Companies value Power i IBM i for its exceptional stability. Power i provides a legendary trusted platform from hardware to database level architecture. For this reason, many organizations use it to run business-critical applications.
We also know companies that accidentally shut down their Power i server during an ongoing project; They didn’t understand where they got wrong, but instantly system started working flawlessly without much attention. But we must say, they are fortunate!
Companies need to remember that a reliable system like Power i that powers IBM iSeries AS400 still needs a proper support strategy. Like any technology, Power i still need maintenance and careful monitoring. This maintenance helps prevent serious malpractices that can be very costly. A knowledgeable service provider’s smart power maintenance strategy will provide significant ROI compared to the cost of small breakdowns affecting business continuity.
Need of Maintaining your Power i Platform
The Power iSeries AS400 platform is so stable that it can create organizational solutions. Many companies run their systems for years without restarting. While the system has been working with minimal intervention over the years, it’s not a good practice to forget that it still needs occasional maintenance. In our experience, some companies completely stop monitoring the Power i environment.
Despite the credibility of the well-known platform, abandoning the maintenance strategy altogether is still surprisingly risky. Like any technology, IBM i servers can fail.
Do they often fail? No.
But can things go wrong? Absolutely.
These systems always support business-critical applications, and the cost of such applications can be preventive in case of failure.
We had a client whose operations were ongoing and who was enjoying steady business as usual from their IBM AS400 iSeries-based applications. But suddenly, the drive-in Power iSeries server failed, and error messages were not checked.
In this case, the failed protection measures created in the operating system prevented the system from crashing. However, with one drive of commission, the error margin of the system was effectively reduced to zero, with no other drives available. Additional drives are causing problems. The second failure would have caused the system to collapse, a very costly failure that would have brought the business down.
According to Gartner, the average IT downtime cost is $ 5,600 per minute (more than $ 300,000 per hour). Of course, this number can vary greatly depending on the type of business. The server failure results in a production line stoppage, or a warehouse is forced to shut down and cannot deliver the product, even a relatively short downtime can seriously damage the bottom and the company’s reputation.
When the cost of failure is high, smart monitoring and maintenance strategy for IBM iSeries AS400 systems is always a valuable investment. The expenses involved in maintaining performance and preventing serious losses are directly related to maintaining the continuity of these core operations.
Strategy for Maintaining Power i Infrastructure
Fortunately, high-quality support does not require a team of expert IT staff 24*7. Power iSeries system maintenance requires some focused effort from a knowledgeable team with the right process on board.
Daily attention is also necessary to ensure that these business-critical systems avoid costly failures. This means, for example, making sure that the backups are working correctly and that any error messages generated by the system are resolved. Due to the built-in stability of Power iSeries, as400 is particularly suited to an economic support strategy that monitors remotely and solves system problems.
The quality managed service provider must have all the resources at a reasonable cost to monitor and maintain the Power i running the IBM iSeries AS400 system. This price is a higher return on investment compared to the one-day cost of unplanned system downtime. Based on the numbers discussed above, the cost of a single, often serious failure of a whole decade of IBM iSeries AS400 managed services can be driven at the enterprise level by a team with in-depth knowledge of the platform.
We’ve written about the intelligent approach of remote monitoring to support our managed service clients. This is an excellent example of intelligent automation and 24/7 monitoring that can dramatically reduce the risk of business-critical systems failing.
If you’re interested in learning about how Integrative Systems provide cost-effective services to manage IBM iSeries and minimize business disruptions. In that case, you can connect with the experts at [email protected]
