IBM i — Managed Services
Fully Managed IBM i — So Your Team Can Focus on the Business
Paragon’s IBM i Managed Services give you a dedicated team of experts handling day-to-day operations, monitoring, administration, and support — without adding headcount.
What’s covered
Everything Your IBM i Needs — Minus the Headcount
Our managed services clients get proactive administration, not just reactive support. We’re watching your system before you know something is wrong.
Proactive assessment
Start With an IBM i OS System Health Check
Before we propose a managed services engagement, we assess where your system actually stands. A System Health Check gives you a clear, documented picture of your environment — OS and PTF currency, security posture, backup and DR readiness, performance, and capacity — with specific findings and priorities, not a generic checklist.
It’s a low-commitment way to see what Paragon would be watching for you, whether or not you move forward with ongoing managed services.
What We Check
- OS release and PTF currency against IBM’s support schedule
- Security posture: user profiles, special authorities, object authorities
- Backup completion, retention, and last-tested restore
- Job queue, memory, and disk performance
- High availability / disaster recovery readiness
- Capacity headroom against current and projected workload
Service tiers
Scaled to Your Needs
Need a safety net for your in-house team, or a fully outsourced IBM i operation? We have a model that fits either one.
Monitoring & Alerting
24/7 system monitoring with defined alerting thresholds and escalation to your internal team. Ideal as a safety net when you have IBM i staff but want eyes on the system around the clock.
Proactive Administration
Everything in Monitoring plus hands-on administration: PTF management, backup oversight, user administration, and routine maintenance. Paragon handles the day-to-day.
Full Managed Operations
Complete operational ownership of your IBM i environment — monitoring, administration, application support, change management, and capacity planning. Built for organizations without dedicated IBM i staff.
Every environment
IBM i Managed Services for Every Environment
It doesn’t matter if your IBM i system is running in your own data center, a colocation facility, or a hosted environment. Paragon can provide the expertise and ongoing support needed to keep it running reliably.
Support for On-Premise IBM i
Keep your existing IBM i infrastructure while giving your internal team access to experienced IBM i professionals. Paragon can provide monitoring, administration, security management, PTF management, backup oversight, and ongoing operational support.
Support for Hosted IBM i
Already using an IBM i hosting provider? Paragon can provide managed services independently of your hosting arrangement, giving your organization an experienced IBM i team to manage the operating system, applications, users, security, and day-to-day operations.
Support for Colocated IBM i
If your IBM i is housed in a third-party data center, Paragon can provide remote management and administration while your existing facility continues to provide the physical infrastructure and connectivity.
Support Alongside Your IT Team
You don’t have to outsource your entire IT operation. Paragon can work alongside your existing IT department and take responsibility for the IBM i environment while your internal team focuses on the rest of your technology stack.
What’s included
What Does IBM i Managed Services Include?
Paragon’s IBM i managed services can cover the day-to-day operational responsibilities that keep your system secure, available, and performing as expected.
System Monitoring
We monitor critical IBM i resources and system activity — CPU and memory, disk capacity, job queues, subsystem status, and critical processes — to identify potential problems before they become business-impacting incidents.
IBM i Administration
Routine IBM i administration can become a significant burden for a small IT team. Paragon can handle day-to-day administrative tasks and help maintain a stable operating environment.
PTF & OS Management
Keeping IBM i current requires more than simply installing patches. Paragon can help evaluate PTF requirements, coordinate scheduled maintenance, apply updates, and plan operating system upgrades around your business requirements.
Backup & Recovery Management
Backups are only useful if they can actually be restored. Paragon monitors backup processes, reviews backup results, and can perform periodic recovery testing to help verify that your data is recoverable when you need it.
Security Administration
Paragon can assist with user profiles, authorities, security settings, access reviews, and other IBM i security administration tasks.
Application Support
When an IBM i application isn’t behaving as expected, you have an experienced team available to investigate the issue, determine whether the problem is related to the application or the underlying system, and coordinate escalation when necessary.
Key person risk
What Happens When Your IBM i Expert Retires?
For many organizations, IBM i knowledge is concentrated in one or two people who have spent years learning the company’s systems, applications, processes, and customizations. When that person retires or leaves, replacing that knowledge can be difficult.
