Organic Dairy With New POWER i Boosts Performance 450%,
Migrates Smoothly With 4-Hour Version Upgrade,
And Saves $19,000.
Background
Clover Stornetta Farms is an organic dairy in Petaluma, California. Its customers include Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s, Safeway, Costco and SavMart.
Clover Stornetta supported its 150 users with an IBM 9406-810 with 1040 CPW, 4 GB memory, 388 GB of usable disk, 4 com lines, 16 fax lines, and 3 Ethernet ports.
Ken Kuhn is Former Director of Software Development; he developed the custom software used by Clover Stornetta.
The 9406-810 Needed Replacing And Ken Wanted To Make A Quantum Change.
As Ken explains, “Our 9406-810 was old. We struggled with disk drive failures, down-level OS400 version, and other stuff – so I knew it was about time to replace the box. I knew in replacing it I wanted to make a quantum change.
“We had been using another Business Partner for about 15 years or so. When it came time to look at replacing our 9406-810, we called them again. I was disappointed because they were slow to respond and quoted an oversized server with unlimited users that could not support our fax lines.”
Source Data’s Solution 450% Faster, Retains 16 Fax Lines And Saves $19,400
“So that was the situation and then Source Data came along with a very different a solution. After the assessment, Bob Losey proposed an IBM POWER i server that was 450% faster than our 9406-810. It was right-sized for our workloads, our active concurrent user count and it reused our 16 fax lines, saving us over $19,400! He even showed us that by adding additional disk units his proposed server would outperform the server proposed by the other business partner.”
Weekend Install Always Tiring
“In the past when we bought an AS400, we brought it into our shop, IBM came and set it up. We would have our old AS400 sitting next to it. We would take the information out of one box on tape, or whatever, and we would feed it into the new machine. It would take a couple of days to do this before we would be up and running at 100%.”
SDP’s 4-Hour Version Upgrade – What A Wonderful Concept
“Source Data Products offered a service that I had never heard of. They call it the ‘4-Hour Version Upgrade’. What a wonderful concept. We bought the new POWER i and it was delivered to the Source Data tech center. We sent a tape to Source Data and they preloaded our new machine at their tech location. So most of the work was already done when the machine was delivered to us. We just added the things that had changed since we sent the tape.
“I admit I was stressing a little bit with this approach at first – making sure that we didn’t miss any pieces. It was a new way of doing it – I had never done it before and I wasn’t certain how the integrity was going to be. And it ended up working fine. But I was kind of scared going through it.
“The ‘4-Hour Version Upgrade’ is a neat service. I’d never heard of anybody doing it but it makes so much sense. Source Data does all the analysis, version upgrade and testing at their location which then cuts down install time at our location. The last time we did an install on our old 720, we started on a Saturday morning and we didn’t get done until midnight Sunday night. It was just a nightmare. The longer you work, the more tired you get and the more mistakes you make. SDP’s solution was wonderful – it was completed in a fraction of the time.”
We Get Full Service From Source Data Products
“Source Data assigned Mark Breisacher as my tech — what a nice guy. He’s smart. He understood what he was doing. Definitely did a good job.
“We get full service from SDP. I can quickly get answers to my technical questions and IBM marketing questions without having to go from salesman to technical person.”
Source Data’s Interesting Letters Catch Ken’s Attention
“I’ve been in the industry for years,” Ken explains. “I started in 1965. I started working in the computer room of Standard Oil. Back in the old card days. So I’ve been around computers for years, back when the IBM System/38 was called the ‘Future System’ or ‘FS’. It was Buck Rogers to me then and always has been.
“When you are an IT person you are really busy,” Ken continues. “But if you can get letters in the mail that are short and concise, and are kind of interesting like the ones SDP sends out, that really catches your attention. As the letters came in, I would look at them and read them and go ‘Wow’. So I would put them off to the side and go back and read them again later.”
Source Data Newsletters Help Ken Explain OS400 Capabilities To Management
“We have users asking questions, wondering about that ‘old’ AS400 … ‘it should be thrown away’ … ‘it’s a piece of junk’ … things like that. As a technical person you know in your heart that this is the greatest machine ever made and if you have somebody that sends you a letter about it – my goodness, you’re going to look at that letter. Every time I read one of SDP’s articles or newsletters, I would think, ‘Wow, finally there is somebody I can talk to that really understands the OS400 technology.’
“The letters and newsletters caught my eye because of the topics. Besides ‘single-level storage’, another topic was ‘Why Is AS400 Better Than Windows’. Explaining the benefits of OS400, its reliability and how it simplifies systems management are the kinds of issues we IT folks struggle to explain to management and users so that it makes sense to them. The Source Data newsletters really help with that.”
“I Want An IBM Business Partner That Really Understands OS400 And Helps Me With Complex IT Choices. I Really Can’t Ask Google For That!”
When asked about what he wants from an IBM Business Partner, Ken explained, “What I need from an IT supplier is somebody who can support me with complex decisions about technology. So what I want is a company that understands IBM POWER i and OS400; that has people that are easy to talk to and knows what they are doing; and is honest. So I can’t really ask Google for that!”
Source Data Products Is On My Side … And On My Team.
“I want somebody that is on my side. That I feel is on my team … that you can call anytime with a problem. Someone you can ask ‘do you know where I can go to help me solve it’. It’s that kind a friendly relationship that you want to have with somebody that you trust that you can buy stuff from … that can give you references that will help you. You want somebody that is in touch with many other people, that has varied experiences, knows a lot, and for me, Source Data fits the bill perfectly.
“Those are really the things I need. I need an IBM Business Partner that is easy to talk with, that’s helpful, that knows the technology and knows a lot of things about our business to help me make some decisions that are going to make me a star.”
Source Data Is So Much More Spectacular Than Any Other Business Partner. We Get Extreme Value.
“I enthusiastically recommend Source Data Products for POWER i and OS400.
“I feel Source Data is on my team. They helped me with a variety of issues, like how to best configure my server, what IBM software I need and what IBM software I don’t need. They even had expertise accessible to analyze peripheral technologies like IPv4 compared to IPv6. Source Data has been around so long that they have expert resources all over the country to draw from for quick answers – I am talking minutes not days. So, having a resourceful and expert team like that who will show us the different options, that’s what makes Source Data so much more spectacular than any other Business Partner.
“It is such an extreme value. It’s saving me so much money. It’s saving my job. It’s saving my company money.”