1. A method for operating a cloud computing platform to execute a software application, the software application being associated with an application owner and the cloud computing platform being operated by a cloud operator, the software application comprising a first logical part and a second logical part, the method comprising: via an interface of the cloud computing platform, receiving a specification of at least one term of a service-level agreement (SLA) between the application owner and the cloud operator, the at least one term of the SLA comprising at least one performance level for execution of the software application by the cloud computing platform, the at least one performance level comprising an upper limit on acceptable execution times for an operation of the software application; executing the software application via resources of the cloud computing platform; comparing an execution time for the operation of the software application to the upper limit on acceptable execution times under the SLA, wherein the comparing comprises comparing a first value for a first actual operational characteristic of the first logical part to a first expected operational characteristic for the first logical part and comparing a second value for a second actual operational characteristic of the second logical part to a second expected operational characteristics for the second logical part; and billing the application owner for execution of the software application an amount determined based at least in part on a result of the comparing.