We understand the intricacies of paid support for server hardware and correlate the cost of “sheepskin” to its dressing. It's about service support from IBM (Lenovo) , HP and Dell - companies are very actively promoting their own services in this area.

Paid support for the Big Three servers is called differently:

• Support Service (Care Pack) from HP;
• Dell ProSupport ;
• ServicePac in IBM directories. Despite the fact that the x86 server business was sold to Lenovo , the article mentions the IBM brand. This is done to emphasize the fact that the former team is engaged in the service.

For simplicity, we will call them “paid support” or “service contracts”.

Reaction time! = Recovery rate

Studying the input plates, you have already noticed two different concepts - reaction time and recovery time . Contrary to simple logic, manufacturers of server systems tend to separate them and introduce some confusion in the descriptions of paid support.

• For example, the HP Foundation Care 24x7 package ($ 1,389) allows you to contact support around the clock and get a response within 4 hours. But work can begin much later;
• Similarly, with the more expensive HP Proactive Care 24x7 ($ 2,296) . True, it includes an additional service for online diagnostics and updates, but they do not particularly affect the speed of recovery;
• IBM has a Committed Service 24x7 service , which implies a response within 4 hours, but work can begin after 8 hours ($ 2,799) , and in a day ($ 1,291) .

In practice, the reaction time looks like this:

“Thank you for your message! We regret that errors have arisen with the equipment, but we will definitely fix everything. Wait for the response of the engineer »

In the basic assistance packages you can expect a day - another, during which you will be left to yourselves and to the disgruntled management. To get some guarantees, you can choose a more expensive package with a specified recovery time.

But here, not everything is so smooth, because the following factors come into effect:

• Is there a necessary component in the warehouse of the nearest service center (SC)?
• How far is the SC from you? Some manufacturers stipulate certain guaranteed distances, others do not. But if your office is hundreds of kilometers from the regional SC, the recovery time will be measured in days. Plus, you may need to pay for the engineer’s trip;
• Recovery time means only that during this period the engineers from the service will start to deal with your problem. Having ordered support with a recovery time, for example, 4 hours, you are unlikely to get a workable server during this time.

“We ourselves regularly communicate with the support of vendors, so there is some practical experience in this regard. For example, HP and Dell work the fastest - parts were usually brought to us the next day. Among the shortcomings of HP, it is possible to point out only a rather confusing application registration system, with several stages of confirmation ”

In addition to all of the above, it is worth remembering about the additional requirements for advanced packages like HP Proactive Care or Dell ProSupport Plus . Support conditions for them include requirements for a certified installation ($ 100 - 300 per server) and remote access. Of course, this is not so scary, unless you have a state or security agency.

Partners provide service support, not manufacturer

Any service request that requires the personal presence of an engineer goes down to your nearest service center. Often this is the largest system integrator in the region from which you just bought the equipment. Specialists of the manufacturer visit only very large customers with rare systems like the HP Superdome .

“The first seditious thought: once a specialist comes from the same company where the server is purchased, is it worth ordering additional support from the manufacturer? Very interesting question, and we will answer it very soon. ”

In general, both internal and external repair and maintenance engineers have a similar knowledge base and the same set of certificates from the vendor. For example, for repairing IBM System X or HP ProLiant server systems, at least the following qualifications are needed:

• HP Accredited Platform Specialist for HP Proliant Server ;
• IBM Certified Specialist - System x Server Family Technical Support V1 .

See how many requirements you need to fulfill to get them.

Accordingly, any engineer with a similar set of knowledge can come on behalf of HP or IBM to assist. In this example, there is not much point in checking the competence of an engineer, because the vendor does not send service requests to anyone.

More interesting things with the service from the seller. For example, when you buy a restored server, you can be offered your own warranty with a visit to the site and remote assistance. How to make sure the quality of support, if the vendor does not manage it?

You can go two ways:

• Simple - check that the equipment vendor (or its service division) is listed as a vendor as an authorized repair and maintenance partner. To get on such a list is not easy, because the company needs to confirm the presence of engineers with the required qualifications;
• Difficult and rather theoretical. It consists in self-verification of the availability of the necessary certificates from an engineer assigned to you. But in practice, it is never known who exactly will provide support in case of a breakdown (the seller’s staff is probably considerable). Moreover, you hardly want to regularly refresh your knowledge of the certification requirements of the vendor.

It turns out that in terms of technical knowledge, the specialists of the seller and vendor are likely to be on the same level. However, differences in the scope of services for service contracts will be significant.

It is impossible to say unequivocally “buy from N and use their guarantee” or “order servers with proprietary support”, because in each particular offer the balance of pros and cons will be different. To make your choice a little easier, we studied a lot of specifications of HP, IBM, Dell and prepared a pivot table for their packages (see the spoiler at the beginning of the article).

Distance matters

We live in a very large country, where you can go from one end to another for a week. Of course, this could not affect the timing of the provision of technical support, even for money. All manufacturers of the “big three” have a limit on the distance between your office and their service center, which directly depends on compliance with the agreed speed of recovery. But not everyone publishes such information explicitly.

