Original Equipment Manufacturers, popularly known as OEMs, are network equipment brands offering equipment and network support services. If you choose to use OEMs for your network maintenance, you’re lucky as equipment spare parts are directly available. However, this doesn’t mean this is the only option you have as third party maintenance providers have now hit the market. With the latter, you can rest assured of a highly efficient data center that offers many benefits. Third-party providers’ sole purpose is to provide excellent network services for businesses. It’s possible to focus on excellent network maintenance services as they don’t give much thought to manufacturing the equipment.
Most importantly, third-party providers, www.centricsit.com included aim at network maintenance and reselling services. As you can see, there’s a striking difference between the two. Below are the differences between third-party and OEM network maintenance you should know about.
Coverage
Oftentimes, OEM’s are unsupportive when it concerns flexibility and offering customers quick network maintenance solutions. As such, OEMs focus on a single brand, and so their engineers will only service their products. Therefore, data centers using more than one service provider have to look for different engineers. This makes it harder to address a problem instantly since more time will be spent determining which brand owns it. Consequently, your data center’s downtime will increase, leading to lag times. On the flip side, you have a wide range of options for third-party network maintenance. Your server, storage, and network solutions lie in a third-party provider who ensures you reach a custom solution. Also, the third-party provider’s expertise means that you’ll improve your data center’s network uptime.
Costs
If you’re using OEM for your network maintenance, expect to incur high costs over time. More often than not, you’re required to pay unnecessary support costs. In addition, OEM require securing new hardware even when it’s not necessary. As a result, you’ll find yourself buying new equipment you hadn’t planned for. On the other hand, third-party network providers are relatively lower in cost. So, you’ll spend less even post-warranty. As a result, your data center equipment will continue to function well for a long period.
Administration
OEMs don’t offer customization freedom. This means you have to accept their rules and options since their contract binds you. Meaning, requesting changes or customizations could result in penalties and even delays. That also means, you won’t have the freedom you want to have when it comes to your network maintenance. It’s different for third-party network providers, though. Fortunately, you have the flexibility and an extensive range of data center options to choose from. For instance, you might encounter a single data center solution geared towards solving multiple issues. This could include your business updates, budget limits, and other key data center considerations.
Choosing network maintenance for your data center requires some factors to consider. You should consider the cost, coverage, and flexibility that comes with your choice. Whether you prefer an OEM or a third-party solution, the above differences will help you choose the one that suits you best.
