Custom Environment Request Process and Expectations

Custom Request Runbook – public document 

Overview 

Most of the TechZone services are provided through self-service reservation system, which includes hundreds of reservable environments grouped in multiple collections.  Many collections are owned and curated by IBMers skilled and knowledgeable in their field.  While the TechZone certified base image collection is wholly owned and supported by the TechZone team. 

Sometimes TechZone users have a need that cannot be met with self-service reservations, and for that TechZone provides a process to manage these as custom requests. 

• Ensure that you have searched the IBM Technology Zone site for an environment that will provide what you need. Get starting searching for environments here.
• Understand that TechZone does not provide technical services, you will be granted access to cloud or on premise infrastructure.
• Understand the durations. Custom requests are not persistent but are granted for initial 30 days, and can be extended twice up to 90 days.
• You assume responsibility for the care and maintenance of the solutions you build in the TechZone allocated infrastructure.
• For many requests including, Complex, Customer data, and on-premises environment requests you must provide an ISC opportunity code with a minimum size of $250K to be reviewed.
  Providing a valid $250K opportunity code does not guarantee an approval as resources, capacity, and budget are considered with each request.
• Non-Customer facing purposes, Practice / Self Education and Test, are not permitted at this time for custom requests. Custom Requests are only reserved for customer facing engagements.

Types of Custom Requests 

Through several years of experience, we categorize custom requests into several categories. 

Cloud accounts 

Requestor needs console level administrative access to a hyperscaler cloud account.  TechZone can provide access to IBM Cloud, Azure, and AWS for properly vetted requests. 

On-premises environments 

Data center space for custom builds, benchmarking, and hardware hosting.  Techzone can provide space, network connections, racks, including power heating and cooling for special projects. 

All requests for benchmarking projects and similar must adhere to the TechZone benchmarking policy. 

What to expect with Custom Requests 

Making the Request 

Make the request in the same way you make requests for TechZone reservations.  The Custom request form can be found from IBM Technology Zone site.  Select the 9-dot menu from the top navigation bar, then select ‘Custom request'.

1. Select one of the tiles from the Custom Request Journey of the TechZone Certified Base Images 

2. Select Demo or Pilot. Test and Education are not allowable choices. 

3. Select a Region 

4. Add your ISC Opportunity Code

5. Add your business Justification, explain why you need the request and why a standard self-reservation will not work:Select the desired start date, the default  end date may vary but will be modified for a default 30 days. 

6. Acknowledge all acknowlegements, Select your desired infra, market, organization and any appropriate notes. 

7. Submit for approval implies agreement with all Techzone terms and conditions 

8. You will receive an email verifying the request 

Evaluation 

Allow 3-5 business days for a response.  

The request is routed to appropriate personnel on the Techzone team for evaluation.   TechZone team makes a determination if they can  

• move forward for onboarding,  

• deny the request,  

• or if more information is needed. 

An SME from the team may reach out for more information by message to the requestor if more information is needed. 

The most common reasons a request is denied are: 

• The requestor was unaware that a suitable environment was available via a self-service reservation. 

• The opportunity size does not support the request. 

• The requestor does not provide enough information and does not respond to requests for more information. 

• The request is out of scope of what TechZone can do,  

• for example, the request is out of scope of TechZones benchmarking policy. 

Onboarding 

However, if the request is approved the reservation will be moved to the scheduled state and then to the ready state.  The custom request reservation in both cases serve as the source of truth of an approved and activated custom request reservation. 

For environments with full automation 

such as cloud environments, the provisioning is automatic, and the reservation details page will include login information like this, including information on logging in. 

For environments that are provisioned manually: 

The custom request is a stub that represents a provisionally managed environment, and does not refelct that the environment is ready. 

• In this case an onboarding agent from TechZone will reach out to you and provide you with login credentials or access information and verify you are onboarded. 

Active Requests 

You will have 30 days' access to the environment with up to two 30 day extensions for a maximum of 90 days.  VP approval is required to go beyond 90 days.  You may reach out to your onboarding agent with any questions but are expected to provide your own skills appropriate to the level of environment you have requested. 

Expired Requests 

It is important to keep an eye on expiration dates, you will be also sent emails warning of expiration dates. 

When the environment expires, we will message you to verify the end of the project and that the environment can be decommissioned. 

Automatically provisioned environments will run clean up scripts upon expiration that remove resources.   

Decommissioning Environment. 

All environments will be decommissioned to IBM ITSS standards to permanently remove all artifacts. 

Project completion 

Records of completed custom request projects will be saved per ITSS standards.