Error budget and service levels best practices

New Relic's service level management (SLM) provides a structured approach to monitor and enhance the reliability of business-critical services using service level indicators (SLIs) and service level objectives (SLOs). By incorporating error budgets and burn rate alerts, organizations can proactively manage service degradations and failures, often identifying issues before they impact customers. The use of error budgets helps balance the focus between system reliability and innovation by setting acceptable error thresholds that inform prioritization decisions. This system reduces alert fatigue by eliminating unnecessary notifications and emphasizes actionable alerts for critical issues. Additionally, New Relic enables teams to set up and optimize alerts for SLIs and SLOs, ensuring that performance metrics are met and providing a framework for continuous improvement through post-incident reviews. This approach not only enhances the service reliability but also supports a culture of accountability and shared responsibility among development and operations teams.