IBM zSeries Server Maintenance

Extend your hardware asset life cycle with a third-party maintenance strategy.

Overview

Curvature is recognized as a global top performer for independent third-party maintenance and support for servers within the data center.

Curvature IBM zSeries and System z hardware maintenance and support service provides organizations with an independent IBM alternative for post-warranty IT hardware support on mission-critical, non-critical, and disaster recovery IT assets throughout North America, Asia and Europe. Instead of replacing your IBM mainframe unnecessarily when the warranty period ends, rely on us to help you get the most from your IBM zSeries investment.

Raising the bar to provide more value.

What makes our IBM zSeries maintenance and support service so strong is our people, parts, process, and large investment in our zSeries support infrastructure. We don’t just fix failing IBM equipment; we raise the bar to its zenith by providing expert guidance, creating innovative solutions and building advanced support tools that ensure the highest quality service, delivered consistently across your enterprise.

Our mission is to enable IT freedom to our customers by removing pain points and identifying areas to improve both quality and efficiency throughout our relationship.

Business Benefits

Extend the lifespan of your equipment and postpone technology refresh
Contract and vendor consolidation with flexible contract terms, meaning you can mix and match service levels within a single location
Products supported as long as parts are available
Faster call-to-dispatch times
Reduce hardware costs by 50% or more (lowering OpEx)
MCL review and guidance
Our proprietary call-home support application, Remote Enterprise Monitoring® (REM)

zSeries Supported

Manufacturer	Family	Platform
IBM	zSeries	z900, z800, z990, z890, z9EC, z9BC, z10EC, z10BC, z196, z114, z12EC, z12BC, z13, z13s, z14 and z14 zR1

Contact us today to discuss the best option for you.

Contact

Standard Features

Onsite labor
Onsite parts replacement
Remote and onsite troubleshooting
Call-home Monitoring
MCL Review and Guidance
Our proprietary call-home support application, Remote Enterprise Monitoring (REM)

Optional Features

Dedicated spares onsite
Dedicated labor onsite
Defective media retention
Software support
Hardware upgrades with installation services
Asset disposition

Enhanced Software Support Solutions

Level 3 telephone support through strategic alliances with organizations specializing on these platforms.

Curvature can provide enhanced support solutions for the following operating systems software:

IBM: z/OS, OS/390, VM, z/VM, z Linux VSE/ESA, z/VSE) and IBM sub system software (CICS, CICS TS, DB2, IMS DB/DC, MQSeries, Websphere

Eliminate the need to go back to the manufacturer for a software support agreement and review your options beforehand.

Why Curvature

Meet Curvature

800+ badged field engineers (less than 5% contracted labor)
Global central engineering team provides development, training, and Level 3 support
Wholly owned spare parts inventory (non-shared logistics) located around the globe in 100+ service centers
Continual hands-on technical training conducted in our labs on live gear
Comprehensive development methodology to define support capabilities for all roadmap products, prior to support commitment

Customer Resoures

ClearView™

Identify support risks and make maintenance strategy recommendations with ClearView™

singlePoint

Track service activity and make contract management simple.

Remote Enterprise Monitoring (REM)

Decrease IT involvement by using Curvature’s automated event management system to process hardware notifications and fixes.

Recognized by Gartner as a “Top Performer” in Data Center Third-Party Maintenance.

“Curvature has always been there for me with what I need. I can always count on my account manager to provide me with good solutions for hardware I need, when I need it, at a price point that is hard to beat with a lifetime warranty to boot!"

—Network Operation Engineer, Healthcare Company

Reclaimed 1000 Days Per Year

Reduced Capital Expenses by 75%

Do you have qualified engineers to support/work on IBM mainframes and POWER systems?

Yes. Our field engineers have numerous years of IBM mainframe and POWER experience. Some of our engineers have joined Curvature with previous manufacturer training and experience. Our Level 3 CE team has a combined over 150 years of experience working on IBM mainframes and POWER systems. They provide backline support to our field engineering teams globally. Our CE team also provides hands-on training to our field operations teams in our Prior Lake, MN office. This training is able to be delivered by leveraging our $5 million investment in our live mainframe and POWER environment.

Where are your spare parts kept?

Curvature currently has over 100 brick-and-mortar service centers around the globe. Within these offices, our field engineers have the ability to bring known good, tested, parts out to site. FEs typically have access to live running systems which they can utilize to ensure that the highest quality spares are brought onsite for incident remediation. All high-failure and non-redundant spare parts are kept in the local offices. Low-failure/redundant parts (such as MRUs) are kept in the regional offices. The majority of all spare zSeries parts come directly from the IBM Parts Order Center. In most cases, spare parts are new, serviceable used, or refurbished/re-certified. Curvature mimics IBM’s parts handling and usage practices intended for hardware repair.

Is call-home included in support?

Yes. Depending on your environment and security concerns, we have the ability to deploy different versions of our proprietary REM call-home tool. Most client environments are suitable for our REM 2.0 solution, which requires that a small appliance reside on the zSeries HMC network. The value-add of this solution is how it provides outbound service data to senior-level support teams. The service data contains current MCL levels and configuration details (such as model number, serial number, and error details), which aids in quickly diagnosing hardware problems. In addition to error alerts, the support team will receive “predictive failure” and “degraded mode” messages. The appliance can be configured to communicate directly to internet or through a proxy with authentication. If additional security is required, the appliance can be configured to encrypt outbound data.

Does your company have access to IBM z MCL – SUL (Firmware) updates?

Yes. Curvature can order MCL updates directly from IBM TSMO (Technical Support Management Office) on our client’s behalf. Curvature’s Level 3 Central Engineering team has frequent communication with IBM TSMO as MCLs are released by IBM. These updates are optional for clients, but are highly recommended for z families z196 and newer.

Is z/OS or software support included?

No. We recommend clients keep any type of software (SWMA), z/OS, and software Xcel in place with IBM. We offer Level 3 telephone support via a strategic partner.

How many mainframes do you have under support?

As of today, Curvature is supporting over 200 mainframes worldwide.