Glossary Term

Third-Party Maintenance (TPM)

Hardware support and parts sourcing provided by an independent service organization once a system has passed IBM's own end of service life date.

Definition

Third-party maintenance providers take over break-fix service, diagnostics, and parts sourcing for hardware IBM no longer services directly under standard support. TPM extends the working life of existing hardware and gives buyers a predictable support cost and continuity plan instead of running unsupported equipment with no service path.

TPM does not restore IBM firmware development. A TPM contract keeps hardware serviced and running, but a workload that genuinely needs new IBM firmware or PTFs going forward still requires a migration to a currently supported generation.

Example

A shop running Power9 past its End of Standard Service date might sign a TPM contract to keep the system serviced for another year while a Power11 migration is planned and budgeted.