Background
Cal-State Auto Parts (Cal-State Auto) has been serving Ford and General Motors (GM) auto dealers, independent repair shops and auto fleets since 1971. While auto dealers are limited to the number of weekly orders they can place with Ford and GM, Cal-State Auto is an auto parts expediter and can deliver multiple times to a customer on any given day…something Ford and GM cannot do. Headquartered in Anaheim and San Diego, Cal-State Auto has 12 locations in California, Oregon and Nevada.
IBM 8202-E4B At V7.1 With 800 Users
Cal-State Auto had supported 800 users in 12 locations with its back-level 8202-E4B at V7.1 with DST, an auto parts distribution software. Cal-State Auto had received notification that IBM planned to discontinue their hardware and software support. Hosting Microsoft Outlook was successful so IBM i hosting became an option to evaluate.
MS Outlook Already Moved To Cloud Several Years Ago
IT Manager Max Madrigal explains, “We first started thinking about hosting when we moved our Microsoft Outlook to the cloud a few years ago.
“We were pleased with the results. Hosting helped us with issues of hardening our infrastructure, dealing with redundant power and all that other stuff you do to provide continuity.”
EOS Notification Starts Cloud Consideration Again
“So when IBM notified us that our 8202-E4B was going to be End Of Service September 30, 2019, we decided to consider hosting instead of an on premise server.”
Hosting Offers More Pros Than Cons
Systems Programmer Bob Reese adds, “We decided that hosting offered more pros than an on premise server, so we went ahead with the Cloud400 60 day trial.”
Cloud400 60 Day Free Trial Tremendously Helpful
“The Cloud400 60-day trial was tremendously helpful. It allowed us to test our hosted environment against our live system to validate everything worked properly before committing to it. It made us feel a lot better and understand what needed to be done.”
Bob adds, “During the testing phase we set up dual workstation sessions so we could compare our legacy system with our Cloud400 hosted system. Our users could compare old versus new. They could see from the Cloud400 test system that our programs worked the same and the data come up. From the order entry application, they could generate pick tickets for the printer. This gave our users confidence with this new approach.
“Max had the users hitting the Cloud400 test system pretty hard to make sure there was no data missing and the programs came up right.
“We tested all the printers to make sure they worked properly with Cloud400.
“We also tested our Motorola Symbol MC9090 handheld barcode readers so our warehouse teammates had confidence with Cloud400.”
We Updated All Of Our Locations With Meraki Firewalls
Max explains, “As part of this project, we decided this would be a good time to upgrade our network with new firewalls. We updated all of our locations with Meraki firewalls. We also decided to host a Meraki firewall with Cloud400.”
Cloud400 Team – IBM i Experts – Knowledgeable, Accommodating, and Attentive
Bob continues, “I found the Cloud400 technical team to be very knowledgeable, accommodating and attentive. They were great.”
Go Live – Easy, Smooth
“When we prepared to go live, Cloud400’s senior engineer Darren explained to us how to get our last Friday backup overnighted with Delta Dash from LAX. He picked the tape up at 6:00 am Saturday morning from the Minneapolis airport and went directly to the Cloud400 production data center to get us live.
“The cutover went very smoothly. Whatever they needed to do, they got it done.
“The Cloud400 technical team was impressive.”
Cloud400 Offers Business Continuity With IBM i Experts
“First, we found hosting to offer better continuity. If anything happened to our server at headquarters, like a power outage, our 800 users in all of our locations would be down for 30 minutes to an hour. With hosting, we can lose power and our locations continue to operate.
“When we do lose power locally, it may only affect us a minute or so. With an on premise server, it could be 30 minutes to an hour to bring down the server and bring it back up after a power loss.
“Second, we like that IBM i experts manage the server environment for us. For example, while I know how to do PTFs, I do them so rarely that I have to spend extra time researching the process. With hosting, I just ask to have the PTFs applied and it happens.”
We Absolutely Recommend Cloud400
When asked, both Max and Bob responded, “We absolutely recommend Cloud400. Just do it. The benefits are tremendous. The performance is excellent. The green screens are lightning fast. The physical security, the power redundancy and expert IBM i administration done for us. Just a lot less headaches. It’s nice to have Cloud400 take care of it for us. We are very happy with Cloud400.
“Since we went live, we have had 3 power failures in Anaheim that affected our office. Our branch offices continued to run smoothly without disruption. That is the fault-tolerance we want.”
