SLO Adoption and Usage in Site Reliability Engineering

Chapter 2. Summary of the Data

When done well, using SRE methodology to manage your services leads to improved business perspectives and outcomes. We’ve seen the power of SRE at Google and at many other organizations that span a variety of industries, sizes, and company cultures. However, when we engage the industry in conversations about SRE, organizations frequently question why they have not seen the tangible results and benefits described in our books or shared at industry conferences or in publications.

To understand what prevents organizations from realizing the full benefits of SRE, we decided to survey the industry on how they apply SRE practices and SLOs. The SLO Adoption and Usage Survey focuses on SLOs because they provide a foundation for all other aspects of SRE methodology. Without them, you are not fully engaged in SRE and likely won’t realize the benefits you seek.

The SLO Adoption and Usage Survey quantifies SLO adoption and gauges the extent to which organizations exercise SRE and SLO best practices. It also looks at how the maturity of respondents’ SRE practices and their SLOs impact how they use these tools. Our analysis finds that if organizations are in the initial phases of establishing SLOs, they often skip or delay best practices, but doing so may result in fewer benefits for their organizations. If you already have SLOs, compare these survey results against your own practices to discover areas of opportunity for improvement.

Who Took Our Survey ...