IBM Offers Backup and Recovery Analysis Service to System i Shops

If you are a relatively large OS/400 or i5/OS shop and you have big backup and recovery issues, IBM is now offering a new service that is designed to help you sort through the issues relating to your backup and recovery window.

The System i Backup and Recovery Analysis service, which was announced last week, doesn’t run your backup and recovery operations, but rather does a broad and deep assessment of the issues in your own data center. IBMers come in and take a look at what servers and storage you have, streamline your processes, and make recommendations (which very likely will include some upgrades or new acquisitions, I am sure). The basic level of this service, which analyzes the backup and recovery on one server, costs $4,800. The standard level covers three servers at one site, and it costs $7,200; while the enterprise level covers five servers at the site and costs $12,000. Presumably, IBM will create a special contract with you–complete with some sort of volume discount–if you need to do backup and recovery planning for multiple sites. Before shelling out that dough to IBM, you might want to contact your reseller and see if they can sell this service and give you a better deal, too.