Challenge:Â Aging, dated mainframe and storage were losing vendor support
Objective:Â Upgrade to modern, vendor-supported mainframe and storage
Industry:Â Direct Marketing
Solution: PSR Systems Programming and IBM Business Partner Solutions for z Systems
Scenario:
The customer had been operating for some time with an unsupported zOS release, and had concluded that it was not upgradeable. Even if they could upgrade their zOS installation, they realized, the hardware they had in place would not support the most recent zOS version. Conflictingly, they could not upgrade their zOS without new hardware, and they could not migrate to new hardware with their existing zOS release.
Approach:
PSR found an innovative solution to the customer’s dilemma. PSR proposed using the PSR zOS System Build Service to pre-stage a zOS upgrade at the PSR data center. PSR further recommended upgrading the customer’s hardware simultaneously with hardware from IBM, thereby gaining the advantage of a significant IBM discount.
PSR then had the customer’s IBM hardware shipped from IBM to a PSR data center. There, PSR customized the new IBM z/13s to the customer’s specifications. The customer was able to perform a full verification and acceptance test and implement both the new z13s and the new zOS release all at once.
Result:
As a result of PSR project planning, system upgrade services, and pre-testing, the onsite transition to the new IBM solution took less than a day. The customer reported high satisfaction with the result and noticed a performance improvement immediately.