The installation and configuration time vary based on the setup, ranging from one to two days for a single server to a week for more complex scenarios involving clusters or VM deployments.

Regarding maintenance, it depends on the availability of parts and skilled engineers. Finding suitable engineers in the market is difficult, and IBM may outsource maintenance tasks.

IBM smooth start services provides the complete initial setup for PowerVM. The Engineers deputed to implement the solution have very good understanding of the solution and guides the customer in every step of the way.

It requires some skill, of course, because you need somebody who knows IBM systems. However, it is not complex.

It was implemented by IBM Labs. I will rate their expertise on implementing IBM infrastructure for Oracle database, middleware and e-business suite ERP system as excellent. They implemented a full-fledged high availability with (1) PowerHA failover clustering and (2) Oracle Data Guard based disaster recovery

We have support from our vendor that assists us. 

The current Power VM that we have, has an upgrade from a previous solution. The integration was within Power VM itself.

We used a third party to do the implementation of the solution.

We began with this solution by ourselves, but we have enlisted the assistance of a partner who does all of the updates.

We had help from IBM engineers.