Background
Hireko Golf was started in 1981 in Los Angeles as a mail order catalog retailer of golf components. Hireko’s unique combination of low price and massive selection of club head models enabled hobbyists, mom-and-pop shops, and golf retailers to provide custom-fitted and custom-assembled golf clubs at lower prices than off-the-rack clubs from major brand names.
Now headquartered in City of Industry, CA, Hireko’s stable of recognized club making brands include Acer and Juggernaut, SK Fiber golf shafts, and Karma golf grips. Hireko is also an authorized reseller of several major aftermarket component brands including Winn Grips, Lamkin Grips, and True Temper Shafts. Hireko also distributes its products on Amazon, eBay, WalMart and Facebook.
Leased IBM 8286-41A At V7.3 Using VAI
Hireko has run its operation with VAI software. Most recently, Hireko supported users with an IBM 8286-41A at V7.3.
No IT Staff, Limited In House Skills
Richard Lin, Executive Vice President, explains, “We do not have an IT staff. We no longer want an on premise server that can break down, get damaged, or stops operating. We have limited in house skills to recover from this kind of disruption. More of our business is now online.”
IBM Price Increases For Lease Renewal & Support – Consider Cloud Hosting Option
“We have been leasing our IBM 8286-41A. We were looking at renewing our lease and IBM support. With IBM’s big increase for support pricing, we decided to consider IBM i cloud hosting.”
Software Provider Hosting Very Expensive – Selection Narrows to Cloud400
“We determined our software provider’s hosting services were very expensive. After we shopped around, we narrowed our selection down to Cloud400. They had the experience and pricing that made sense for us. Cloud400 also had experience hosting VAI.”
Without IT Staff, Testing Was Stop And Go
“We really don’t have an IT staff, so our testing was stop-and-go based on me and my co-workers’ availability. The VAI technical and integration were helpful in the process.”
Smooth Hosting, Web Integration Critical To Operation
“Because we do business with several online stores like Amazon and eBay, smooth hosting and web integration is critical to our operation. Testing our EDI was a little tricky but we got through it.”
Cloud400 Technical Team Professional, Knowledgeable, Responsive, Easy To Work With
“I found the Cloud400 technical team to be professional, courteous, knowledgeable, responsive and easy-to-work with. Setting up our firewall VPN connections, my production Cloud400 LPAR and scheduled Virtual Tape Library was all pretty straight-forward.
“To be candid, before Cloud400 go live I was a little anxious. I was pleasantly surprised that everything went so smoothly. The Cloud400 technical team were great to work with.”
Richard Lin Recommends Cloud400
“I would definitely recommend Cloud400. If you don’t want to deal with hardware anymore, Cloud400 is an excellent choice. Not having to deal with hardware, maintenance support calls and backup are fewer things I have to worry about.”
