Dell EMC Unity Support

Park Place Hardware Maintenance


Case Allin December 03, 2019

Unity has been among the fastest-growing storage arrays in Dell EMC history.

Great news for Dell EMC Unity storage customers. New third party maintenance (TPM) options are coming January 1, 2020!

That’s when Park Place Technologies launches our comprehensive Unity support. And you can prepare for a great New Year in the data center by getting a quote now on our cost-saving, uptime-maximizing storage Dell EMC Unity maintenance solution. Use that yellow box above to start a conversation about the costs and advantages of Park Place TPM for your Unity 300/300F, 400/400F, 500/500F, or 600/600F equipment.

Steeped in EMC Technology

Unity is a relative newcomer to the Dell EMC storage lineup. Introduced in 2016, Unity is the successor to the much heralded VNX, delivering a 300% performance boost, a 50% energy efficiency improvement, and a nice reduction in form factor over the earlier series.

Unity also reaches further back into EMC history. The platform draws the “data mover” NAS functionality originally developed for the Celerra, but Unity moves it into the software for easier hardware set-up and file system upgrades. Unity storage arrays come in two varieties, hybrid systems with flash SSDs and magnetic HDDs both (Unity 300, 400, 500, and 600 models) and the all-flash version (300F, 400F, 500F, and 600F products).

Taking little more than a year to reach $1 billion in sales, Unity has been among the fastest-growing storage arrays in Dell EMC history. Now nearly four years out from product introduction, there are thousands of customers around the world on the precipice of an important long-term support decision.

The Tipping Point for TPM

Gartner research suggests (in this white paper) that four years after a product’s release is the best time to switch to TPM. At that point, systems are stable and OEM code updates become highly unlikely, so customers who stick with the OEM wind up paying a premium for support but no longer gaining full value from that investment.

The opportunity to slash 50% off of an OEM contract at this point in the lifecycle means plenty of years left to save with TPM, and the budget impacts really add up. That Park Place also improves the support experience—accelerating time-to-resolution, for example—makes the choice even easier.

There are also advantages in keeping ahead of end of support life (EOSL). The date when the OEM will no longer offer maintenance contracts on a piece of hardware always seem to creep up, and suddenly, data center managers must rush to judgment regarding continued service life, upgrades, and support.

Dell EMC’s Unity line isn’t exactly careening toward EOSL, but the 300F, 400F, 500F, and 600F will all meet this milestone on January 31, 2023. Examining support options as soon as 2020 makes great sense, positioning a customer for savings and long-term maintenance stability.

The Convenience Multi-Vendor Support

Of course, for customers already enjoying the Park Place Technologies maintenance advantage, there is a final reason to move Unity hardware to our TPM solution—unity. Why not unify more support contracts under the same Park Place umbrella? Doing so:

  • Streamlines contract management, with our Central Park portal serving as a “single pane of glass” to manage every detail
  • Provides access to all the great Park Place Technologies features, including ParkView Automated Support. A fully automated maintenance service that streamlines the hardware support process and helps data centers boost uptime.
  • Accelerates support response by eliminating the need to identify which vendor holds the contract and what their escalation process requires

With Park Place, support becomes seamless and uptime grows. Our comprehensive support solution helps eliminate the constant fire drills strategic and enables data center managers to attend to strategic projects.

If you’re looking to get ahead in 2020, a Park Place support solution for Dell EMC Unity and other storage, server, and networking technology can help. You don’t have to wait for the calendar page to turn over, either. Contact us today!

About the Author

Case Allin, Senior Director of Sales, ParkView & Entuity