In many ways, a data center maintenance program is a lot like comprehensive health insurance. Most of the time, you don't need it, but when an emergency happens, every single minute counts. However, it doesn't matter how good your health insurance is if you don't have the best doctors and treatment at the right time. While many insurance plans look the same on the outside, it's the services they make available that make the difference. It's the same with data center maintenance programs: Many look the same on the outside, but in an emergency, the services they provide can be vastly different.
Some of the biggest differences are those between OEM and third party maintenance (3PM) programs. A brief look at OEM and third party maintenance (3PM) reveals opportunities to save money, time and peace of mind.
OEM Maintenance: Time Is Not on Your Side
An OEM maintenance package comes with strict time limits that often end before you need them. For the first year to three years, you may get relatively solid coverage from an OEM provider. However, your data center infrastructure is going to be at risk after that initial period.
Third Party Maintenance: Time After Time
With 3PM, however, you can subscribe to a comprehensive program that lasts long after your OEM warranty time has elapsed. Instead of watching the clock tick on a brief OEM maintenance program, you can set it and forget it for up to a decade or longer.
OEM Maintenance: A Conflict of Interest
If there’s one thing data center maintenance and car maintenance have in common it’s an inherent conflict of interest. The job of the manufacturer is to sell equipment. It’s therefore in their best interests to sell you new equipment instead of help maintain equipment you’ve already paid for. Further, if their maintenance efforts fail, they still win because you may “have no choice” but to purchase more equipment from the manufacturer.
Third Party Maintenance: Transparent Customer Service
With third party maintenance, the company you’re partnering with has one mission: Keep your current system running. They don’t benefit from the fallback option of having you buy more equipment.
Save Money with Third Party Maintenance
Maintenance programs run by an OEM such as Cisco’s Smartnet, come with a hefty price tag. Opting for a Smartnet alternative for your network hardware’s maintenance will cost you less in both the short- and long-term. One of the most powerful ways a qualified 3PM program saves you money is by leveraging a worldwide network of sparing depots.
More Sparing Depots = Less Downtime
If you have ever experienced a problem with network hardware, you have an intimate understanding of the phrase, “Time is money.” A 3PM provider with a global network of depots packed with spare parts is more likely to have a hardware solution that is both on-target and locally-sourced. With replacement parts close-by, your downtime is minimized. Further, if a potential problem is spotted by the 3PM provider, grabbing a replacement part can happen in a matter of hours as opposed to days or weeks.
Third party maintenance gives you access to critical services that OEM maintenance programs simply can’t provide—and at a fraction of the cost. Reach out today to learn more about the OneCall Maintenance offering from PivIT Global.