IBM Launches Pay-As-You-Go Model to Quickly Get Clients on Cloud Storage
February 2014 by Marc Jacob
To help organizations more easily and efficiently manage their swelling data volumes and adopt cloud storage solutions quickly, IBM announced a new pricing program that offers high-performance storage systems without the heavy up-front costs.
The new IBM Advanced System Placement program for clients is a pay-as-you-go program that lets organizations purchase IBM XIV storage systems for only a fraction of the price upon installation. Only when the system reaches a predetermined capacity threshold will the client be charged for the full balance of the system. At that time, a second unit will be delivered for only $1. The cycle continues and clients only pay for the full balance of subsequent systems when they reach the threshold, and an additional system is delivered for an additional $1.
A financed version of the Advanced System Placement program is also available through IBM Global Financing. With this option, qualified clients sign a 36-month Fair Market Value (FMV) hardware lease and software loan, and payments for the first six months are set at a fraction of the overall cost. As with the cash purchase version, when the first system reaches a certain threshold, a second system is delivered and the payments for the first system continue as planned. The second system will come with a second 36-month lease, but the first six payments are free. By combining the Advanced System Placement program with a hardware lease program, payments become predictable and manageable. Each lease and loan is subject to prior credit approval by IGF. The IBM Global Financing offering is available in North America and Europe today; and other select countries later this year.
The Advanced System Placement program complements IBM’s existing Capacity-on-Demand pricing program, which is designed to help organizations with less aggressive growth projections deploy high-capacity storage systems with ease.