Sla

Salé

 Arabic Sla

City (pop., 1994: city, 504,420; Rabat-Salé metro. area, 1,385,872), northwestern Morocco. Located at the mouth of the Bou Regreg River, opposite Rabat, it was founded in the 10th century and reached its peak as a merchant port. After 1627 Salé, with Rabat as its vassal, became the corsair republic of Bou Regreg and the base for the Sallee Corsairs, the most dreaded of the Barbary Coast pirates. The two cities grew together until the Bou Regreg silted up and Salé port was closed. It has many mosques and mausoleums; its greatest shrine is the tomb of Sidi 'Abd Allah ibn Hasan, the city's patron saint.

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SLA

(1) (StereoLithography Apparatus) See 3D printing.

(2) (Service Level Agreement) A contract between the provider and the user that specifies the level of service expected during its term. SLAs are used by vendors and customers as well as internally by IT shops and their end users. They can specify bandwidth availability, response times for routine and ad hoc queries, response time for problem resolution (network down, machine failure, etc.) as well as attitudes and consideration of the technical staff.

SLAs can be very general or extremely detailed, including the steps taken in the event of a failure. For example, if the problem persists after 30 minutes, a supervisor is notified; after one hour, the account rep is contacted, etc.