evidence requests, testing rights, and reporting. Weak or absent clauses can allow recurring SLA misses without meaningful corrective pressure.

How often should I recalculate the score?

Recalculate at onboarding, renewal, after major incidents, and after significant architecture or subcontractor changes. Many teams also score quarterly to catch drift in response times, incident rates, or assurance coverage.

Is this a substitute for a full risk assessment?

No. Use it as a structured screening tool to prioritize deeper reviews, questionnaires, and technical validation. Combine the score with threat modeling, data flow mapping, and financial and legal checks for final decisions.