{"id":43501,"date":"2022-08-31T21:22:41","date_gmt":"2022-09-01T04:22:41","guid":{"rendered":"\/us\/en\/blog\/?p=43501"},"modified":"2025-07-14T05:51:55","modified_gmt":"2025-07-14T12:51:55","slug":"in-a-work-from-home-world-service-level-agreements-for-cloud-communications-take-center-stage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"\/us\/en\/blog\/in-a-work-from-home-world-service-level-agreements-for-cloud-communications-take-center-stage\/","title":{"rendered":"What is &#8220;uptime&#8221;? What do &#8220;five 9s&#8221; mean for your business?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Uptime is becoming increasingly critical for cloud-based apps, as they take center stage in the business world. Expectations for availability are high, and every moment feels urgent. And if we\u2019re going to make <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">ourselves<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> available at all times, we expect no less from our apps\u2014both at work and at home.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>But what does availability mean for an app, and how do cloud providers deliver on their uptime promises?<\/p>\n<p>Let&#8217;s get into it:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"#one\">What is &#8220;uptime&#8221;?<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"#two\">What is &#8220;Five 9s availability&#8221;?<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"#three\">The growing importance of uptime for businesses<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"#four\">5 uptime questions to ask your service provider<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"#five\">How cloud providers ensure high uptime<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\t\t\t<\/p>\n<div class=\"rc-bottom-cta rc-bottom-cta__landscape\" style=\"background-color:#FF8800;flex-direction: row-reverse;\">\n<div class=\"bottom-cta-img\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" width=\"868\" height=\"730\" src=\"\/us\/en\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/99.999-ebook.png\" class=\"responsive-image\" alt=\"Does your ...\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<div class=\"bottom-cta-copy\">\n<div class=\"rc-bottom-cta__text\" style=\"color:ffffff;\">\n<h3\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tclass=\"rc-bottom-cta__title headline-copy\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tstyle=\"\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\t>Does your provider offer 99.999% uptime? Here&#8217;s how to find out<\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"rc-bottom-cta__btn-wrapper\" style=\"\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<a\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tclass=\"btn btn-primary btn-lg rc-bottom-cta__link\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\ttitle=\"Get the eBook\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\thref=\"https:\/\/www.ringcentral.com\/understanding-reliability.html\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tdata-dl-name=\"Get the eBook\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tdata-dl-element=\"button\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tdata-dl-additional-info=\"bottom cta banner\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tdata-no-auto-dl=\"true\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tstyle=\"\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tonmouseover=\"\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tonmouseout=\"this.style.backgroundColor='';this.style.borderColor='';this.style.color='';\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\t>Get the eBook<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>\t<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><a id=\"one\"><\/a>What is &#8220;uptime&#8221;?<\/h2>\n<p>Simply put, uptime is the percentage of time, per quarter, that a given cloud-based app is up and running. <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Most enterprise communications providers offer <\/span>Service Level Agreements (SLAs)<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> that commit to a certain minimum percentage of uptime in a given period (or, conversely, maximum downtime).\u00a0<\/span>The closer the percentage is to 100%, the less projected downtime per quarter.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"heading h2\"><strong><a id=\"two\"><\/a>What is \u201cFive 9s availability&#8221;?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ringcentral.com\/technology\/security.html\"><b>99.999% availability<\/b><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (also known as \u201cFive 9s\u201d) means an app has <\/span><b>less than 78 seconds of downtime per quarter<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. This is widely considered the holy grail of availability\u2014remaining online virtually the entire time.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Of course, not every company can guarantee Five 9s, and lower guarantees can translate to possibly significant downtime. For example, <\/span><b>95% availability<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u2014which sounds like a high number\u2014actually equates to up to <\/span><b>18 days of downtime annually<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_43503\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-43503\" style=\"width: 1274px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-43503 size-full\" src=\"\/us\/en\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/graph.png\" alt=\"uptime availability table \" width=\"1274\" height=\"713\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-43503\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><em>Service Level Agreements guarantee the availability of cloud applications. Lower guarantees can lead to more downtime.