IBM Expert Labs Essential Management for IBM Cloud Pak for Data

This is a fixed price subscription-based offering (charged monthly) available with a minimum 1-year term.  Included with the subscription are, logically isolated Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) per environment,  all the AWS infrastructure costs necessary to support the workload as well as the services (24*7) to keep it secure and highly available.  It is available for purchase through an IBM sales representative. 

Entitlement

Important:  Customers must purchase (or already own) appropriate quantities of Virtual Processor Core license(s) for IBM Cloud Pak for Data‌ Enterprise Edition before ordering the IBM fully managed service.   IBM Cloud Pak for Data license Information is available here -> License Information

Additional information on licensing is available here ->  IBM Container Licenses  &  IBM Cloud Pak for Data License Information

Frequently asked questions (FAQ)

• No,  each cloud environment is provisioned in an isolated Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) with dedicated infrastructure.  Clients can choose from a supported list of data center locations.

• Yes, optional add-on parts are available for purchase to scale the offering.

• Once the welcome letter is received Clients will be entitled to log support cases.  The designated Cloud Service Coordinator (CSC) will walk Clients through the registration and setup process.

• By default the service is offered with a private network connection.
• Options for connectivity are secure VPN, public access list, or via AWS account VPC peering (for clients with supporting AWS accounts).

• No, unfortunately the fully managed solution is only available through IBM where IBM owns, operates, and manages the AWS account and underlying infrastructure.

• Both deployment options are supported, Clients can choose the default single-AZ as well as choose to add-on the optional multi-AZ deployment.   Moving from single-AZ to multi-AZ post-provisioning is not supported as it requires a redeployment and migration effort.
• Multiple availability zone clusters can only be deployed in regions with at least 3 availability zones.

• No,  in order to offer the best possible service at a competitive monthly subscription fee, the offering is currently available as minimum 1-year or 3-year subscriptions.

• IBM Announcements are generally available on ibm.com a direct link is available here Announce

• IBM Security and System Requirements data sheets are generally available on ibm.com a direct link is available here Data sheet and System Requirements

• IBM Service Descriptions are generally available on ibm.com a direct link is available here Service Description

• ap-northeast-1 (Tokyo); ap-northeast-2 (Seoul); ap-northeast-3 (Osaka); ap-south-1 (Mumbai); ap-southeast-1 (Singapore); ap-southeast-2 (Sydney); ca-central-1 (Central Canada); eu-central-1 (Frankfurt); eu-north-1 (Stockholm); eu-west-1 (Ireland); eu-west-2 (London); eu-west-3 (Paris); sa-east-1 (São Paulo); us-east-1 (N. Virginia); us-east-2 (Ohio); us-west-1 (N. California); us-west-2 (Oregon);  Clients may request any of the above locations and IBM will do its best to match the request however, exact location cannot be guaranteed and will be confirmed before provisioning. 

  Note: China and GovCloud (US) regions are not supported.  Multiple availability zone clusters can only be deployed in regions with at least 3 availability zones.

  How long does it take for that the Provisioning process to complete?

• After receiving a ‘completed’ provisioning form) the provisioning typically takes less than 5 business days

  Who is a Cloud Service Coordinator (CSC) and what is their role?  

• Similar in role to a technical account manager (TAM), a CSC is the main technical point of contact for the client, they help with onboarding the client and regularly meets with them to discuss the service.

  Is the Cloud Service Coordinator included in Fully Managed on AWS?

• Yes, however they are not dedicated to Clients and are shared with other clients. The CSC will be assigned and contact information will be available in the welcome letter sent to clients. 
• If additional hands-on services are desired, clients can optionally purchase one of the Acceleration Services as defined in Section 1.3 of the Service Description. For continuity purchasing an optional Technical Account Manager combined with a CSC would provide clients both coordination and a dedicated technical assistance.

Does the Cloud Service Coordinator respond with 24x7x365?

• No, CSCs are typically available during client’s business hours only, our Operations and Support team is available to assist on a 24x7 basis.  Additional information and Severity level guidance is available here -> https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/ibm-cloud-service-overview

Can customers be notified of scheduled maintenance plan? (How many days in advance can clients get the maintenance notice?)

• Yes, major, and minor updates and patches are evaluated for installation within a monthly maintenance window. Typically, two weeks prior to the maintenance window the IBM Operations team will send (and CC the clients CSC) a maintenance schedule notification with a list of planned updates. During the maintenance window, the Cloud service may be unavailable.  If required, IBM will notify the Client that the Cloud Services will not be available during the maintenance window. Where possible, IBM will minimize Service disruptions for maintenance activities, with a monthly downtime goal to not exceed four (4) hours.    Updates and patches apply to AWS infrastructure, OpenShift Container platform, and Cloud Pak for Data services or cartridges.

Where is the delivery team’s location?

• Depending on the offering purchased and the provisioning / hosting location for the cloud environment, the delivery locations could be different.   In general, we have teams in United States, Canada, India, and Europe. Most of our operations team is India that provide the 24*7 Customer Support.

Is the offering available on other Cloud platforms?

• Currently the offering is only available on AWS