SREcon Conversations Europe/Middle East/Africa with Alex Hidalgo

I Have an SLO. Now What?

Alex Hidalgo

It's 2020: There is a plethora of data available about measuring SLIs and setting SLO targets. But, now that you have this data, what are you actually supposed to do with it? The classic example of "Ship features when you have error budget; focus on reliability when you don't" is antiquated, too simple, and ignores all of the amazing discussions and decisions you can have with your SLO data. Let's talk about how you can use SLOs to actually make people happier–from your customers, to your engineers, to your business.

Alex Hidalgo is a Site Reliability Engineer and author of the upcoming Implementing Service Level Objectives (O'Reilly Media, September 2020). During his career he has developed a deep love for sustainable operations, proper observability, and using SLO data to drive discussions and make decisions. Alex's previous jobs have included IT support, network security, restaurant work, t-shirt design, and hosting game shows at bars. When not sharing his passion for technology with others, you can find him scuba diving or watching college basketball. He lives in Brooklyn with his partner Jen and a rescue dog named Taco. Alex has a BA in philosophy from Virginia Commonwealth University.