Investigate Cloud Provider Terms to Design DataFlow's Supplier Contract
Overview
What this challenge is about.
Compare cloud provider SLAs on uptime and credits to draft DataFlow's supplier contract. Complete the challenge for a verifiable certificate.
The scenario
DataFlow Analytics is a 40-person business-to-business software company selling data analytics tools, transitioning from self-serve adoption to direct enterprise sales and facing a step-change in cloud infrastructure spend. In this market, cloud providers publish standardized service-level agreements and terms openly, so a small buyer's leverage comes from reading those terms closely rather than from contract volume.
The Brief
What you'll do, and what you'll demonstrate.
Design a cloud infrastructure supplier contract for a fast-scaling 40-person company that controls cost, enforces meaningful service-level guarantees, and preserves the freedom to switch providers without punitive lock-in.
Earning criteria — what you'll demonstrate
- Extract and compare enforceable commitments from publicly published cloud service-level agreements
- Translate business growth and spend projections into specific contract terms and risk allocation
- Design service-level metrics that are measurable, monitorable, and tied to financial remedies
- Build a realistic negotiation position for a small buyer against a large standardized supplier
- Structure exit and flexibility clauses that limit lock-in for a scaling company
Program Fit
Where this fits in your program.
Sharpens the same skills your degree expects you to demonstrate.
Aligned coursework coming soon.
Skills
Skills you'll demonstrate.
Each one shows up on your verified credential.
- Contract Design
Apply contract design to solve real industry problems and demonstrate production-level capability.
- Negotiation
Prepare, conduct, and close negotiations that create value for all parties.
- Sla Definition
Apply sla definition to solve real industry problems and demonstrate production-level capability.
- Vendor Management
Apply vendor management to solve real industry problems and demonstrate production-level capability.
- Risk Allocation
Apply risk allocation to solve real industry problems and demonstrate production-level capability.
Careers
Career paths this challenge builds toward
Completing this challenge demonstrates skills that transfer directly to these roles:
Procurement Specialist
This challenge mirrors a procurement specialist's core work: investigating supplier terms, drafting contracts, and negotiating service levels. You leave with a portfolio-ready contract and a defensible negotiation plan built from real cloud-provider commitments.
This challenge sharpens
- contract-design
- negotiation
- sla-definition
Vendor / Supplier Manager
Vendor managers own supplier relationships after signing, so the service-level design, exit provisions, and risk allocation you practice here translate directly into managing performance and renewals for a growing company's critical infrastructure suppliers.
This challenge sharpens
- vendor-management
- sla-definition
- risk-allocation
Commercial / Contracts Analyst
Contracts analysts read dense supplier terms and turn them into balanced agreements. By extracting enforceable commitments from public service-level agreements and allocating risk across clauses, you build the exact evidence-to-clause discipline this role demands.
This challenge sharpens
- contract-design
- risk-allocation
- negotiation