Abacus Solutions Offers 61-Day i 6.1 Test Drive
January 12, 2010 Alex Woodie
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System i VAR Abacus Solutions last month unveiled a new program that gives customers moving from older releases of i5/OS the chance to test their applications on IBM i 6.1. The hope is that, after the 61 day test is over, the customer will be ready to upgrade production systems to i 6.1, while keeping downtime to a minimum. The 61-day test drive begins by uploading a replica of the customer’s System i production environment onto a similarly configured server located at Abacus Solutions’ facility. The reseller’s engineers then execute the upgrade process, while fully documenting the steps taken and the results obtained, the vendor says. Once the test is completed, the customer is encouraged to test the results of the upgrade remotely, and review the documentation. At that point, the customer is equipped to perform the upgrade themselves. Patrick Schutz, senior iSeries account executive at Abacus, explains the reasoning behind offering the 61-day IBM i 6.1 test drive. “We know that the new iSeries i 6.1 upgrade offers tremendous benefits in functionality and total cost of ownership over previous generations of iSeries operating systems. The downside is that this migration is more complicated and involved than previous version to version upgrades,” he states in a press release. “What our test upgrade offers is a fully documented account of the entire upgrade process. That way, our customers will know up front the steps and downtime involved.” Abacus Solutions is based in Marietta, Georgia, and provides a range of System i services, including migrations and system upgrades, backup and recovery, performance tuning, and security. The 61-day test drive stems from its backup and recovery test procedures, the company says. For more information on the 61-day IBM i 6.1 test drive, see the Abacus Solutions Web site at www.abacusllc.com.
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