CCSP Cloud Concepts, Architecture, and Design Practice Question
An organization is evaluating a cloud service provider and reviewing their SLA. Which THREE metrics are most important for assessing the provider's reliability and accountability? (Choose three.)
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Frequency of performance reporting
Option B (Frequency of performance reporting) is correct because an SLA's reporting cadence determines how often the provider must disclose measured performance against targets, giving the customer the visibility needed to verify reliability and hold the provider accountable. Option C (Service credits or compensation for downtime) is correct because financial remedies such as service credits are the primary contractual enforcement mechanism that makes the provider accountable when availability commitments are missed. Option E (Monthly uptime percentage guarantee) is correct because the uptime percentage (for example, 99.9% or 99.95%) is the core quantitative reliability commitment against which actual availability is measured. Option A (Number of data center employees) does not belong because headcount is not a defined SLA reliability or accountability metric and does not reflect service availability. Option D (Provider's stock price) does not belong because stock price is a financial-market indicator unrelated to the contractual service levels in an SLA.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Number of data center employees
Why it's wrong here
Not directly tied to reliability.
- ✓
Frequency of performance reporting
Why this is correct
Reporting frequency determines how quickly the consumer detects SLA breaches and holds the provider accountable. Without regular performance data, uptime guarantees and credit mechanisms cannot be verified, so this metric underpins the reliability assessment the stem requires.
- ✓
Service credits or compensation for downtime
Why this is correct
Service credits translate an availability breach into a contractual, financial consequence, making the provider accountable rather than merely promising uptime. This satisfies the stem's accountability criterion, since a guarantee without an enforceable remedy gives the consumer no recourse.
- ✗
Provider's stock price
Why it's wrong here
Stock price reflects investor sentiment in public markets, not the provider's contractual reliability or accountability under an SLA. It is tempting because financial health can indicate stability, and would be relevant when assessing vendor viability, but SLA reliability is measured through availability percentages, incident response times and service credits.
- ✓
Monthly uptime percentage guarantee
Why this is correct
The monthly uptime percentage is the quantified availability commitment against which actual performance is measured. It directly addresses the stem's reliability criterion, giving a concrete threshold that determines whether the provider met its obligation or triggered remedies.
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JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This CCSP practice question is part of Courseiva's free ISC2 certification practice question bank. Courseiva provides original exam-style practice questions with explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics to help learners prepare for the CCSP exam.