IT Maintenance from a Third Party Maintenance Provider
Network IT Maintenance
- Cisco Network switches, routers, access points, security products
- Juniper Network (EoL, EoS) switches & network access points
- Riverbed Network (EoL, EoS) – almost all models
- Extreme Networks (EoL, EoS) switches & network access points
- F5 Networks (EoL, EoS) – almost all models
- Brocade Network (EoL, EoS) switches & network access points
Need support for other OEMs? Just ask.
Server IT Maintenance
- Cisco Server (post-warranty, EoL, EOS) – all models
- Dell Server (post-warranty, EoL, EOS) – all models
- HPE Server (post-warranty, EoL, EOS) – all models
- IBM Server (post-warranty, EoL, EOS) – all models
- Lenovo Server (post-warranty, EoL, EOS) – all models
- SGI Server – all models
- Fujitsu Server – all models
- Oracle/Sun Server (post-warranty, EoL, EOS) – all models
Need support for other OEMs? Just ask.
Data Storage IT Maintenance
- Dell Storage/EMC Storage (post-warranty, EoL, EOS) – all models
- Oracle Storage/Sun Storage/STK Storage (post-warranty, EoL, EOS) – all models
- NetApp Storage (post-warranty, EoL, EOS) – all models
- HPE Storage (post-warranty, EoL, EOS) – all models
- IBM Storage (post-warranty, EoL, EOS) – all models
- Cisco Storage (post-warranty, EoL, EOS) – all models
- Hitachi Data Systems Storage (post-warranty, EoL, EOS) – all models
Need support for other OEMs? Just ask.
Independent IT Maintenance – Servers, Storage & Networking
Founded in 1990 and recognized by Gartner, XSi helps companies with their IT Lifecycle Services and Support. Services begin with the installation of new technology as well as de-installation, moving, consolidating, onsite disk wiping & destruction, IT Asset Disposition (ITAD) of legacy equipment, including resale or recycling. In addition, XSi provides lower-cost, Third Party Hardware IT Maintenance for installed models and extends the life of legacy, enterprise-brand servers, storage, network hardware and other devices, including UPS systems and supercomputers. XSi sells to federal agencies, System Integrators, Global 2000 Enterprises, OEMs, distributors, channel clients and partners. XSi is R2v3 Certified and also ISO9001:2015, ISO14001:2015, ISO45001:2018 Certified. XSi encourages interested parties to follow its business profile at LinkedIn for weekly blog postings from its Subject Matter Expert team. XSi welcomes RFPs and RFIs for independent, third party maintenance of enterprise IT hardware.
XSi believes that lifecycle services and hardware infrastructure IT maintenance agreements should no longer be rooted in two-dimensional perspectives – whether by an OEM or another third party hardware maintenance provider. Instead, it must be about an unmatched level of transparency with clients, identifying and truly understanding critical business obstacles. From there, XSi team members must always possess the drive and the agility to truly collaborate with each client to establish custom solutions that positively impact IT lifecycle management burdens, operational efficiencies, data security, hardware OpEx & CapEx, labor usage and a remarkable level of assurance.
XSi promises to be continually expanding and refining its suite of IT Lifecycle Services to meet the changing needs of its clients. Also, the XSi brand promise is to always represent: Certified. Proven. Efficient.
Enterprise IT Hardware Lifecycle
The Logic of Independent IT Maintenance
Hardware Lifecycle Management
This is the practice of carefully understanding your actual hardware needs vs. your critical hardware needs, whereas critical needs are attached to urgent business drivers or executive mandates, then non-critical hardware assets are retained for longer periods after warranty expiration to permit a maximized ROI. This practice permits you to delay capital investments, but also drive down operating expenses by using independent third party maintenance providers for eligible assets. Correlating “needs” to each hardware asset, will often create the opportunity to acquire pre-owned hardware, reducing CapEx. Equally as important, a committed effort to Hardware Lifecycle Management, once the OEM is made aware, will almost always create remarkable negotiating leverage.
Hybrid Hardware Support
This is where hardware assets (e.g., servers, storage, and network gear) under warranty are maintained by the OEM, but post-warranty (or eligible networking) assets are maintained by a significantly less expensive independent third party maintenance provider (like XSi). Post-warranty assets obviously include End-of-Life (EoL) and End-of-Support (EoS) data center hardware. Put simply, Hybrid IT Maintenance is a blend of OEM support with support for a third party maintenance provider to best manage data center costs and continually evolving initiatives.
While this simple explanation is helpful, there are numerous instances in which the “post-warranty” status need not apply. For example, there are an incredible number of Cisco (or other network OEMs) networking assets which absolutely can be eligible for a Hybrid Hardware Support model – not all need to be under an expensive SMARTnet support agreement. Unlike other Third Party Maintenance providers, XSi provides an extremely detailed no-cost, no-risk assessment to help clients identify eligible assets, while having access to quantified savings data.
Benefits of Lifecycle Management & Hybrid Support
- IT Procurement can proactively drive down OpEx AND reduce CapEx.
- Post-warranty assets have often reached “stable state,” and IT staff can dedicate more time to key business drivers, as opposed to chasing the bugs of new data center hardware.
- Critical vs. Non-Critical Assessments create the cost-saving rationale for, and the ability to quantify the value of choosing pre-owned servers, storage, and networking assets.
- Having any post-warranty hardware creates the cost-saving rationale for, and the ability to quantify OpEx savings by using a Third Party Maintenance provider.
- ITAM teams will need to stretch their skills beyond software activities, but the Data Center Operations (or Hardware Infrastructure) staff can provide valuable input!
- Not all expensive tech refreshes are mandatory. Instead, you have the luxury of keeping older hardware for as long as it operates, or is of value within your unique environment!
Hardware OpEx During Product Lifecycle
Additional IT Lifecycle & Hardware Professional Services
In addition to independent hardware IT maintenance, XSi also provides:
- Global ITAD Service – R2v3 certified IT Asset Disposition, for data center assets or End-User Compute. End-to-end support in North America, EMEA, LATAM and APAC.
- SmartHands– an as-needed, on-demand access to globally deployed tech support model for special projects, often more complicated than IMAC projects.
- IMAC – Short project work involving hardware Installs, Moves, Adds & Changes.
- Data Center Relocations or Hardware Asset Relocations.
- Cisco Lifecycle & Asset Assurance – A support model that maximizes maintenance savings, asset management simplification and 100% entitlement compliance.
Quite often, XSi will create custom solutions based on requests – sometimes variations of an existing hardware service, and other times a completely new service never before offered by any other Third Party Maintenance providers. The XSi Subject Matter Expert team thoroughly enjoys when exploratory dialogues reveal unique need(s) and subsequent discussions evolve into an open ideation session about the most logical possibilities. Solving for unique needs or remodeling are two of their favorite things to do. Don’t hesitate and hold back, just ask!