1. What is IBM Technology Zone?

IBM Technology Zone is a centralized platform offering demo-related content and live environments for IBMers, Business Partners, and Clients.
It enables users to:

• - Reserve live environments at no cost.
• - Customize environments for client-specific use cases.
• - Co-create and share environments with peers.
• - Access a wide variety of demo content and resources.

2. Who Can Access TechZone?

• - IBMers: Access via TechZone Hub on W3 using W3ID.
• - Business Partners: Access via Seismic TechZone Hub.
• - Clients: Limited access via IBMid to view and use shared environments.

3. Why Use TechZone?

• - Centralized access to demo content and environments.
• - Free reservations for IBMers and Business Partners.
• - Customization and collaboration capabilities.
• - Community-driven content sharing to reduce rework.

4. What is Not Allowed

• - No real customer data in environments.
• - Not for product development, stress testing, or benchmarking.
• - No admin-level access in granted and shared accounts are used.
• - No long-term reservations environments beyond 90 days policy limits.

5. Key Terminology

• - Resource: Content like demo scripts or videos.
• - Environment: Live infrastructure for demos.
• - Journey: Guided path through resources and environments.
• - Collection: Group of related resources and environments.

6. Collection Standards

• - Community: Contributed content, not tested.
• - Recommended: TechZone-approved, tested, and supported.
• - Certified: Fully tested, maintained by TechZone, with highest priority support.

7. Content Preferences and Search

• - Set preferences by brand, offering, and language.
• - Use filters to narrow search results.
• - Bookmark searches for quick access.
• - Use visibility filters to find Business Partner-accessible content.

8. Environments & Reservations

Finding Environments:

• - Use the search bar and filters (e.g., IBM Cloud, AWS, Azure).
• - Start with the Certified Base Images collection.
   

Making a Reservation:

• - Choose purpose (Demo, Pilot, Education, Test).
• - Duration and extension limits depend on purpose and infrastructure.
• - Provide IBM Sales Cloud opportunity code for longer durations.
   

Reservation Actions:

• - Extend: Add more time within policy limits.
• - Share: Grant access to others.
• - Transfer: Change ownership.
• - Delete: Free up capacity.
• - Update: Modify reservation details.

9. Workshop Manager

• - Request multiple environments for training events.
• - Assign attendees and manage access.
• - Schedule workshops via the environment card.

10. Contributing to TechZone

Who Can Contribute:

• - IBMers and Business Partners (with Brand Squad leader alignment).
   

Creating a Collection:

• - IBMers use the “Share your content” button.
• - Business Partners contact Brand Squad leaders.

• - Save and reuse customized environments to a collection for future reuse.
• - Available for IBM Cloud, VPC, and VMWare environments only.
   

Metrics and Usage Insights:

• - View and track page views, clicks, and reservation data.
• - Access via the ellipsis (...) menu on your collection. 
• - Useful for understanding content engagement.

11. Support Options

• Types of Support:
• - Content Support: Contact content authors listed on the collection.
• - Infrastructure Support: Use the support form (question mark (?) icon to submit a case) or email techzone.help@ibm.com.

Self-Service Support:

• - Visit the Support Page for FAQs and runbooks.
• - Watch for site-wide alerts posted at the top of the site

Use AskTZ, the virtual assistant, to:

•   - Get instant answers.
•   - Open support cases.
•   - Extend reservations.

12. Staying Informed

• - IBMers: Join the #itz-techzone-announcements Slack channel.
• - Business Partners: Use the notifications page on TechZone.
• - Submit enhancement ideas via the Aha portal (IBMers only).