ACADEMIA
SGI Unveils Multi-Vendor Support, Outsourcing Services
Program Offers Customers and Partners Proven Global Infrastructure for Support, Logistics and Secured Site Services: SGI today announced a new global program that provides multi-vendor support (MVS), world-class technical expertise, and logistical services to existing and new customers. The Support Solutions Plus program also offers OEMs, integrators and other partners with limited, or no, support infrastructure the ability to leverage SGI's expertise to provide services on their behalf. 
Under its Support Solutions Plus program, SGI provides a single, centralized contact for technical support, secured site management, and parts logistics requirements. Through the program, SGI provides support for many other vendors' products -- including platforms from IBM, HP, Sun, Solid Data Systems, Barco and others -- while keeping track of service agreements, warranties, escalation procedures and service level commitments that can make data center administration complicated and time-consuming. The Support Solutions Plus program simplifies support for enterprises adopting commodity-based products utilizing a mix of servers, storage and software built with different technologies. Such multi-vendor compute environments make it difficult to determine what products have failed and which vendor to contact for support. With Support Solutions Plus, organizations can consolidate their multi-vendor contracts, making SGI their 24x7, single point of contact for all IT support needs. When customers contact the 24-hour SGI Global Customer Support Center (CSC), they reach one of the most efficient problem-solving infrastructures in the industry. Staffed by experts who can support nine languages, the SGI CSC is available via telephone, email or Web. Systems integrators, OEMs and other IT companies can also leverage the new program to engage SGI as their dedicated global service provider. Through the program, companies can rely on SGI to support their customers, manage their spare parts and provide "feet on the street" for local on-site support -- all services that allow companies to fully serve their customers, without making investments in-house for a world-class support infrastructure. SGI employs a large staff of experts with the security clearances required to deliver and support systems at secured government sites. These experts are also available for Support Solutions Plus contracts and can be a valuable resource for small and mid-sized partners and integrators interested in bidding on government contracts requiring security clearances. The efficient, personalized service provided by SGI also makes the program a popular choice with OEMs who need the ability to reach the right technical expert quickly, to resolve problems faster. "Support Solutions Plus from SGI transforms the increasingly complicated and time-consuming task of supporting IT assets into a single phone call or a single click," said Bob Pette, vice president, SGI Technology Solutions. "While multi-vendor support is becoming a mainstream offering among large solution providers, SGI stands apart by offering the technical expertise that comes from a quarter-century of solving the world's most daunting compute, storage, visualization and data management problems. And with decades of experience serving the U.S. government, SGI is uniquely positioned to support assets at sites where security clearance is a must." Through the new program, SGI also provides enhanced Linux support for customers running applications on many Linux platforms. As a long-time contributor to open source Linux and one of the industry's primary drivers of Linux scalability and reliability, SGI offers unparalleled expertise in supporting enterprise and high-performance Linux environments. SGI's recent acquisition of portions of Linux Networx further enhances its capabilities by adding expertise in clustered computing, services and support. For more information on the SGI Support Solutions Plus program, visit its Web site.
Under its Support Solutions Plus program, SGI provides a single, centralized contact for technical support, secured site management, and parts logistics requirements. Through the program, SGI provides support for many other vendors' products -- including platforms from IBM, HP, Sun, Solid Data Systems, Barco and others -- while keeping track of service agreements, warranties, escalation procedures and service level commitments that can make data center administration complicated and time-consuming. The Support Solutions Plus program simplifies support for enterprises adopting commodity-based products utilizing a mix of servers, storage and software built with different technologies. Such multi-vendor compute environments make it difficult to determine what products have failed and which vendor to contact for support. With Support Solutions Plus, organizations can consolidate their multi-vendor contracts, making SGI their 24x7, single point of contact for all IT support needs. When customers contact the 24-hour SGI Global Customer Support Center (CSC), they reach one of the most efficient problem-solving infrastructures in the industry. Staffed by experts who can support nine languages, the SGI CSC is available via telephone, email or Web. Systems integrators, OEMs and other IT companies can also leverage the new program to engage SGI as their dedicated global service provider. Through the program, companies can rely on SGI to support their customers, manage their spare parts and provide "feet on the street" for local on-site support -- all services that allow companies to fully serve their customers, without making investments in-house for a world-class support infrastructure. SGI employs a large staff of experts with the security clearances required to deliver and support systems at secured government sites. These experts are also available for Support Solutions Plus contracts and can be a valuable resource for small and mid-sized partners and integrators interested in bidding on government contracts requiring security clearances. The efficient, personalized service provided by SGI also makes the program a popular choice with OEMs who need the ability to reach the right technical expert quickly, to resolve problems faster. "Support Solutions Plus from SGI transforms the increasingly complicated and time-consuming task of supporting IT assets into a single phone call or a single click," said Bob Pette, vice president, SGI Technology Solutions. "While multi-vendor support is becoming a mainstream offering among large solution providers, SGI stands apart by offering the technical expertise that comes from a quarter-century of solving the world's most daunting compute, storage, visualization and data management problems. And with decades of experience serving the U.S. government, SGI is uniquely positioned to support assets at sites where security clearance is a must." Through the new program, SGI also provides enhanced Linux support for customers running applications on many Linux platforms. As a long-time contributor to open source Linux and one of the industry's primary drivers of Linux scalability and reliability, SGI offers unparalleled expertise in supporting enterprise and high-performance Linux environments. SGI's recent acquisition of portions of Linux Networx further enhances its capabilities by adding expertise in clustered computing, services and support. For more information on the SGI Support Solutions Plus program, visit its Web site.