Heard on the Street: IBM i Business Partners Busy Writing Extended Support Contracts for V5R4

Maybe not a groundswell but…

I’m hearing that some business partners are doing a good business writing extended maintenance contracts for customers who haven’t yet migrated off i5/OS V5R4 before the V5R4 end of support date of this Monday, September 30, 2013.

It appears that some people have been waiting until the last-minute to get their extended support moving. And now there’s a little bit of a rush to insure that their operating system is covered before IBM officially stops covering it.

The other thing I’m hearing is that some customers are surprised that the extended support is only 8 AM – 5 PM and they can’t get 24×7 support. IBM is not offering 24 hour support for V5R4.

I’m sure that different people have their reasons for staying on V5R4. But with all the notice IBM gave for end of support, nobody should be surprised or unprepared that the day has finally come.

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