A company relies on a cloud provider for a critical service. Leadership wants regular reports comparing the provider's actual availability and response times with the targets in the contract, and formal reviews whenever targets are missed. Which practice is this?

Service-level management sets clear, business-based targets for service performance, documents them in service level agreements, and then monitors, reports and reviews actual performance against those targets. With a cloud provider this means collecting the provider's availability and response-time data producing regular reports for leadership, holding service reviews, and invoking agreed remedies such as service credits or improvement plans when targets are missed. Capacity management ensures resources are sufficient for demand at agreed performance; it may explain why response times degrade, but comparing results with contractual targets and holding the provider to account is a service-level function. Change management controls modifications to services and infrastructure to reduce risk; it is not concerned with measuring delivered performance. Continuity management prepares for recovery from major disruptions and aligns with business continuity planning; it addresses disaster scenarios, not routine performance against agreed levels. Exam caveat: provider-published availability figures usually measure what the provider chooses to measure, so customers should define in the contract how metrics are calculated and should verify them independently. Operational check: confirm that each contractual metric has a defined calculation and data source, that reports are produced on the agreed schedule, and that missed targets trigger a documented review and any credits owed.