After a recent announcement, the word is slowly rippling through the IBM user community: IBM will be discontinuing support for IBM i 7.1 on April 30, 2018.
Mind the Gap: 3 Risks You Could Face With a Traditional Managed Service Provider
Posted by Larry Dube
For major projects like an IBM i system upgrade, most companies will readily recognize the need for specialized, outsourced services. In many cases, this means seeking out a traditional managed service provider (MSP) to handle the system essentials – from performing the upgrade, to troubleshooting system problems, to ensuring stable OS performance. For the same project, that same company may also need application expertise and support — in other words, an additional resource to perform the application upgrades that are required to stay compatible with the upgraded OS.
Tags: IBM i Platform, Managed Services
How SMBs Can Address Specific IT Needs with a Flexible IBM i Managed Services Provider
Posted by Dave Kravitt, CPIM
When it comes to IBM i managed services, most small and mid-sized businesses think big – perhaps a little too big. Given the broad range of system and OS support services many MSPs offer, people often make the mental leap from handling everything in-house to outsourcing all IT-related processes and equipment. From hardware to hosting to backup, analysis and other support services, they’ll automatically envision an all-or-nothing approach to hiring an MSP. When outsourcing seems like such a major undertaking, companies with smaller, more intermittent needs tend to avoid the process altogether.
Tags: IBM i Platform, Managed Services
The decision on whether to outsource support for enterprise resource planning and other business systems can be a difficult one, depending on the complexity of the overall IT environment and whatever vendor support agreement may or may not be in place. Often the decision revolves around money – in most cases you would be spending significantly less with a third-party support company. Although cost is always a top concern and the driving force behind many decisions to outsource support, if you are considering outsourcing support, there are other areas besides cost to consider to improve your system support ROI. Support should be more than an insurance policy, it should be one of the elements in your foundation for success. If that is not what you are getting now, perhaps a third party solution should be a consideration.
