IBM FlashSystem

IBM FlashSystem

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  • 1.  FS7300 Support Statement Guarantee

    Posted Tue November 11, 2025 04:47 AM

    Hi all - I'm quoting a FS7300 for a customer for a December PO and they have come back asking what support statements IBM provide on the number of years support they should receive.  I recall some time ago, IBM Storage used to give a guarantee of 7 years' support but I'm not able to find that statement on the IBM page any longer.  Does anybody have anything formal that you could provide?

    Thanks again

    Nick



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    Nick Slater
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  • 2.  RE: FS7300 Support Statement Guarantee

    Posted Tue November 11, 2025 05:22 AM

    Nick, we only have http://www.ibm.com/software/support/lifecycle/ to check the lifecycle of IBM products.  I remember there being a seven-year statement, but I'm not sure if it's still valid.



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    Nezih Boyacioglu
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  • 3.  RE: FS7300 Support Statement Guarantee

    Posted Tue November 11, 2025 01:05 PM

    Hi Nick,

    Not sure I understood the issue but you can quote your customer up to 6 years of upfront Expert Care. It is also possible to provide a quote for more than 6 years upfront but that is a TLS offering and usually takes longer to quote.

    If your question is regarding how long the the box will be supported by IBM you can reassure your customer that IBM tends to support their machines for some time after they have been withdrawn. I encourage you to read this recent statement regarding IBM's transition from "EOS - End of Service" to  "Change of Support Level" model. What this will mean is that it will be possible to maintain these systems for longer. Change of service support level and select service withdrawals: Declaration of plan to change maintenance service levels for select machines - Some new technology or replacement products available - IBM Documentation. As an example you can see that some older Flashsystems are on this list like the Flashsystem 5100 has a change of service date of  is 31 December 2026. When you consider that it was withdrawn from marketing in September of 2021 it has received 5 more years of updates after being withdrawn.  After this date it can continue to be supported by IBM with remote and break/fix onsite support it will no longer benefit from development of any new machine code updates, patches, or fixes. 

    Hope this helps.



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    Antonio Esculca
    IBM Storage Presales
    Arrow ECS Portugal
    Lisbon
    +351967604123
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  • 4.  RE: FS7300 Support Statement Guarantee

    Posted Wed November 12, 2025 02:42 AM

    Main question here is cost of support in 6th, 7th or 8th year. Will it be similar as 3-5y or quote would force the customer to decommission old device earlier.



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    Lukasz Borek
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    Original Message


  • 5.  RE: FS7300 Support Statement Guarantee

    Posted Wed November 12, 2025 04:01 PM

    For planning purposes based on previous history, you can expect about 5 years of standard support after the end of marketing



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    Michael Schroll
    IBM Practice Manager
    Technologent (dba Thomas Gallaway)
    West Milford NJ
    2018889703
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