An availability percentage is meaningful only with a measurement period and a definition of downtime. The same percentage can produce different contractual results depending on the service, plan, region, exclusions, and claim process.
Converting a percentage into time
The basic calculation is:
allowed unavailable time = measurement period × (1 − availability target)
For a 30-day period, the approximate time budgets are:
| Target | Time in 30 days |
|---|---|
| 99% | 7 hours 12 minutes |
| 99.9% | 43 minutes 12 seconds |
| 99.95% | 21 minutes 36 seconds |
| 99.99% | 4 minutes 19 seconds |
A calendar month is not always 30 days, so use the actual contractual period when preparing a claim or report. The SLA calculator can calculate several common periods.
Read the availability definition
Before comparing a measured result with a target, check:
- the covered service, region, and account tier
- whether degraded performance counts as downtime
- the minimum duration or error threshold for an event
- excluded maintenance, customer configuration, and force-majeure events
- whether availability is measured per component, region, or account
- the required claim window and supporting evidence
A public status page usually does not contain enough information to determine contractual compliance.
Separate three kinds of evidence
Keep all three, but do not substitute one for another. An aggregate status observation can support an investigation; it cannot by itself prove eligibility for a credit.
Use the target as an operating constraint
An availability target can help set error budgets, escalation rules, and recovery priorities. It should not be treated as a prediction that the provider will always meet the target or as a complete resilience plan.
ServiceAlert publishes only limited, source-backed SLA evidence and clearly labels status-page observations. See the reliability hub and methodology for the current publication limits.