SoftLayer Fundamentals

Flexible and on demand Understanding SoftLayer Managed

Services

2014 IBM Corporation

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trademarks of SoftLayer, Inc., an IBM Company.
Other company, product, or service names may be trademarks or service marks of others.
The information contained in this document has been submitted to any formal IBM test and is distributed on an as is basis
without any warranty either express or implied. The use of this information or the implementation of any of these techniques is a
customer responsibility and depends on the customer's ability to evaluate and integrate them into the customers operational
environment. While each item may have been reviewed by IBM for accuracy in a specific situation, there is no guarantee that the
same or similar results will result elsewhere. Customers attempting to adapt these techniques to their own environment do so at
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Meet your speakers

Jody Cefola is the SoftLayer Channels Integration leader focused on
partner enablement from IBM. Jody had 10 years in channel development
and execution working with all types of partners and international
experience with channel execution in Europe and Asia Pacific.

Vinayak Harnoor is a Technical Architect with the IBM Global Technology

Services (GTS) Global Cloud Ecosystem team. Vinayak has over 18 years of
experience with Infrastructure and application performance monitoring
technologies and came to IBM in 2012 with the Tealeaf acquisition. He has a
bachelors degree in Computer Engineering from Nagpur University, India,
and a Masters Certificate in Project Leadership and Service Design from
Cornell University, Ithaca, NY.
Jeff Klink is a senior technical staff member (STSM) with IBM Canada. For the
past 10 years, Jeff has focused on large-scale solution design and practice
with a primary focus on software as a service for solution vendors and
managed service providers. Currently, Jeff serves as the worldwide lead for
the IBM Global Cloud Ecosystem architecture team, which evangelizes and
solutions on top of the SoftLayer and SCE+ infrastructure as a service
platforms.
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SoftLayer Fundamentals is a series of technical webinars to

provide knowledge on the capabilities to help build solutions
Webinar
Date

Topic #

Topic

February 25

Changing the landscape, not the definition - SoftLayer overview

February 27

One size does not fit all Defining the SoftLayer cloud architecture

March 4

Connecting to the cloud SoftLayer network options, part 1

March 6

Connecting to the cloud SoftLayer network options, part 2

March 11

Keep safe Securing your virtual instances

March 13

Storing your data Understanding SoftLayer storage options

March 18

Flexible and on demand Understanding SoftLayer managed services

March 20

You cant manage what you dont monitor SoftLayer management and
monitoring

March 25

Evaluating cloud providers - Leveraging SoftLayer differentiators

For general SoftLayer overview presentations

Lance Crosby, SoftLayer CEO, main tent at IBM PWLC: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9h2cXwcUvA
Grow your cloud business - leveraging the IBM acquisition of SoftLayer:
https://engage.vevent.com/rt/ibm~1017?token=NTU2MTY1MjY0MDAxMjExMDgxN0NIRUNLX0RBVEVfQU5EX0VOVFJJ
RVNfQ09VTlQ
Copyright IBM Corp. 2014. All rights reserved.
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Your cloud strategy is your business strategy

Pacesetters use cloud to surface insights from data. They reimagine business
models, make better decisions and serve customers in new ways to create winning
business outcomes.

Almost

Nearly

2x

2.5x

the revenue growth

higher gross profit

growth than peers

With so much at stake, you don't want just any cloud

Source: IBM Center for Applied Insights Under cloud cover: How leaders are accelerating competitive differentiation that surveyed
802 cloud decision makers and users, spanning 13 countries and 24 industries.

Copyright IBM Corp. 2014. All rights reserved.

Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.

2014 IBM Corporation

Tap into SoftLayer. Leverage significant investment to build

skills starting with SoftLayer Fundamentals

7.6
#1
2.5X
7.6
66%
7.6

value for service channel partners has become technical

training1

Revenue growth for Business Partners who have embraced

cloud2

of CIOs who are reengineering IT plan to look for outside

help new skills, tools and capabilites3

Sources: 1. Forrester Research, Cloud Channel Trends, 2013 to 2014, February 2013, 2. IDC: Worldwide channel and alliances 2013 top 10 predictions, January 2013,3. IBM CIO
study, 2011,

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Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.

Understanding SoftLayer Managed Services

Upon completion of this webinar, you should be able to:

Review how SoftLayer backs up data

Evaluate SoftLayer data recovery solutions

Determine the difference between managed services

and self service

Discuss the terms of SoftLayer SLAs and SLOs

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Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.

Backing up data and disaster recovery solutions

In this topic, you will learn about

Backing up your data

Recovering your data in the event of a disaster

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Backing up data and disaster recovery solutions

Automated backup and recovery solutions.

Wide range of storage options.

Data can be stored in data centers across

the globe making it disaster recovery
efficient.