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Increased downtime for cloud communications apps can actually have potentially devastating consequences, especially in certain industries. For example:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><a href=\"https:\/\/newrcblog.wpengine.com\/us\/en\/blog\/healthcare-trends-2023\/\"><strong>Healthcare<\/strong><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>:<\/strong> Patients can\u2019t reach doctors for critical information<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><a href=\"https:\/\/newrcblog.wpengine.com\/us\/en\/blog\/education-trends-2023\/\"><strong>Education<\/strong><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: Students are not able to access lessons remotely<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><a href=\"https:\/\/newrcblog.wpengine.com\/us\/en\/blog\/top-5-citizen-communication-challenges-for-government-agencies\/\"><strong>Public sector<\/strong><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: Citizens can\u2019t reach critical government services<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><a href=\"https:\/\/newrcblog.wpengine.com\/us\/en\/blog\/financial-services-trends-2023\/\"><strong>Financial services<\/strong><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: Clients cannot execute their desired trade<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><a href=\"https:\/\/newrcblog.wpengine.com\/us\/en\/blog\/6-reasons-retailers-choose-all-in-one-communications-solutions\/\"><strong>Retail<\/strong><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>:<\/strong> When consumers are unable to reach an associate, 46% of shoppers will not buy intended product, 35% will switch to another retailer, 17% will write a negative review<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2 class=\"heading h2\"><b><a id=\"three\"><\/a>The growing importance of uptime for business communications<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For <a href=\"https:\/\/newrcblog.wpengine.com\/us\/en\/blog\/5-ways-unified-communications-saves-you-money\/\">unified communications<\/a>, the importance of continuous availability only increases. Because communication is at the heart of any successful organization, communications solutions need to withstand a multitude of obstacles.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">These include natural disasters, seasonal surges (such as the first day of school or holiday buying), unexpected surges (such as <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">what we experienced with the pandemic<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">), or company-specific issues (such as hosting a large all-hands session online).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In addition to these variables, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ringcentral.com\/office\/how-it-works.html\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS)<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ringcentral.com\/effortless-customer-engagement.html\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Contact Center as a Service (CCaaS)<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> providers also need to remain available across many different devices (laptop, mobile, or tablet) and connectivity options (WiFi, 3G\/4G\/5G, or a switch from one to the other) that customers might use to connect.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2 class=\"heading h3 h2\"><a id=\"four\"><\/a>5 uptime questions to ask your service provider<\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Providers\u2019 SLAs vary, with differing levels of commitment to uptime. When evaluating cloud communication and collaboration solutions, be sure to get detailed responses to the following questions about uptime:<\/span><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">How is the service provider ensuring data redundancy?<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">How is the infrastructure prepared for events and surges your business might experience?<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Does the provider conduct in-depth and frequent disruptive testing ( the process of simulating failures in real-world situations), disaster recovery tests? Are the test results and findings shared with customers?<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What are the provider\u2019s business continuity plans? Be sure to go beyond whether the provider has a business continuity plan to determine how often they test and revise it, for example.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ask for supporting third-party test reports and accreditations, wherever applicable.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\t\t\t<\/p>\n<div class=\"rc-bottom-cta rc-bottom-cta__landscape\" style=\"background-image: url(\/us\/en\/blog\/wp-content\/themes\/ringcentral\/assets\/images\/temp\/rc-bottom-cta-bg.png);\">\n<div class=\"bottom-cta-img\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" width=\"930\" height=\"700\" src=\"\/us\/en\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/IT-leaders-looking-for.png\" class=\"responsive-image\" alt=\"13 reliability ...\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<div class=\"bottom-cta-copy\">\n<div class=\"rc-bottom-cta__text\" style=\"\">\n<h3\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tclass=\"rc-bottom-cta__title headline-copy\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tstyle=\"\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\t>13 reliability questions to ask your communications provider<\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"rc-bottom-cta__btn-wrapper\" style=\"\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<a\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tclass=\"btn btn-primary btn-lg rc-bottom-cta__link\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\ttitle=\"Get the eBook\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\thref=\"https:\/\/www.ringcentral.com\/understanding-reliability.html\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tdata-dl-name=\"Get the eBook\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tdata-dl-element=\"button\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tdata-dl-additional-info=\"bottom cta banner\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tdata-no-auto-dl=\"true\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tstyle=\"\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tonmouseover=\"\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tonmouseout=\"this.style.backgroundColor='';this.style.borderColor='';this.style.color='';\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\t>Get the eBook<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>\t<\/span><\/p>\n<h2 class=\"heading h3 h2\"><a id=\"five\"><\/a>How cloud providers ensure high uptime<\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There are some critical elements that all highly available Software as a Service (SaaS) companies need to get right, starting with building a scalable, redundant, and <a href=\"https:\/\/newrcblog.wpengine.com\/us\/en\/blog\/what-is-end-to-end-encryption\/\">secure infrastructure<\/a>. Here are a few of the hallmarks of highly available solutions:<\/span><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It\u2019s critical to host cloud solutions in top-tier data centers with geographic redundancy, meaning in the event of an outage in one data center, another data center in another location is already set up to automatically handle the load with no issues.