Extending the Life of Network Equipment
Park Place Hardware Maintenance
Utilizing third party maintainers is an effective way to contain data center costs and get the help you need when you need it for your networking equipment.
IT managers are facing increasing cost containment pressures to keep their organization’s budget in check. Therefore, when it comes to making data center decisions, refreshing networking hardware after the initial warranty expires is placed under greater scrutiny than ever before. Besides a complete hardware refresh, IT managers have various other options, but come with caveats.
- Renewing with the OEM: According to a recent Gartner research note, “Vendors will generally accept orders for the product for six months after the announcement, until the EOS date. After EOS, they will generally provide software and hardware support for the product for a total of five years.”* In many cases, the working life of networking hardware can be extended beyond the service agreement terms that the OEMs are willing to offer, thus sacrificing additional cost savings opportunities.
- Self-maintaining equipment: As noted above, budgetary constraints may not accommodate the resources required to provide in-house support, the purchase of spare parts, and the cost of possible relicensing fees.
- Cloud-based solutions: A thorough risk assessment related to security, the type of application, and other factors may prove this to be an unattractive option.
Another option would be to partner with a third-party maintainer (TPM). TPMs like Park Place Technologies can help maintain data center hardware for as long as it’s needed. The end of a warranty doesn’t mean the end of the equipment’s lifecycle. In fact, more times than not, equipment can maintain its useful life for up to a decade or longer. In research note, “Know When It’s Time to Replace Enterprise Network Equipment”*, Gartner provides estimates of the useful life for various networking equipment types that are supported by Park Place:
- “LAN switches and branch routers typically have MTBF (Mean Time Between Failure) that are in the 10-year-or-longer range.”
- “Useful life of workgroup switching has increased to seven to 10 year due to limited lifetime warranties offered by several vendors, increasing MTBF and largely stable access layer requirements.”
Enhanced Networking Support from Park Place Technologies
Not only does Park Place provide the service and support needed to keep data center hardware running at maximum uptime, we offer Enhanced Network Support (ENS) for OEM network equipment including Cisco, Juniper, Brocade, and Enterasys. By providing a robust TAC (Technical Assistance Center), Park Place can resolve your hardware issues faster all while increasing uptime, decreasing IT costs and increasing margins. With Park Place’s ENS, you receive the following:
- Experienced TAC Engineers: When you call into Park Place’s domestic 24/7 contact center, you receive direct access to our TAC engineers for hardware issues and configurations. TAC engineers at Park Place hold OEM certifications including CCNP, CCDP, CCSP, and CCIE.
- Access to Hardware and Flexible SLAs: Our globally distributed parts inventory allows for easy access and replacement according to Park Place’s flexible SLAs that fit your organization’s needs.
To learn more about Park Place’s Enhanced Network Support offering, contact us today.