All backups and restores happens over a

high speed, secure private network.

Private network bandwidth is unmetered

and at no cost to the customer.

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Backing up data and disaster recovery solutions (cont.)

10

EVault
GUI based interface for backups and
restores.
Hourly, daily, weekly, and custom
schedules.
Full systems, specific directories or
even individual files are backed up.
Individual software agents available
that enable EVault to target more
specific data in Exchange,
SQLServer, SharePoint, MS
Clusters, and Oracle servers.

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Backing up data and disaster recovery solutions (cont.)

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Idera
Proprietary management system to
interact with Idera continuous data
protection (CDP)
Provides high-performance disk-todisk server backup
Multi-platform support for physical
and virtual servers; includes
databases such as MS SQL and My
SQL.

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Backing up data and disaster recovery solutions (cont.)

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Object Storage is ideal for managing

large unstructured data sets including
virtual machine images, photos and
email etc

File Transfer Protocol (FTP) and

network attached storage (NAS)
provide fast, reliable, and cost-effective
storage for maximum data retention
and storage.

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Backing up data and disaster recovery solutions (cont.)

Storage area network (SAN)

Replications of iSCSI volumes can
be sent to another SoftLayer data
center in the US, Asia, or Europe for
painless disaster recovery.

Point-in-time snapshots of iSCSI

volumes can be scheduled, stored
locally or remotely, and later
accessed for data recovery or
current data comparison.

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Backing up data and disaster recovery solutions (cont.)

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Disaster recovery capabilities

Single and multiple data center back
up options.
Geographic diverse DNS routing.
Replication snapshots and mass
network storage

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Backing up data and disaster recovery solutions (cont.)

15

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Understanding SoftLayer Managed Services

In this topic, you will learn about

SoftLayer Managed Services

Core components of Managed Services

Exclusions

Support team

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Understanding SoftLayer Managed Services

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Managed environment provisioned

within one business day.
Managed and self-managed
environments are integrated.
Monthly contracts with no long term
commitments like other cloud
providers.
Real-time insight into managed
environment with executive
dashboards.
Pricing per server (virtual or physical)
includes all core services that come
with managed services offering.

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Understanding SoftLayer Managed Services (cont.)

Backup
Current backup plan assessment,
identify backup goals and provide
backup and recovery plans.
Disk-to-disk backup and offsite
backups.
Backup usage reports and alerts are
provided to facilitate planning for
additional capacity.
Storage
Current storage strategy assessment
to identify storage capabilities, needs,
and projected requirements.
Customized storage plans are defined
with options including high-availability.
Storage utilization, storage
performance, and data replication are
monitored.
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Understanding SoftLayer Managed Services (cont.)

Security
Current threat levels identified and
customized security plan created
using best practices.
Security system and plan is kept up
to date.
Monthly OS patching, vulnerability
scanning, monthly checks and
updates are performed.
Server hardening based on
referenced by CIS and Microsoft
Internet Security best practices.

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Understanding SoftLayer Managed Services (cont.)

Monitoring
Customized monitoring and
escalation plans are created.
24x7 monitoring based on industry
practices.
Availability, Fault and Performance
monitoring of entire infrastructure,
including self-managed environments.
Ticket-based alerts.
Dedicated experts are first line of
defense.

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Understanding SoftLayer Managed Services (cont.)

Database
Senior Certified MSSQL and MySQL
DBAs are assigned to accounts.
They understand your current
implementation and provide
database consultation, not just
DBA activities.
Specific database monitoring,
reporting, backup and recovery
processes are provided.

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Understanding SoftLayer Managed Services (cont.)

Change management
Customer specific run-books to
ensure SoftLayer team and customer
are in sync.
Change managed procedures are
documented including escalation,
policies, and notification procedures.
Impact assessment for system
changes.

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Understanding SoftLayer Managed Services (cont.)

Technical Account Manager (TAM)

Enterprise account management

experience.
In-depth understanding of customers
business objective.

Senior systems engineer

MCSE, MCITP, RHCE certifications
Senior database administrator

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MCDBA, MCITP and MySQL certifications

Expert-level understanding of
HA configurations of databases
Disaster recovery solutions
Database optimization and
Database security
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Understanding SoftLayer Managed Services (cont.)

In-scope

Virtual instances, dedicated and bare metal

servers
Mandatory hardware firewall protection
Check for running jobs/services and provide
restart services
VPN configuration services for Fortigate
Firewalls at additional charge

Exclusions

24

Vyatta virtual router

No grant of windows control panel to
customers
Patching of customer applications and
middleware
Writing code, customer OS images,
regulated environments
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Understanding SoftLayer Managed Services (cont.)

