“With The Plan To Close Our Calabasas Office, And Our Target Server At End Of Life Within A Year, We Really Had No Other Location To Place An iTera HA Backup Server For Continuity.
“Our Experience With Cloud400 Is At The Top Of The List.”
Background
Based in Irvine, CA, Western Mutual Insurance Group writes direct property and casualty insurance in Arizona, California, Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah and Texas.
IBM 8203-E4A And iTera To IBM 9406-520 Target
An IBM 8203-E4A server supports Western Mutual’s 100 users. For Disaster Recovery, iTera High Availability (HA) software replicates the production system to a 9406-520 target server located in Western Mutual’s Calabasas office.
In late 2017, Western Mutual planned to close their Calabasas office. In March of 2017, Paul began a search for an IBM i hosting provider to replace the target server and still maintain iTera HA replication for Disaster Recovery.
Planned Office Closure Starts Search For Hosting
Paul explains, “We had looked at buying another on-premise server to replace the 9406-520 target to host ourselves. We determined that was an expensive proposition. Factors that made the target on-premise server more expensive included the additional cost of renting space at a data center, the related costs for connectivity and bandwidth, and having IBM i expertise to travel to that location to do onsite work as needed. When we compared the cost of the on-premise solution to the cost of hosting, hosting made more economic sense.”
Internet Search For IBM Hosting Leads To Cloud400
Paul continues, “With the plan to close our Calabasas office and our target server at end of life within a year, we really had no other location to place an iTera HA backup server for continuity. We searched the internet and found a few IBM i hosting providers, including Cloud400.”
Cloud400 Client References Help Evaluation
“We found Cloud400 competent, accessible and competitively priced. The client testimonials and references were very helpful for me in the evaluation process. The Cloud400 team was easily accessible. That made it easy for me to assess.”
Moving iTera To Cloud400. “Everything Went Very Well.”
“My IT team worked with Cloud400 to move our iTera target from the 9406-520 in Calabasas to Cloud400.
“We had a very good experience with the Cloud400 team getting our hosted system ready, reinstalling iTera at Cloud400 and resynching our Irvine production server with Cloud400. Everything went very well.”
Very Pleased With Cloud400 iTera – Competitive Price, Professional Services
“We were also pleased with the Cloud400 iTera professional services. The price was very competitive and the work was reliable. The transition worked as expected. We encountered a few hiccups that related to iTera software keys and these were taken care of promptly. So, there were no issues whatsoever. This solution is perfect for us.”
Cloud400 IBM i Expertise Supports Western Mutual Into Future
“We are currently in the process of transitioning from our AS/400 platform to a SQL based system. With this and our desire to augment our staff and existing AS/400 contracted expertise, we feel that Cloud400 offers us a backstop with our target machine and our operation.”
Paul Calvet Recommends Cloud400
“We have worked with other vendors to outsource various operational activities. Our experience with Cloud400 is at the top of the list. They have the experts for the Vision iTera software that we use. On the 400-side, Cloud400 has the IBM i expertise to provide a smooth transition and augment IBM support ongoing.”