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Providers must also ensure this kind of capability within each data center by using similar architectures that feature multiple layers of redundancy in case problems arise.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Maintaining high levels of uptime requires providers who build advanced system monitoring capabilities that allow them to identify issues before they happen and quickly resolve and remediate them when they do.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Highly available solutions providers have strong internal controls and policies in place to minimize risk and ensure uptime.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>Let&#8217;s dig in even further on this with a real company, to see how we at RingCentral deliver on our uptime promise.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"heading h2\"><strong>How RingCentral builds Five 9s availability<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">RingCentral\u2019s cloud architecture is built on what\u2019s known as a multi-cloud, multi-network, point-of-delivery (PoD) design. In other words, we use a modular approach that allows our solutions to intelligently scale and manage increases in usage across <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">messaging<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ringcentral.com\/video-call.html\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">video calls<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, and <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">phone<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, while also providing resiliency and redundancy.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The multi-tenant network is designed with built-in 2x capacity, which means customers can double their usage overnight without an issue. Also, systems are designed with concurrent usage in mind. This ensures that the service is always available even when there are usage fluctuations at the customer\u2019s end.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3 class=\"heading h3\"><b>Data centers<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">RingCentral maintains \u201cgeo-redundant data centers,\u201d which means they\u2019re similarly configured across multiple regions to ensure that service continues despite possible outages.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In the event of a data center failure, RingCentral\u2019s automated systems (built with active-active design), in conjunction with an always-on and world-class network operations center (NOC), ensure a rapid transition to back-up systems as needed to maintain uninterrupted service availability.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Simply put, should an issue arise in any one data center, another data center automatically assumes the load with no downtime.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">RingCentral employs three layers of network and service redundancy to ensure that customers\u2019 phone systems remain up and running:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Our data centers provide the first layer of redundancy. Data between bi-coastal locations is synchronized consistently, with latency of less than one minute. Each component has a redundant power supply, which delivers seamless operation and 99.999% availability in case of geographic outages or any natural disaster.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In fact, RingCentral has delivered <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/status.ringcentral.com\/\"><b><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">twenty consecutive quarters<\/span> of 99.999% uptime SLA<\/b><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> for our flagship product RingCentral MVP. The data centers share hosted facilities space with some of the world\u2019s largest Internet companies and financial institutions. In addition, they\u2019re in close physical proximity to the world\u2019s top 20 Internet exchange points, and are co-located with all the major U.S. telecommunications carriers to maintain the fastest response times and interconnect services possible.<\/span><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Our architecture is vendor-agnostic and commodity-based, meaning it\u2019s fully replaceable and fault-tolerant, providing a second layer of redundancy.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Our third layer of redundancy utilizes both load balancing and failover technology to keep our systems continuously up and running. For example, primary and secondary servers contain multiple servers that back each other up.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><strong>Beyond Five 9s: Our commitment to relentless innovation<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There have been several areas in particular where RingCentral has concentrated its attention in an effort to continuously improve our availability:<\/span><\/p>\n<h3 class=\"heading h3\"><b>Agile development<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">With decades of stable, mature operational procedures, our proven architecture enables agile development with the ability to support our growing global customer base and partners.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3 class=\"heading h3\"><b>Application lifecycle management\u00a0<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Our investments here help minimize errors, disruptions, and the risk of failure. Our engineering, cloud operations, and support teams work in concert with customers to deploy new innovations while minimizing potential impacts.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Our PoD deployment architecture, combined with our rigorous testing, Q&amp;A, and staging processes, ensures that changes get synchronized while isolating updates and changes as they\u2019re rolled into production.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This very controlled synchronization of updates means that changes don\u2019t inadvertently create delays, outages, or downtime. It\u2019s also important that we work closely with customers to consider critical situational factors (e.g., surges in usage for the first day of virtual school or Black Friday, etc.) and evaluate the most appropriate times for change. It\u2019s critical to ensure that any changes have been made and tested well before these major events.