In an effort to get more of its System/390 Parallel Enterprise Servers out of the door, IBM Credit Corp has come up with Total Solution Lease, where a monthly fee gets you hardware, software, maintenance and services. Lessees of the 12 models of the System 390s launched last month (CI No 2,683), can get leases for 36, 48 or 60 months, and leasing has to be the best option because residual values will be vestigial. They can also get version-to-version software upgrades on the base operating systems provided with the Entry Server Offering. The new machines form the basis of the Parallel Sysplex Clusters IBM has been touting for some time: although there appears to be only one site of these strung together mainframes in the US, IBM has said 100 companies have the hardware to build a cluster and it sees the leasing programme as a way of getting existing customers to migrate to the new processors. If users are concerned about obsolescence they can choose the Technology Upgrade Option, but this locks them into a minimum of a four and a half year contract and increases costs. Customers are allowed to increase system capacity by 30% to 60% within 18 to 24 months of their initial 36-month lease. At that time, the lease is extended for 36 months, resulting in a total term of 54 to 60 months, and payments rise 10% to cover hardware upgrade, software model group change on operating systems and optional software, and additional maintenance and services. The option is available to customers that installed 9672 models through leases offered last year. To be eligible for the new leasing option, customers must install the new systems by January 31 1996.
