FNTS Launches Managed Services for Power Servers in IBM Cloud
May 24, 2023 Alex Woodie
Have a Power server running in IBM Cloud but want someone else to provide the care and feeding? Then you might be interested in the new service unveiled by longtime IBM business partner FNTS to manage customers’ Power environments running in the IBM Cloud.
FNTS is an Omaha, Nebraska, outfit that has been sailing the IBM i and mainframe seas for many years. The company, which previously went by the name First National Technology Solutions, was the IT branch of a former bank, First National of Nebraska Inc., that was spun out to providing hosting services more than 25 years ago.
The company has been hosting IBM Power servers and mainframes, as well as Windows, Linux, and Unix servers, for many years. Back in 2017, we wrote about how quickly FNTS’ IBM i hosting business was growing out of its two data centers, including its primary data center in Omaha and a backup site Chicago, Illinois.
On April 19, FNTS announced an expansion of its relationship with IBM Cloud, for which it has been a reseller for some time. Under the new service, dubbed the IBM Power Virtual Server Managed Services at FNTS, the company is offering to manage customers’ IBM i, AIX, and Linux environments running in IBM Cloud.
As part of the new service, FNTS will provide “ongoing management of the cloud environment, including monitoring, patching, backup and other system admin tasks,” the company says. It will also provide networking expertise “to meet latency requirements and integrate IBM Cloud with other public and private clouds for a true hybrid cloud experience,” the company says.
Many Power shops are moving to the cloud for the first time, and FNTS hopes to make that transition easier by providing customers with “a project plan for cloud migration that keeps critical business applications running until migration is complete,” the company says.
Finally, FNTS promises to provide customers with “an assessment of business and technical requirements to identify the most efficient cloud subscription models,” it says. The company says it will reduce planning complexity and operational costs while improving service and response times for customers.
“Migrating and modernizing Power Systems with Power Virtual Server Managed Services can be overwhelming, costly and time consuming without the right expertise in place,” Keith Zblewski, who is the IBM hybrid cloud product manager at FNTS, said in a press release. “At FNTS, we become a trusted advisor by monitoring cloud consumption to ensure it aligns with budget expectations.”
Managed services are booming in the midrange at the moment, both for cloud environments as well as for servers that remain on-prem. IBM i shops, in particular, are struggling to find individuals with the technical skills needed to keep enterprise hardware and software running. FNTS, with its repertoire of managing a variety of Power environments running in the cloud, on prem, or in a hybrid setup, clearly sees this as an opportunity to expand its reach and grow its customer base.
“Finding the expertise needed to maintain these core systems is not only becoming harder to find, but the skills required to innovate into the future are limited,” FNTS President Kim Whittaker said in a press release. “FNTS ensures peak performance and the most value out of these investments by accelerating time to value with IBM Power Virtual Server Managed Services.”
FNTS was at the recent COMMON POWERUp 2023 conference in Denver, Colorado, where the company presented a joint session with CLAI Payments, a Costa Rica-based provider of secure payment solutions, on a unique IBM i-based cryptography-as-a-service offering. Stay tuned to IT Jungle for a report.
For more information on the new IBM Power Virtual Server Managed Services at FNTS offering, see www.fnts.com/cloud/ibm-power-vs.
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