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3 class=\"heading h3\"><b>Sophisticated machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) automation\u00a0<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When it comes to insights, collecting data is the easy part. RingCentral has built the supporting technology infrastructure and combined that knowledge with decades of industry expertise in messaging, video, and phone to create meaningful and actionable insights.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Our ML and AI layers are built on a single data lake that aggregates all operational, usage, and simulated testing data to identify events, correlate them, respond, and remediate. RingCentral\u2019s sophisticated architecture is the key to enabling a data-driven approach to product development, engineering, operations, and support.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">RingCentral monitors and manages every aspect of the service from top to bottom\u2014from edge to core\u2014to ensure the highest quality, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ringcentral.com\/technology\/reliability.html\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">reliability<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, and security. This architecture has also enabled RingCentral to provide customers with high quality-of-service <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/newrcblog.wpengine.com\/us\/en\/blog\/ringcentral-report-ucaas-analytics\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">analytics and insights<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in a single pane of glass across <a href=\"https:\/\/newrcblog.wpengine.com\/us\/en\/blog\/what-is-team-messaging\/\">messaging<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/newrcblog.wpengine.com\/us\/en\/blog\/ai-video-meeting-features\/\">video meetings<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/newrcblog.wpengine.com\/us\/en\/blog\/ringcentral-update-e2ee-2022\/\">phone<\/a> with tremendous detail.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h3 class=\"heading h3\"><b>Team building and a culture of trust<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">RingCentral teams prepare for everything using rigorous testing. Everybody brings a different opinion and skillset. Such exercises build trust in each other\u2019s capabilities so teams can rely on one another in every situation.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2 class=\"heading h2\"><b>Reliability for tomorrow\u2019s workplace<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As organizations continue to work remotely\u2014and plan to even beyond the pandemic\u2014teams are now depending on cloud communications more than ever. From team messaging to video conferencing and virtual calling, remote workforces need their cloud communications to work flawlessly under any circumstances if they want to succeed.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Service providers that offer a <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ringcentral.com\/understanding-reliability.html\"><b>99.999% uptime SLA<\/b><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> ensure that no matter where your future employees work, you can trust that their communication tools will always be available<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Uptime is becoming increasingly critical for cloud-based apps, as they take center stage in the business world. Expectations for availability are high, and every moment feels urgent. And if we\u2019re going to make ourselves available at all times, we expect no less from our apps\u2014both at work and at home. But what does availability mean &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1148,"featured_media":48060,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17901],"tags":[18731,13222,1639,18732],"class_list":["post-43501","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business-leadership","tag-five-nines","tag-ringcentral-reliability","tag-ringcentral-security","tag-ringcentral-service-level-agreement"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v19.3 (Yoast SEO v27.2) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>What is Uptime and What Do &quot;Five 9s&quot; Mean?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Learn about uptime, five 9s availability and service level agreements for cloud communications. Understand why 99.999% uptime matters.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ringcentral.com\/us\/en\/blog\/in-a-work-from-home-world-service-level-agreements-for-cloud-communications-take-center-stage\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What is &quot;uptime&quot;? What do &quot;five 9s&quot; mean for your business?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Learn about uptime, five 9s availability and service level agreements for cloud communications. Understand why 99.999% uptime matters.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.ringcentral.com\/us\/en\/blog\/in-a-work-from-home-world-service-level-agreements-for-cloud-communications-take-center-stage\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"RingCentral Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ringcentral\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-09-01T04:22:41+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-07-14T12:51:55+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.ringcentral.com\/us\/en\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/99999.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"930\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"700\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Roman Tobe\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@ringcentral\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@ringcentral\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Roman Tobe\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"8 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/newrcblog.wpengine.com\/us\/en\/blog\/in-a-work-from-home-world-service-level-agreements-for-cloud-communications-take-center-stage\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"\/us\/en\/blog\/in-a-work-from-home-world-service-level-agreements-for-cloud-communications-take-center-stage\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Roman Tobe\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/newrcblog.wpengine.com\/us\/en\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/cd4eeced3d5890ae81689ec5218ec7c4\"},\"headline\":\"What is &#8220;uptime&#8221;? 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