Rationalize your IT Maintenance Spend with Third-party Storage Maintenance Services

Posted by The Team at CXtec on Jul 1, 2022 2:40:49 AM

Storage arrays are a critical part of the storage network and offer various advantages such as real-time data availability,...

Storage arrays are a critical part of the storage network and offer various advantages such as real-time data availability, resiliency through redundant components, and ease of maintenance. In short, they provide greater flexibility to the storage operators managing the stored data. Keeping these storage systems healthy and running at optimal performance is one of the top priorities of businesses today. However, the ever-increasing costs associated with buying, updating, and maintaining storage infrastructure directly from the Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) is the major challenge. Due to overpriced and frequently restrictive OEM support contracts, organizations have started moving towards an excellent alternative to manufacturer support services, known as Third-Party Maintenance (TPM) providers.

Partnering with TPM can grant your organization benefits and savings that OEMs cannot offer. Besides offering substantial savings, they provide post-warranty or extended support for your legacy storage infrastructure. TPM includes everything from online technical support to component coverage and replacement, on-site engineering assistance, remote monitoring, global multi-vendor support, and even proactive maintenance with various cost-management strategies.

What Does Third-party Storage Maintenance Cover?

TPM storage maintenance covers a broad spectrum of activities to keep your storage arrays operational and available round the clock.

Find out how RapidCare® helps organizations save up to 70% compared to OEM extended warranties

  • Routine Maintenance: Routine maintenance involves tasks that you perform periodically, such as running a media scan, resetting a controller, running a redundancy check, and locating drives. This helps to detect issues proactively and ensures that the storage arrays run smoothly.
  • Performance Tuning: As storage arrays exchange data between the systems and the drives, their performance degrades over time. TPM providers monitor and optimize the operational settings on the storage arrays, such as segment size and cache parameters, to help improve their overall performance.
  • Troubleshooting and Diagnostics: Sometimes, storage arrays exhibit abnormal operations, errors, and failures. The role of TPM is to diagnose the issue and identify the cause of the problem. Many TPM providers also offer detailed error reports based on support data and drive data.
  • Recovery Operations: Many TPM provides recovery operations that include repairing and replacing the spare parts of the storage arrays, such as a failed canister, controller, or a drive. Moreover, they can perform tasks such as restoring data and optimizing the operational mode of the storage array to return it to an operational state.
  • Multiple Complex Contracts: Companies commonly purchase IT assets from various OEMs and deal with numerous contracts. Managing different agreements and collaborating with multiple service providers to discuss policies, renewal dates, length of service, etc., can be complicated and confusing. It requires additional time, effort, resources, and complex paperwork.

Benefits of Partnering with Third-Party Storage Maintenance Providers

Most TPM providers offer benefits such as 24×7 technical support, worldwide coverage, high availability of spare parts, certified engineers, and more. Let's look at how partnering with third-party storage maintenance providers can benefit your organization.

  • Single Point of Contact: Having a single point of contact for all your storage maintenance needs ensures you aren’t left in the middle of a hardware crisis. Depending on the TPM provider you choose, you get extended support for all your storage maintenance requests, eliminating the need to deal with multiple service providers. This saves a lot of time and reduces paperwork to a much more manageable level.
  • Lightning-fast Services: Third-party service providers maintain a team of experts who offer great technical, on-site support at lightning speed. They develop in-depth expertise through extensive, ongoing training and real-world maintenance and servicing experience from multiple manufacturers. Moreover, reputed TPM providers also follow the critical procedures and escalation practices to ensure accountability and client satisfaction at every level.
  • Flexible Service Agreements: Third-party maintenance providers offer rigid, long-term, flexible service agreements that include quick-to-field dispatch of high-quality replacement parts, allowing clients to define SLAs and coverage on a per-asset basis. Moreover, gaining services from TPM providers will enable you to pay only for the services you need.
  • Extended Equipment Lifespan: Storage arrays have a much longer life and can remain productive for several years even after their End Of Service Lifecycle (EOSL) date if appropriately maintained. Here is when third-party maintenance providers come into the picture. They work on keeping storage arrays functional for as long as possible by offering hardware break-fix coverage to help maximize your return on investment.
  • Low-cost Maintenance Services: As the data continues to grow at phenomenal rates, the vast majority of an IT budget goes towards maintaining and upscaling existing storage assets, especially if you receive these services directly from OEMs. Third-party maintenance services, on the other hand, provide an extremely cost-effective alternative to reduce the overall maintenance spend. They offer a similar level of service and support that are typically less expensive than the OEM service expenditure. Furthermore, your organization can utilize the savings to fund new strategic initiatives to achieve the budgetary flexibility needed.

How RapidCare® by CXtec Keeps Your Storage Arrays Operational?

Storage infrastructure needs quick and effective maintenance and replacement services for the failed drive or faulty spare parts through experienced technical experts who follow standard industry practice and service protocols. CXtec, a vendor-agnostic partner with over 40 years of experience in the industry, offers flexible and customized support and maintenance services that fit within the IT budget of any organization. CXtec RapidCare focuses on delivering quality storage maintenance services to ensure that your infrastructure gear is error-free, performing well, up-to-date, scalable, and has a longer life. With its well-trained field technicians, skilled at break-fix hardware remediation, CXtec ensures to keep your storage investments low for longer as compared to your OEM partner.

To know more about our low-cost storage array maintenance services, visit the page: https://www.cxtec.com/services/rapidcare

Understand the lifecycle and best practices of hardware asset management