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Working with SoftLayer SLAs and SLOs

In this topic, you will learn about SoftLayers Service
Level Agreements (SLAs) and Service Level
Offerings (SLOs).

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Working with SoftLayer SLAs and SLOs

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The Master Service Agreement (MSA) is the primary legal

document that outlines the responsibilities of both the
customer and SoftLayer. It contains Terms of Service,
Service Level Agreement, Acceptable Use Policy, and so on.
The MSA is used for unmanaged hosting environments.

SoftLayer commitments:
Public Network: SoftLayer will use commercially
reasonable efforts to provide a service level of 100% for
the Public Network.
Private Network: SoftLayer will use commercially
reasonable efforts to meet the service level of 100% for
the Private Network.
Customer Portal: SoftLayer will use commercially
reasonable efforts to meet the service level of 100% for
access to the Customer Portal.
Redundant Infrastructure: SoftLayer will use
commercially reasonable efforts to meet the service
level of 100% for access to the power and HVAC
services provided to Customers.
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Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.

Working with SoftLayer SLAs and SLOs (cont.)

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When SLA credits are issued

30 continuous minute period of Qualifying Outage Minutes for a Service in a
Measurement Period, SoftLayer shall provide a SLA Credit of 5% of the fees for
the relevant Service, which was subject to the Loss of Service during the
Measurement Period.
The Customer cannot combine alleged Claimed Outages for different Services
(such as Public Network and Private Network) to meet this calculation.
How SLA credits are issued
SoftLayer has an approved process in place for customers to receive SLA
credits.
In order to claim a credit the customer shall follow the Approved Procedure within
seven (7) days of the end of the Claimed Outage.
Credits are based on a per-resource basis and are applied against future service
charges.
Who is not eligible for SLA credits
SLA credit does not apply to customers that are not
current on payment when the outage occurred.
Customers who have not paid their fees when due
for the Services three or more times in the previous
twelve calendar months.

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Working with SoftLayer SLAs and SLOs (cont.)

29

Maintenance windows
Known or scheduled time period during which maintenance is performed on
SoftLayer managed components.
Maintenance window postings are done through email, RSS feed, Twitter feed,
API, or within portal.
SoftLayer maintenance is scheduled 72 hours in advance and during off peak
hours.
Customer maintenance is scheduled in advance with the customer.
SoftLayer reserves the right to emergency windows.
Time and window are excluded from MSA and Managed Hosting MSA.

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Working with SoftLayer SLAs and SLOs (cont.)

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Unmanaged Hosting SLA

Replaces failed hardware in 2 hours or less after notification, using commercially
reasonable effort.
Upgrades hardware in 2 hours or less after scheduled start time.
Credit given if 2 hours exceeded (20% every 4 hours).
Excludes reload of OS and applications.

Managed Hosting SLA (available for customers who consume at least $2,500 per
month of SoftLayer Services; selected OSs/Software)
SoftLayers certified engineering and support team is assigned, helping design
the deployment and regularly reviewing the Customers infrastructure
performance and health.
Failed hardware repair or replacement will begin within
one hour of ticket initiation.
SoftLayer live support will be available 24 x 7.
Monitoring alert response within 15 minutes of ticket
initiation.
Ticket responsiveness: Customer questions posted
in tickets will be acknowledged within one hour.

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Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.

Working with SoftLayer SLAs and SLOs (cont.)

31

Service Level Objective

1 to 4 hours for dedicated and bare metal servers.
5 to 15 minutes for virtual cloud instances.
2 hours or less for dedicated hardware replacements (excludes reload of OS and
applications).

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Questions

?
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2014 IBM Corporation

Recommended actions
Sign up for a free 1 month trial account:
http://www.softlayer.com/info/freecloud/skills100
Within 60 days, register as a SoftLayer
partner with a viable SL opportunity (time
frame, workload, configuration) at:
http://www.softlayer.com/partners/ibmpartners

33

Leading Edge

Trusted

Completely Free

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2014 IBM Corporation

Attend other SoftLayer Fundamentals webinars or download

the replay and materials at your convenience
Webinar
Date

Topic #

Topic

February 25

Changing the landscape, not the definition - SoftLayer overview

February 27

One size does not fit all Defining the SoftLayer cloud architecture

March 4

Connecting to the cloud SoftLayer network options, part 1

March 6

Connecting to the cloud SoftLayer network options, part 2

March 11

Keep safe Securing your virtual instances

March 13

Storing your data Understanding SoftLayer storage options

March 18

Flexible and on demand Understanding SoftLayer managed services

March 20

You cant manage what you dont monitor SoftLayer management and
monitoring

March 25

Evaluating cloud providers - Leveraging SoftLayer differentiators

Please remember to download the glossary of terms

34

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Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.