Episode 46 — Working with Vendors: Questions to Ask, SLAs to Watch

This episode explores the realities of working with AI vendors, a critical skill as few organizations build every component in-house. Vendor relationships require careful evaluation of offerings, service-level agreements (SLAs), and long-term commitments. For certification exams, learners should understand the importance of due diligence, contract clarity, and performance monitoring. Key questions to ask vendors include how models are trained, how data is secured, what monitoring is in place, and what happens if services are interrupted.

Examples show the stakes. A company adopting a third-party chatbot platform must ensure data privacy is protected under the vendor’s terms. An SLA guaranteeing 99.9 percent uptime may seem strong but could still allow unacceptable downtime for critical services. Troubleshooting involves monitoring vendor performance, escalating issues through contract-defined channels, and ensuring fallback plans exist. Best practices stress negotiating clear obligations, auditing vendor claims, and maintaining transparency. Exam questions may describe vendor scenarios and ask which concerns or SLA terms are most important. By mastering this domain, learners can manage vendor partnerships confidently, ensuring external services meet organizational needs. Produced by BareMetalCyber.com, where you’ll find more cyber audio courses, books, and information to strengthen your certification path.