What Does 24x7xNBD Support Mean for Your Business?

If you’ve been managing a data center for years now, you’ve probably had to deal with long wait times to resolve technical issues. This can be very stressful when dealing with sensitive data; waiting a week for a solution to any faults in your system can be devastating and can cost your company a lot of money. 

With 24x7xNBD support, long wait times are a thing of the past. 24x7xNBD support is a very popular Service Level Agreement (SLA). This coverage stipulates support 24 hours a day, seven days a week, with a maximum 24-hour response window for next business day replacement parts. 

When dealing with mission-critical systems or high failure rate components, it’s known ahead of time that equipment malfunctions or parts replacements will need to be addressed immediately. Enter 24x7xNBD coverage. If you’re an IT manager looking for a fast and reliable third party maintenance solution, keep reading to find out how 24x7xNBD support can help your business.  

What Does 24x7xNBD Mean? 

Service Level Agreements are contracts between support service providers and customers where there is an agreed-upon timeline for the quality, availability of the services provided. Thus, the “24×7” pertains to our 24 hours a day, seven days a week help desk and monitoring availability, and the “NBD” refers to our next business day parts delivery. 

This means that when replacement parts are processed for shipping before the end of business day (EOB), they should be available at your organization’s location the following day before closure of business (COB). For Level 1, 2, and 3 support customers, this equipment can also be hand-delivered by a field engineer who can then help install/replace the non-performing equipment if necessary. 

Providers typically maintain at least 24 hours to acknowledge that a ticket has been opened (and then either overnight a spare and forward tracking information, or for more complicated tickets, engage an engineer to begin working your incident). In most cases, engineers can respond within 30 minutes or less. So, from the moment you submit a support request, you can rest assured that an engineer is working on responding to your ticket, while having already started diagnosing the issue remotely. 

What Does a 24x7xNBD Support Contract Include? 

24x7xNBD support can include help desk, monitoring (optional), full parts replacement, spares kits, access to Tier IV engineers, onsite engineering, hardware break/fix, troubleshooting, and remedial software support. 

Clients can generally open tickets or request parts replacement by simply emailing their customer service representative. Another important thing to note is that providers will typically avoid quoting an interested party 24x7xNBD services if they don’t think they can meet those standards in the service level agreement. 

When Is 24x7xNBD Support My Best Option?  

Devices that Are EOSL 

It’s well understood that systems 5 years or older are usually no longer supported by the manufacturer. But in addition to no longer qualifying for OEM first-party maintenance, EOSL devices are also very difficult to find aftermarket parts for. However, at Park Place Technologies, we have you covered. With thousands of spare parts locations around the globe, we have access to premium quality spare parts from almost every server, storage, and switch manufacturer, from systems ranging anywhere between 5 and 15 years of age. 

Higher Fail Rate Components 

It’s no secret that a disk drive (or ten) is going to fail on you over the years. The best way to combat this kind of expected downtime is by including parts replacement in your SLA. 

Mission Critical Hardware 

Mission-critical refers to systems that contain especially vulnerable hardware where any fault could significantly disrupt the day-to-day operations of a business. This is the last thing you want as an IT manager. If you’re dealing with mission-critical hardware, having access to onsite support while also establishing remote hardware monitoring is critical. Thankfully, this is what Park Place Technologies clients can expect when securing a 24x7xNBD support service level agreement.  

What If I Don’t Need All Those Benefits?  

All data centers have complex systems with a wide variety of different hardware. Not all equipment will require 24/7 monitoring with a four-hour response time window. And conversely, data centers will also have systems that will require much more than just NBD parts.  

While the OEM may like to think so, not every system is the same, and there is no one size fits all approach when it comes to supporting a data center. This is why here at Park Place, we offer three common SLAs that are built to accommodate the different needs of each individual IT manager and data center. 

Different Service Level Agreements 

Our three base service level agreements offer varying degrees of service response time and hardware; these adjustable service levels allow you to increase or decrease service timeliness and add or drop equipment from your contract at any time to align with shifting data center needs. By prioritizing SLA flexibility, we ensure our clients can get the services they need without having to spend on the features they don’t: 

Level 1 – 7/24/4 

7 days a week, 24 hours a day, reaction within 4 hours 

• 7×24 Help Desk 
• 7×24 Monitoring 
• Initial Phone-Based Diagnosis 
• Field Engineer on-site (if required) within 4 hours after customer contact 
• On-Site Spares Kit 

• Parts Replacement 
• Certified Experts 

Level 2 – 5/9/4 

8 hours a day, 5 working days per week, reaction within 4 hours 

• 8am-5pm Help Desk 

• 8am-5pm Monitoring 
• Initial Phone-Based Diagnosis 
• Field Engineer on-site (if required) within 4 hours after customer contact 
• On-Site Spares Kit 
• Parts Replacement 

• Certified Experts 

Level 3 – Next Day 

Next business day response/parts 

• Initial Phone-Based Diagnosis  
• Field Engineer on-site (if required) the following business day after customer contact 

• On-Site Spares Kit 
• Parts Replacement 
• Certified Experts 

Secure Your 24x7xNBD Support Today 

According to Gartner, the average cost of IT downtime is around $5,600 per minute. Consequently, the speed at which IT is able to resolve data center outages can be the difference between minimal delays and critical downtime. Don’t go it alone. Get the highly responsive third party hardware maintenance your mission critical equipment requires and talk to a Park Place representative about our Next Day support option today!