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fritschn
VMware Employee
VMware Employee

Proactive Support with VMware Skyline - Feature and Benefit Comparison

Proactive support with VMware Skyline is available to customers who have an active production support or premier services contract, at no additional cost.  We are preparing to invite additional customers as we continue to scale the availability of proactive support.  While proactive support with Skyline is available at no additional cost, the features and delivery of proactive support will be tiered, based upon the level of support contract the customer owns (production support / premier services).

Attached is a feature and benefits comparison of proactive support with Skyline. The features and benefits detailed within the attachment are in addition to the features and benefits you already receive within your current support contract.  For premier services customers, proactive support will now be part of the discussion during your support review meetings.  Again, this is in addition to a dedicated support team assigned to your account and direct access to senior-level technical support engineers.

If you are currently a production support customer and want to have a more in-depth conversation about how premier services can help you, please contact your VMware Account Representative. They can help you determine whether premier services is right for you.

If you are interested in VMware premier services and want additional information, follow the links below:

We would love to hear your feedback on proactive support, the Skyline technology or anything else that could help shape the service in the future.  You can reply to this discussion or start a new discussion within the Skyline Community. Thank you.

Nick Fritsch,
VMware Technical Marketing Manager
4 Replies
jbgorrie
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

I agree there needs to be a line between the two supports, but I expected the line to be around the automated vs. manual task.  By this I mean if you can automate it, it goes in production, but if it requires design skill or a person to review and work with the data then premier. 

Looking at the PDF it seems that some of the things I would have expected to be included in the production one are not.  Please understand this is based on the PDF, so maybe it is just me parsing the sheet incorrectly, and if so, then please let me know (or include additional text on the comparison - I actually tried to look for more detail on it).

For example the security hardening - I expect that most of the security best practices that Mike Foley talks (the former hardening guide) about would be checked and reported with the whole product.

Depending on how you understand security compliance too - if it is the attestation that the system is setup for PCI-DSS and can provide statements to the auditors of said compliance - sure make that premier, but just aligning with best practices - that should be production.

So I think the best way is to have an expanded PDF that talks more to what is meant by each of the points (then I can actually speak to the real points, not what I think the points are).

--

J

fritschn
VMware Employee
VMware Employee

jbgorrie

Hello, and thank you for your feedback.  I agree, additional context and detail could be needed if you were trying to make an educated decision on which level of support is right for you, based upon what is available within proactive support for Production Support customers versus Premier Services customers.

We wanted to make customers aware that proactive support services with Skyline will be tiered based upon the level of support contract.  We want to make sure we're setting the correct expectations for our customers before they adopt proactive support. The last thing we would want is a production support customer to adopt proactive support thinking they were going to receive a feature that is only available to premier services customers.  However, I agree with you that the proactive support feature and benefit comparison needs additional context and detail. We will be sure to incorporate your feedback into the next version of the proactive support with Skyline feature and benefit comparison.

Furthermore, we also wanted to share the available channels available, from the Skyline Community for Production Support customers to a dedicated support account team for Premier Services customers.

We'll be sure to take this feedback and incorporate it into additional content that provides more details regarding what is available within proactive support for each tier of support (production/premier). If you have any other questions or comments please let us know. Thank you.

Nick Fritsch,
VMware Technical Marketing Manager
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JarisDetroye
Contributor
Contributor

I would be curious to know how this product contrasts with the VMware Support Assistant appliance.

I am currently in the process of implementing the Support Assistant appliance and would like to know if VMware is planning to deprecate that product to favor the Skyline appliance instead.

Thank you.

ashwin_prakash
VMware Employee
VMware Employee

Sorry for delayed response.

VMware has made the decision to stop all development on Support Assistant and migrate customers to VMware Skyline. There will be no new Support Assistant releases and therefore, no reported bugs will be fixed. This will enable better alignment across product groups and optimize our resources toward one proactive support service. Skyline is the strategic proactive support technology that VMware continues to invest in and evolve to meet the needs of our customers. Skyline will offer the functionality that Support Assistant has been offering to date, plus additional features and benefits as the technology matures.

Please find the link below which has more insight on End of Life for vCenter Support Assistant

https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/59166?lang=en_US

Sincerely,
Ashwin Prakash
Skyline Support Moderator
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