Blog Objective and Disclaimer
The objective of this document is to share more contract details regarding the IBM Storage Assurance guarantees and contract, as well as country availability. This is not an official contract and IBM is not liable for any terms stated below. It is meant to show the high-level key points of the offering contract. The below contract terms are only referring to the IBM Storage Assurance Perpetual purchasing option on qualifying IBM Storage FlashSystem devices.
Please reach out to your IBM Seller or IBM Business Partner for full official contract details and be cautious of competitive interpretations of the below terms. If you have not yet explored the high-level benefits of the IBM Storage Assurance Perpetual offering, then please visit here.
Offering Contract Details.
IBM Storage Expert Care Premium Services are included in this offering for the duration of the contract.
There are three different groupings of storage hardware refreshes included in this program:
- IBM automatically sends clients full-system, next generation hardware refreshes to maintain contract guarantees (End of Service and Eight-Year Full-System Refresh Guarantees).
- IBM and clients agree on a full-system, next generation hardware refresh requested shipment date when clients qualify for a full-system refresh (Terminal Code Level and Capacity Upgrade Eligibility Guarantees).
- IBM and clients work through appropriate remediation actions, which could include hardware refreshes up to twice the initial box’s price, within contractual response times to get clients back into agreed upon levels of service (Performance and Energy Efficiency Guarantees).
Clients’ Technical Account Managers can help clients triage remediation conversations. Full-system refreshes using supported configurations are covered under the Non-Disruptive Migration Guarantee. All the guarantees and subsequent remediations are covered under the Price Protection Guarantee. Clients will need to ship back existing hardware that is refreshed after the allotted 90-day migration period.
End of Service Guarantee.
In this offering, clients should never be on end of support hardware. Therefore, 90 days before their device’s announced end of support date, clients will be shipped a next generation refreshed version of their existing full storage system with the same or better capacity and same or better performance.
Eight-Year Full-System Refresh Guarantee.
In the 8-year contract version of this program, clients will receive at least one full-system next generation refresh during the 8-year period. This means that 90 days before the 8-year contract is complete, if the clients have not received a full-system refresh throughout the duration of the contract, then they will be shipped a next generation refreshed version of their existing full storage system with the same or better capacity and same or better performance.
Terminal Code Level Guarantee.
In this offering, clients should always have the right to install future Storage Virtualize software levels to access new features. Therefore, if at any point clients are on a terminal code level device, clients can choose to be shipped a next generation refreshed version of their existing full storage system with the same or better capacity and same or better performance.
Capacity Upgrade Eligibility Guarantee.
In this offering, clients should always have the right to purchase additional drives for capacity upgrades into their system’s empty drive slots. Therefore, if at any point clients desire to upgrade with empty drive slots, but have no drive purchase upgrade options available, clients can choose to be shipped a next generation refreshed version of their existing full storage system with the same or better capacity and same or better performance.
Performance Guarantee.
IBM FlashSystem devices have unique computational storage capabilities with our FlashCore Modules that allow performance to seamlessly scale with capacity. Through analyzing the performance of our existing install base, IBM has found that FlashCore Modules deliver the advanced performance requirements over time that clients desire from their modern hardware. To back this offering, after three years of product usage, IBM guarantees that FlashSystem devices will meet certain response time thresholds across 24-hour time periods given different configurations under normal operation. If at that time and after a client’s system meets the terms of the agreement but isn’t meeting the guaranteed performance threshold, IBM will work with the client to deliver the hardware or software needed to get the performance back into the guaranteed levels supplying hardware up to double what the client initially paid for the hardware.
Energy Efficiency Guarantee.
IBM FlashSystem devices are designed for energy efficiency. For clients to be able to predict their energy usage on their device, in this offering, IBM guarantees that we will meet certain energy efficiency levels given different configurations under normal running conditions. If ever a client’s system exceeds the guaranteed energy efficiency, IBM will work with the client to deliver the hardware or software needed to get the energy efficiency back into the guaranteed levels supplying hardware up to double what the client initially paid for the hardware.
Non-Disruptive Migration Guarantee.
With IBM’s new Flash Grid technology, through this offering, IBM is guaranteeing that data in Storage Partitions can be migrated to new FlashSystem devices while always maintaining an active data path to data from servers and applications using the data. This migration can be done by IBM, an IBM Business Partner or the clients themselves. The non-disruptive guarantee qualifies when Storage Partitions are configured and migrated according to the product documentation and contract terms. If access to data is lost during a migration with a supported configuration, IBM will remediate with service hours to restore access to the data, assist with completing the migration and advise on how to complete future migrations without disruptions.
Price Protection.
In this offering, IBM will deliver all the above services, guarantees and qualifying remediations at a flat rate across the contract period to the end client, distributor or business partner. The only time the rate will change is if the client purchases additional system upgrades or changes the configuration.
Client Contract Termination.
This offering can be terminated by client at any point for a trade-in upgrade. The trade-in upgrades are for clients that desire the next generation or a different level FlashSystem because their workload changed or they desire the latest innovations, but all the above guarantees are being met and they don’t qualify for a hardware refresh. This upgrade will come with no contract termination fee and a trade-in discount on the new hardware that they purchase. If client desires to terminate contract without upgrading to a new contract, then client must pay the termination fee.
Eligible Products.
New FlashSystem 5300, 7300, 9500 purchases with FlashCore Module drives and their respective all-flash expansions that sign up for an IBM Storage Assurance Perpetual contract. For guarantee remediations, systems must be connected to IBM Storage Insights Pro which is included in this contract price.
Country Availability.
Country availability will grow overtime, but at the moment this offering is available for purchase in Aland Islands, Aruba, Australia, Austria, Bahamas, Barbados, Belgium, Brunei, Canada, China, Curacao, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Egypt, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Holy See (Vatican City State), Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Korea, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Macao, Malaysia, Malta, Morocco, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, San Marino, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Suriname, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, Trinidad and Tobago, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, and United States of America.