EMC Centera End of Life Support

End of life for archival storage systems can waylay an IT organization, but with EMC Centera end of life support from Park Place Technologies, you can get back on the road to IT savings and performance. Here’s how.

Centera Migration Challenges Common

Long-term EMC Centera support is perhaps more enticing than other end-of-life support because of the complications most customers face in upgrading to other storage systems, including ones from EMC itself. As Storage Mojo says, “I know EMC made it difficult to leave their Centera system for competitive systems, but making it difficult to leave for another EMC product seems perverse.”

An EMC employee responded to say that the difficulty is understandable. “Migrating from Centera can be complex due to the nature of the system, it’s is an object storage system…which means that the applications that store their objects on them need to be adapted in the process so that they understand where to go looking for the objects upon recall.Also, Centera is frequently used as a compliance storage system, which in turn means that there might be chain of custody for objects involved as well.”

Understandable or not, avoiding the complexity of data migration has great appeal to IT organizations. Especially when the archival data maintained on the content-addressable storage system isn’t accessed frequently and the applications that rely on it aren’t particularly latency-sensitive, there seems little reason to go through the hassle. Except a lack of support options, which had plagued the market for years.

True, for some time, there were few EMC-alternative support providers available, but Park Place recently answered market demand with a comprehensive Centera support solution. Added to our already popular EMC support offerings, these contracts are helping clients avoid unnecessary upgrades and reap more ROI from older Centeras.

Like a Combination of Volvo and Ferrari

When clients are considering keeping an end of life system in service, their first concern is generally reliability. They want a support provider along the lines of Volvo, putting the safety and availability of their data first. Park Place helps clients maximize uptime with:

• 24/7 remote monitoring. Daily diagnostics ensure we are always in contact with client systems and are notified at the first sign of trouble. We then intervene to resolve issues before they cascade into huge problems.
• Certified spare parts with on-site installation.As systems age, it becomes more likely that components can fail. Park Place responds within guaranteed, client-selected SLAs, and an engineer arrives on site with certified spare parts in hand for repairs that last.
• Proactive maintenance. The best type of problem is the one that doesn’t happen at all. With a free, up-front systems analysis, quarterly reviews of trouble calls, and consistent personalized service, Park Place helps clients avoid problems that bring systems down.

Once the basics are in place, clients begin to worry about speed and efficiency. They don’t want to have to think twice about whether a particular need is covered. And they certainly don’t want to waste time working their way up a phone tree to reach support personnel who can help. They just want the issue solved, and fast. Park Place speeds things along with:

• Escalation process-free access to Level 3 support.Every question and trouble ticket is answered by a Level 3 engineer. There’s never a reason to speak with lesser personnel or to wait for a response, simply because the provider deems the severity level to be low. Park Place clients get help immediately.
• Assigned account engineer. The same Level 3 engineer arrives for every on-site call, whether to replace components or help with troubleshooting. Because he or she already knows the environment and understands the client needs, the response is quicker and more effective.
• Expertise and more expertise. Often the greatest slowdown in support comes from less than knowledgeable engineers. Park Place avoids this by hiring only Level 3 personnel, matching client needs and covered systems to engineers’ background, and ensuring engineers keep up to date with continual training. Together, these measures mean clients don’t suffer through trial and error and “let me call someone” responses. They get solutions right away.

Want to know what else is fast? Changing over to Park Place’s EMC Centera maintenance. Get a quote right on this page or contact us for help designing your customized Centera support solution.