Risk Description

Potential Impact if Risk is Realized

Probability of Occurrence

Response

Downtime risk: Existing production is off-line for 12- to 24-hours while system is being upgraded or migrated to new hardware.

High: In 365x24x7 environment, system will not be available for production, entering orders, or for outside users. Depending on how long it takes to complete an upgrade, this could be a significant amount of time.

High: 100% certain if not avoided or mitigated

Avoidance: If system is configured with a Capacity BackUp (CBU) system, switch over to the CBU while upgrading the production box. Note that you may still experience some downtime while your production machine is being switched over to the CBU and vice versa.

Mitigation: Notify customers in advance that machine will be down. If accessed by Web sites, post warning notices on each site warning of upcoming outage. Perform upgrade in extremely low-traffic hours, such as Sunday morning or on a holiday.

CBU Processing Risk: When switching over to the CBU during an upgrade, CBU is not configured correctly and data is corrupted.

High: If information is not being replicated correctly, processed orders could contain errors.

If the CBU is not correctly certified against source machine, critical files or libraries could be missing or contain old data.

It's also worth noting that many companies have never used their CBU for live processing or in some cases, have never truly tested it. If that's the case, it's imperative that you certify your CBU for live processing before switching over.

Low to Medium: Probability depends on how well tested the CBU is.

Avoidance: Certify the CBU switchover process to provide confidence that it is properly configured to stand-in for production during the upgrade. For more information on CBU certification, see the Related Stories section for my series of articles on certifying a CBU for live switch over.

Mitigation: Keep programming and database support personnel on hand during upgrade switchover to monitor system and correct problems.

Hardware failure risk: New hardware fails after installation and migration.

High: Production systems down.

Low: Power i systems are famously reliable but it is possible there could be a defective component on the new box or that something could have been damaged during shipping or installation.

Avoidance: If possible, power up and run the new hardware for several days to a week before migrating your existing system over. This will give any defective components a chance to fail before you start relying on them for production. Pre-migration activation can be particularly helpful to just let your disk drives spin for a few days to break them in. Note: you may not be able to do for a system upgrade.

Planned Contingency: Switch over to CBU, if available.

Financial risk (Leasing): If leasing, your monthly payments go up on the new machine, perhaps by a significant amount.

Medium: If you are not familiar with lease procedures, it may be difficult to determine if the leasing company is taking advantage of you. Your company may be paying more than it needs to for the new machine and you may never realize it.

Low, Medium, or High: Controlled by a number of factors, including the terms of your current lease, whether you are turning your lease in early, how much equipment is being carried over to the new lease, etc.

Avoidance: If you don't have a leasing background, look to add someone with leasing expertise to your team, so that you have the firepower to examine and negotiate hard with your leasing company. A good leasing negotiator may be able to help your organization save tens of thousands of dollars (or more) on a lease.

Avoidance: Don't place your lease with your business partner. This can create a conflict of interest that could lead to increased leasing costs.

Avoidance: Get competitive quotes on your lease, no matter how long you've dealt with your current leasing company (especially if you've dealt with the same leasing company for a long time).

Avoidance: If you are upgrading your current machine and using existing components to cut the equipment cost for the new configuration, find out what percentage of the new leasing cost is devoted to the Base Lease Extension (BLEX) of the reused equipment. The BLEX is the value of the equipment from the old lease that is not being returned after the lease ends. For reused equipment, the residual equipment value is rolled into the new lease. The BLEX is important because it can inflate your new lease cost and it can sometimes result in you paying a second time for equipment the leasing company has already paid for (pure profit for the leaser). You may be able to negotiate and lower the BLEX component of your new lease, because the BLEX is merely the value that the leasing vendor has assigned to the reused equipment. That value may or may not be fair and accurate, and it is entirely set by the leasing company.

Avoidance: Have the leasing companies break down your quote into individual component detail, so that you know which lease items are more expensive. This will enable you to see where the vendor is making his money.

For a good starting point on Power i leasing issues, check out my earlier article getting the best deal on a lease for an i/OS machine in the Related Stories section.

Operating System Compatibility risk: You are currently running i5/OS V5R4M0 but are looking at upgrading to a Power 7 machine. V5R4M0 does not run on Power 7

Medium: If you're not planning on an i 6.1 or i 7.1 upgrade before installing your new hardware, your upgrade options will be limited to Power 6, which can run V5R4M4.

If you upgrade your partitions to 6.1 or 7.1 before installing new hardware, you will have to deal with all the risks of a new upgrade, including the possibility that critical software won't run on the new OS, increased expenses for software licensing, and possible consulting fees to help with the upgrade.

Also note that if you upgrade, you will face a downtime risk where the machine will be unavailable for a set period of time or you will need to switchover to the CBU while the upgrade is occurring.

High: You must perform an upgrade if you want to migrate to Power 7 hardware

Low: If you want to limit your hardware to Power 6 machines, you can continue to run V5R4M5.

Avoidance: Don't upgrade your operating system at this time and migrate to a Power 6 machine. This would be dependent on finding a Power 6 machine that can be sized correctly for your workload and that can grow with your workload over the course of the lease.

Mitigation: Upgrade your partitions to i 6.1 or i 7.1 so that you can purchase Power 7 hardware and migrate your existing systems to the new hardware.

Mitigation: If upgrading your operating system, consider going to I 6.1 instead of 7.1, because 6.1 is more established, more third-party vendors will probably support it, and i 7.1 is relatively new, which can lead to problems.