I’ve been leading product marketing for IBM Technology Lifecycle Services (TLS) for two years now, and it’s been quite the adventure. When I first joined the team, we were called IBM Technology Support Services, and Kyndryl had only recently spun off from IBM. Our organization stayed with IBM and joined the IBM Infrastructure team to continue delivering the IT support and services that are the foundation on which great infrastructure delivers the expected outcomes desired for our clients.
As the organization began to transform, we decided to modernize our name to reflect the value that we deliver to clients – from start to finish – across the IT lifecycle. And IBM Technology Lifecycle Services was a great reflection of that end-to-end value.
But what do we mean by “lifecycle services” and what exactly does our organization do?
TLS delivers a combination of support, services and insights for infrastructure, across the product lifecycle.
SUPPORT
That includes support for servers, storage, networking and security, and software – for IBM and for leading infrastructure providers that are also an essential extension of your IBM infrastructure. Support is offered with a tiered approach for IBM infrastructure, enabling clients to choose the level of support they desire. That tiered approach is extending to 3rd party support offerings as well.
TLS enables strategic support choices by providing the options for base support to full service - increasing support levels provides access to predictive and proactive services and white glove managed support. Even the most Basic support from IBM includes remote support and on-site support where necessary for repairs. Call Home, only available for IBM infrastructure products, is an essential tool which automatically notifies IBM Support about issues that are reported in the system. Basic coverage is usually 9x5, Next Business Day – although some high-end products include base coverage at 24x7.
Advanced support tiers include 24x7, Same Day response times, and a 2 hour response time for Severity 1 issues. It also enables the delivery of predictive analytics.
Premium support tiers include 24x7 priority call, with 30 minute response times for Severity 1 issues. It includes committed service levels in most geographies and a single point of contact for support that provides a technical support plan along with monthly action plan. Premium support tiers for IBM infrastructure include remote code load.
Higher levels of customized support are available with additional options for Enterprise Governance Support. Options include a trusted cross-platform advisor who acts as a single point of contact across the data center to drive things such as availability management, hardware and software delivery management, inventory and vendor management, and transition and implementation management.
TLS’s range of support is intended to allow clients to customize their end-to-end support strategy to meet their specific business needs. Each level of support removes additional layers of risk for the client, providing more insights, prioritization, proactive recommendations and hands on delivery. Whether you are looking for basic break and fix or full hands on assistance with maintaining and optimizing your data center assets, TLS can help.
SERVICES
Infrastructure services are designed to assist clients across the product lifecycle for their servers, storage and networking. This starts with advisory services on design. TLS offers architectural design services to help design infrastructure solutions that meet client needs. Once the solution is designed, you can count on TLS to build the solution. That means installation and de-installation services, as well as deployment and configuration services.
Once products are built, it’s a good idea to focus on optimization. That includes conducting regular health checks to assess best practices and identifying areas of improvement to mitigate security and performance risks. Quick health checks are available for IBM and non-IBM servers and storage for basic operational and performance including the review of processes, procedures, and configurations to identify potential single points of failure, and the review of machine logs, records, and trends to isolate chronic problems. Health checks include the development of action plans to avoid or minimize the impact of unplanned outages.
Optimizing the data center includes ensuring existing solutions are sustainable and that disposal processes follow industry regulations. TLS offers services to manage sustainable disposal of IT assets with, in some cases, the potential to get back service credits for the recouped value of the assets.
Then, there is the day-to-day management of data center operations. Sometimes you just need help with basic tasks – either because you run a remote data center or to free up your IT staff for more strategic tasks. TLS field technicians can help you with operational activities like power cycling servers, confirming the status of system indicators, inserting/removing backup tape cartridges, validating port connections or performing activity on hot pluggable devices. They can also help with systems configuration changes and re-imaging.
Moving, upgrading or consolidating your data center(s)? TLS provides site relocation services to manage and execute the end to end breakdown and set up of your data center. These tasks are available services under IBM Project Services for Infrastructure.
TLS can also take on strategic support roles to assist clients with hardware and software delivery, vendor management, change management, availability management, inventory, and overall IT asset management. IBM works with clients to customize the services they most need to complement their IT staff’s management of the data center, providing assurance that new IT initiatives won’t be impeded by the day-to-day management tasks.
INSIGHTS
IBM Support Insights standard version is included with base maintenance contracts. It consists of three major modules: Inventory Management, Risks and Recommendations, and Case Metrics. Inventory Management helps clients reduce the complexity of managing inventory, providing visibility to where IT assets are located and relevant information related to those assets such as coverage status, so they can renew their support contracts on time. Risks and Recommendations provides analysis of inventory risk and provides recommendations to decrease overall IT risk. These recommendations focus on 4 categories: security vulnerabilities, support coverage, OS and firmware levels, and hardware end of service information. Finally Case Metrics enable clients to analyze the volume of cases, how many cases they created and closed during a certain period, case volume by severity, and average time from created to closed.
CONCLUSION
When you combine predictive insights to avoid problems before they occur with services to increase data center availability and security and reduce support risk with a simplified, holistic support experience you get an integrated data center support strategy which is a foundation you know you can count on. Find out more about IBM Technology Lifecycle Services from our ebook – Optimize your infrastructure with technology lifecycle services.
Join the IBM TLS community in TechXchange to get updates on our support and services offerings, together with tips and tricks to get the most out of your infrastructure.
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