Paragon provides an experienced IBM i team that can supplement or replace internal IBM i expertise, so your environment doesn’t depend on one person’s memory.
Not sure whether that means full outsourcing or something lighter? Our guide to when outsourcing makes sense walks through both sides of that decision.
What That Knowledge Actually Covers
- Custom applications and integrations
- Job schedules and operational routines
- Security configuration and user authorities
- Backup procedures and business-critical processes
Don’t Let One Person Become a Single Point of Failure.
With managed IBM i services, your organization gains access to a team rather than relying on a single administrator. Documentation, procedures, system knowledge, and operational responsibilities can be shared across the team, helping reduce the risk associated with losing a key employee.
Immediate response
Crisis Continuity: Immediate Support for Unexpected Staff Departures
A planned retirement gives you time to prepare. An unexpected departure doesn’t — a sudden resignation, a termination, or a medical emergency can leave your IBM i system with no one who knows how it actually runs, sometimes overnight.
Paragon provides emergency coverage for exactly this situation. We can start stabilizing your environment — monitoring, PTF status, backup verification, and day-to-day operations — within days of the call, while we work with you on a longer-term plan.
When Clients Call Us for This
- Sudden resignation or termination of the only person who managed IBM i
- Medical leave or emergency with no documented backup coverage
- A layoff or restructuring that eliminated IBM i staff
- A contractor or support relationship that ended abruptly
Compare
IBM i Managed Services vs. Hiring In-House
Hiring a dedicated IBM i administrator can make sense for some organizations. But for many companies, relying on a single employee creates its own risks.
An in-house administrator may have vacation, sick days, retirement plans, or eventually leave the organization. A single employee also can’t realistically provide 24/7 monitoring and support without additional staff.
With Paragon IBM i Managed Services, your organization gains access to a team of IBM i professionals without having to build an entire IBM i support organization internally.
| In-house IBM i administrator | Paragon managed services |
|---|---|
| One primary resource | Team-based expertise |
| Limited after-hours coverage | 24/7 monitoring options |
| Recruitment and retention required | No IBM i hiring required |
| Knowledge may reside with one person | Shared documentation and expertise |
| Training and certifications are your responsibility | Experienced IBM i professionals |
| Employee availability can affect coverage | Defined support and escalation procedures |
Managed services don’t have to replace your IT department. Paragon can supplement your existing team and provide specialized IBM i expertise where you need it most.
Reporting & visibility
You Always Know What’s Happening
Managed services shouldn’t be a black box. Paragon clients receive regular operational reports covering performance, incidents handled, PTF status, backup success rates, and upcoming maintenance windows.
You shouldn’t have to call and ask whether last night’s backup ran, or whether the PTFs we discussed last quarter ever got applied. The reporting is built to answer those questions before you think to ask them — and to give whoever you report to internally something concrete to point at.
Monthly Operational Report
System health summary, incident log, PTF status, backup history, and performance trending.
Named Account Manager
A single point of contact who knows your environment and your business priorities.
Defined SLAs
Response time SLAs for critical, high, and standard priority incidents — in writing, in your contract.
“Paragon’s IBM i managed services have allowed us to focus on scaling our business without worrying about system maintenance or security.”Paragon Managed Services Client
FAQ
Managed Services Questions
Can managed services work alongside our in-house IT team?
Yes — and this is very common. Many clients have a general IT team that handles everything except IBM i. Paragon covers the IBM i layer while your staff focuses on the rest.
What happens when something breaks at 2 AM?
For Full Managed Operations clients, Paragon’s on-call team is monitoring and will respond to critical alerts around the clock. Response procedures are defined in your service agreement.
Do you support IBM i systems we host ourselves?
Yes. Managed services are available for on-premise and colocation IBM i environments, not just Paragon-hosted systems. We’ll need secure remote access via VPN or equivalent.
How does onboarding work?
We start with a full environment assessment to document your system, applications, job streams, and current procedures. This typically takes 2–4 weeks and becomes the runbook for your managed services team.
Take IBM i off Your Plate
Tell us about your environment and we’ll show you what a managed services engagement would cover — and what it costs.
Discuss managed services Call 800-966-6725