SMS Expands Data Center Maintenance Business

Published: October 6, 2009

by Alex Woodie

Systems Maintenance Services (SMS), a provider of IT and data center maintenance services, will soon expand its coverage of System i, System p, and System z servers as the result of two major deals: the pending merger with Top Gun Technology and the purchase of QSGI's data center maintenance business.

Based in Charlotte, North Carolina, SMS has made a name for itself by providing data center and server maintenance services for Fortune 1000 companies. Before the recently announced deals, the company operated 41 service centers around the country, where it serviced 1,500 customers. These service centers are essentially data centers where SMS manages customers' servers and related gear for them.

SMS provides services for IBM System i, System x, System z, and System p servers; Hewlett-Packard HP 3000, HP 9000, Alpha, Proliant, Compaq, and VAX servers; EMC storage arrays; Sun Microsystems and Dell servers; and Cisco networking gear. SMS also provides asset tracking, data center migration, and other assorted services.

The deal with QSGI will "significantly" expand SMS' support for IBM enterprise platforms, says Don Doctor, SMS' chairman and chief executive. It will also expand the company's geographic reach.

A day before announcing the deal with New Jersey-based QSGI, SMS announced it has reached a definitive deal to merge with Top Gun Technology, a Prior Lake, Minnesota, provider of maintenance and support services for IBM environments.

The deal with Top Gun Technology will give SMS more technical expertise on the "large-platform IBM hardware" that Top Gun specialized in, according to Joe Scordino, president of SMS. "SMS and Top Gun Technology have had a highly successful teaming agreement in place for nearly 18 months, where Top Gun Technology provides seamless back-end support for the IBM platforms we maintain at more than 100 accounts," Scordino says in a press release.

Top Gun Technology will retain its offices in Minnesota, and will continue to sell refurbished IBM gear and support services for those IBM platforms, SMS says.

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