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Foundation of “Zero Outage Industry Standard” association
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Zero Outage Industry Standard

Greater quality in ICT thanks to Zero Outage Industry Standard

Foundation of “Zero Outage Industry Standard” association

With the Zero Outage Industry Standard, we define consistent quality criteria for IT platforms, personnel, processes and security.

  • Minimize disruptions
  • Increase availability
  • Ensure security
  • Work cost-effectively
  • Minimize business impact

T-Systems and partners found “Zero Outage Industry Standard” association

For years, T-Systems has advocated an industry-wide Zero Outage Industry Standard to achieve a consistent level of quality for ICT systems. A company’s IT infrastructure usually consists of components from multiple vendors which causes many points of friction. Therefore everyone should have the same concept of quality. Only then business-critical disruptions and security problems can be avoided.

Enable quality in ICT by means of standardization

A consistent standard of quality throughout the industry creates the basis for a secure and successful digitization of the entire industry. It ensures that the downtime of ICT systems is minimized. In turn, this results in reliable business operations of companies. Therefore, on the initiative of T-Systems, the IT companies Brocade, Cisco, Dell EMC, Hitachi Data Systems, Juniper, NetApp, SAP and Suse have now joined forces and have founded the “Zero Outage Industry Standard” association.  The strategy is unique: Hardware and software vendors, Internet providers and service integrators work closely together as partners in order to develop an industry-wide best practice approach that is to be implemented by the companies in question. This ensures a stable and secure IT.
Together with all partners, T-Systems has staged workshops to define consistent quality criteria relating to personnel, processes, platforms and IT security.
  • Platforms
    Coordinated release management, robust test cycles, robust construction of technical components and design
  • Processes
    Agreed cross-vendor processes as part of incident, change and problem management
  • Personnel
    Consistent training and certification of employees
  • IT security
    Common understanding of security, incident prevention, safeguarding of complex production environments, protection against attacks and outages
T-Systems has initiated the association in order to be able to offer its customers an ecosystem for quality solutions and to have a partner on board for each important ICT component. Only then can companies minimize disruptions, increase availability, ensure security and work cost-effectively.

Enhancing the customer experience is the common goal

Once the framework of the Zero Outage Industry Standard has been defined, it will be available to all companies. The joint work of the partners in the “Zero Outage Industry Standard” association has already begun. However, companies interested in collaborating are always welcome. The common goal is to enhance the customer experience by minimizing downtime and to increase security and stability of IT with the aid of a zero outage framework whose standards everyone is committed to uphold.

Views on the industry standard

  • vCloud Use Case: Infrastructure-as-a-Service für den Start in die Cloud und in Cloud-Services.
    Reinhard Clemens, CEO of T-Systems International GmbH
    “Zero Outage started at T-Systems as a quality program and has now grown into the industry standard. Together with our partners, we deliver top quality and, by doing so, increase customer satisfaction. The focus on Zero Outage is vital for the networked world and a must for digitization.”
  • Jim Tooley, Vice President Global Services & Support Brocade
    Jim Tooley, Vice President Global Services & Support Brocade
    “As a founder member of the Zero Outage standard, Brocade is excited to be involved in the start of what will be industry changing. Driving infrastructures that meet the Zero Outage standard will mean greater productivity as we move into the full digitization of data and help organizations to embrace digital transformation.”
  • vCloud Use Case: Infrastructure-as-a-Service für den Start in die Cloud und in Cloud-Services.
    Stephan Kasulke, Board of Directors Zero Outage Industry Standard Association, SVP Quality T-Systems
    “As an organization’s IT infrastructure can involve a complex ecosystem of technologies from a variety of vendors, there are often differing levels of service level agreements in place which can lead to critical defaults and security issues. With the Zero Outage Industry Standard Association, major technology- and telco-companies want to start an industry-wide discussion and work out a common understanding of quality.”
  • Alexander Wallner, NetApp
    Alexander Wallner, Senior Vice President & General Manager EMEA, NetApp
    “Today’s businesses run on digitized data. In this data-driven world, 24/7 systems availability and the ability to react in real-time are indispensable – any interruption to core business applications threatens a company’s ability to execute, putting itself and customers at risk. We are proud to be a founding member of the Zero Outage Industry Standard initiative to improve the quality of IT infrastructure.”
  • Richard Nicolas, Chief Customer Office Dell
    Richard Nicolas, Chief Customer Office Dell
    “Dell focuses on delivering the best technology, service, end-to-end processes and security to enable industries around the world to conduct business continuously with zero interruption. To achieve this, we are a member of the Zero Outage Association, where we focus on eliminating outages while navigating the digital shift and resiliency in a world of heterogeneous ICT."
  • Bernd Leukert, Member of the Executive Board, SAP SE, Products & Innovation
    Bernd Leukert, Member of the Executive Board, Products & Innovation, SAP SE
    “For more than four decades now, SAP customers rely on high availability of mission critical systems for their core business processes. Today they expect a 24/7 service availability that includes the Internet of Things, real-time and mobile use cases. With the Zero Outage Industry Standard Association we want to improve overall IT capabilities with Zero Outage as our ultimate goal."
  • Michael Jores, Regional Director Central Europe SUSE
    Michael Jores, Regional Director Central Europe SUSE
    “Service uptime is key in today’s digital age. Expectations for reliable and round-the-clock access require companies to ensure availability through leading-edge business processes and mission-critical-enabled infrastructure. Together with partners, SUSE is committed to provide this reliable infrastructure. Joining with Zero Outage will provide new insight and practices to enable today’s companies to deliver secure, reliable services and solutions.”
  • Michael Jores, Regional Director Central Europe SUSE
    Daniel Dalle Carbonare, Vice President, EMEA Central Region & General Manager Germany Hitachi Data Systems
    “Hitachi Data Systems solutions and services help to provide a basis for successful digital transformation with a unified and strategic approach to a company’s most valuable and strategic asset: Its data. For over 100 years, we have been known for highest service levels and data availability and know that availability is paramount in our era of maximum business continuity. We are honored and very pleased to be a founding member or the Zero Outage Consortium in order to shape strategies and requirements for the benefit of always-on businesses and societies.”
  • Logo IBM
    Bernhard J. Klingenberg, CTO, IBM Resiliency Services
    “In today’s digitized world, ‘always-on’ services and solutions are paramount for IBM clients and customers. IBM has a proud tradition of supporting open source communities and industry collaborations, and always strives to serve our clients’ interests in an integrated and unified way. We are honored to contribute our experience as a leading services integrator to this new standard with the Zero Outage Industry Standard Association to encourage the continued availability and reliability of IT infrastructures today and in the future.”