Cloud vendors are held accountable to contractual obligations by which mechanism?

The correct choice is SLAs, which stands for Service Level Agreements. SLAs are formal agreements between cloud vendors and their customers that outline the expected level of service, performance metrics, and responsibilities of each party. They serve as a binding document that defines what services the vendor will provide, including uptime, data handling, security measures, and support response times.

By establishing SLAs, cloud vendors can be held accountable to their clients if the agreed-upon service levels are not met. This accountability mechanism protects the interests of customers by providing them with recourse if the cloud vendor fails to deliver on its commitments. Having well-defined SLAs is crucial because they provide clarity on service expectations and help mitigate risks associated with cloud service usage.

In contrast, while regulations and laws also play a critical role in governing how cloud providers operate, they do not specifically address the contractual obligations between vendors and customers in the same detailed manner that SLAs do. These legal frameworks can influence SLAs but do not enforce specific service performance criteria as SLAs do.