For example, the HP 6 hours CTR (from a large table in the sidebar) are relevant only when the distance to the service partner is no more than 80 km. If you fall into the interval of 80-160 km, then the delay increases by 2 hours. With more distances, we will talk about days and need a separate discussion of this nuance when buying.

“With IBM's support, the situation is ambiguous. For example, we waited for about a month for one cable to connect the second basket to the server, but it was not the right one. The bureaucracy at all stages of the application process is also strained to problems with logistics. It was an unpleasant surprise for us, the inability to quickly reach the engineer. After the series “your call is very important” and “wait, now I will connect with the right specialist” you will be switched to a competent employee, but the problem will have to be repeated many times and for everyone ”

In addition, all the stated dates refer to the situation when the necessary spare parts are in regional warehouse. If this is not the case, then a legitimate increase in four-hour support to two days is possible, for example. And what will happen if the components for replacement are only in production in Europe, I don’t even want to think.

All these nuances with distance should be checked by the manager who sells your equipment with support. But the human factor can enter into the matter, and then you will find out about the impossibility of getting paid service only at the most inappropriate moment. In this regard, only customers of an individual configuration (from the factory) are more or less protected. Since the application is sent directly to the manufacturer, its specialists will certainly check not only the hardware compatibility, but also the possibility of providing the service.

Responsibility for service before the law is the seller

The last thing you want to think about when ordering a new equipment is the poor-quality performance of its warranty obligations by the manufacturer. If in terms of equipment we are somehow protected by the law and the established warranty process of the vendor, then the service is different.

The fact is that service contracts are sold as a commodity. And the seller is responsible for compliance with the expectations before the law. The manufacturer here plays the role of a certain “arbiter” who can somehow influence his partners. But all this is done solely at his discretion, and you can hardly put pressure on the manufacturer.

“But even if you don’t think about very extreme options like a lawsuit, then the question of the expediency of acquiring a service from the manufacturer involuntarily sneaks in, if the work on it will still be done by a partner.
Do you remember that the service partner and the seller are usually the same company? ”

Before answering, let's imagine the situation that you ordered a three-year service with a response time of four hours. That is, they gave a lot of money and expect help in a critical situation. And then the company that sold you the equipment goes bankrupt.

There are 2 options:

• If you purchased a service from the manufacturer, then your request is transferred to another service center and you receive all the necessary services;
• In the case of the service from the seller, you do not get anything and are forced to go to court for compensation. Here, everyone assesses the probability of success, but the time will leave obviously more than the stipulated 4 \ 6 \ 24 hours.

Thus, support from the manufacturer can be viewed as “service virtualization” without being tied to a specific artist. At the same time, the seller’s service can only be sufficient if we are talking about a stable company with an extensive network of representative offices in Russia.

Extended support is also available for refurbished equipment.

Due to the specifics of the business, we can’t get past the issue of support for remanufactured equipment (not to be confused with used ones). The fact is that in matters of support, the vendor considers officially restored equipment as “practically new” and allows you to purchase an official service contract in addition to the standard year of warranty.

However, the purchase of refurbished equipment usually means a desire to save, including on support. So why the seller does not offer their own warranty? At the same time, you can make the recovery more operational and add a couple of “trumps” that are not in the expensive support from the manufacturer.

For example, we managed to achieve the following conditions of a free warranty for equipment sold by the Network Administrator :

As you can see, the reaction rate is even more interesting than many paid options from famous brands. For example, in 2 days you are guaranteed to receive a replacement component, even if we have to personally go to the supplier in the neighboring town, buy it twice as expensive and send it by emergency delivery.

“Do we often change servers in the collection? Only once was this, one of the customers in Izhevsk could not connect to the local console of the server. Moreover, there it was somehow strange - our server found remotely our monitoring and did not detect any problems, even the iLO console worked. But the problem needs to be solved somehow, and we just sent another server with a courier.
And so, each piece of hardware is checked very carefully, to avoid "

All this is possible thanks to :

1. A separate support unit that is not distracted by sales and design work;
2. Work only with the largest courier services that can provide delivery of goods to any part of the Russian Federation in 1-3 days;
3. Special conditions for ordering parts. Thanks to partnering with HP, IBM and Dell regional distributors;
4. Emphasis on the quality of the supplied equipment and its service support.

Let's sum up

The basic set of service contracts for IBM, HP and Dell is generally the same and may include additional services, such as remote proactive monitoring.

Is it a rather expensive service with a new server? It is important to assess the criticality and allowable downtime for applications that will run on it. If you once compiled a table of correspondence of business services to their influence on the company's activities - it's time to remember about this work.

We will issue our recommendations and thoughts in the form of a small summary:

• When choosing a service contract, pay close attention to the figures for reaction time and recovery time . The first in most cases does not guarantee anything;
• Remember that the service from the vendor is still provided by its partners. Therefore, you should not immediately refuse the offers of your supplier in terms of their own services;
• Do not blindly rely on beautiful recovery figures for a couple of hours. We have a huge country and it is important to correlate the remoteness of their office from the service platform. If the seller’s manager didn’t forget to clarify this point, then it’s not a sin to ask;
• Count on the help of the vendor in solving any controversial issues is not worth it. The situation here is similar to the automotive industry - the manufacturer will most likely offer to contact one of their partners, rather than studying your question thoughtfully.