Affordable Cloud Hosted DR
“You can actually get an iSeries in the cloud! I thought the idea was awesome.”
Background
Team Worldwide is a diversified transportation and logistics services provider located in Winnsboro, Texas. Founded in 1979 by Joe E. Brunson and his son Bobby J. Brunson, Team Worldwide provides a wide range of transportation and logistics services for its customers. Team Worldwide has evolved from a traditional airfreight forwarder into a global logistics provider serving the US with over 40 domestic branch offices, offering ‘best in class’ service for clients around the globe. Their US network is supplemented with over 175 international agent/partner locations.
Michael Hart is Team Worldwide’s System and Network Administrator. As he says, “Team Worldwide moves a lot of freight which generates a lot of transactions into our iSeries database for freight management, location tracking services, as well as revenue and expense management.”
Custom Software Necessary
Michael continues, “We use third party software applications to develop custom iSeries software applications for our business. These applications make it possible to create freight documents, track the freight, collect revenue and pay expenses. Without access to our iSeries applications, our business would come to a standstill.”
Michael’s Background Includes Disaster Recovery
As Michael explains, “I came from a telephone background where we always had to have a disaster recovery plan. When I came to work here, I saw the need to develop a more robust DR plan.
Randy Loper, our IT Manager, came to Team Worldwide in 2008. He also had a telephone background and fully understands the importance of having strong DR plans. So around 2009, we started pushing for significant improvements in our disaster recovery capabilities.”
Not Much Mail So SDP Letter Stands Out
“I first heard about Cloud400 when Source Data Products sent me a letter. I don’t actually get that much mail, so it really stood out. It was 2 pages long – front and back. I had it on my desk for a month or two.”
SDP Cloud Letter Gets Worn Out
“I passed that letter around so much it was worn out by the time I got around to calling Source Data Products about Cloud400. I thought, ‘This is cool. You can actually get an iSeries in the cloud!’”
Time To Review DR Options
Michael recalls he talked to Source Data about a year earlier to learn about his various options. “We did not know what we wanted, what we could get or what we could afford. Source Data shared several approaches, from online cloud backup to hosted High Availability (HA) and Disaster Recovery(DR).
“Upon completion of Team Worldwide’s leadership transition in 2014, we renewed our efforts to explore options for improving our DR capabilities. We documented how much data we could lose in a disaster situation and presented some possible DR options to our CEO.”
A Little Bad Weather And Few Tornados Gets CEO Thinking
“We actually had some bad weather about that same time. We had a few tornados just south of us… not very far away. That made our CEO start thinking about the importance of our IT systems and data to our business. Our CEO directed that we develop a DR plan that would minimize data loss in a disaster situation to no more than a few minutes of data.”
All Costs Compared Over 10 Years
“The CEO wanted to get two quotes for an iSeries DR option. We actually got three but one was so ridiculously expensive we did not pursue it. We compared the two quotes for initial implementation costs and total costs over 3 to 10 years. We also looked at the cost of all of our software vendor licensing fees associated with the DR standby system. We had huge spreadsheets we worked on for weeks.”
Cloud400 Quote – Right Price With All The Options
“I liked the Cloud400 quote because it had all the prices we were looking for and all the options. It was really easy to understand. The Cloud400 quote was straightforward, complete, and to the point.”
Competing Proposal Includes Rental Software – Big Cost Long Term
“While the competing proposal was cheaper in the short run, they proposed to rent the MIMIX software to us. In the long run, their rental approach cost a lot more. But after 4 years, Cloud400 was significantly less expensive because we licensed the software up front. The Cloud400 savings were significant.”
Visit To Cloud400 Data Center – “Cool”
“After we made the decision to go with Cloud400 but before we finalized the contract, we wanted to visit the Cloud400 data center. It was cool to see the Cloud400 data center. It was pretty neat to walk through, and I also got a tour of their offices.”
“These guys live and breathe iSeries”
“I was impressed with the hundreds of IBM iSeries computers on hand and pallets full of disk drives. I could see the Cloud400 IBM i expertise was broad and deep. I felt these guys live and breathe iSeries.”
No Surprises With MIMIX Implementation
“The Cloud400 MIMIX implementation has been good. Everything is going as I had hoped. If I ask for something I get it. Michael Lowen, the Cloud400 MIMIX specialist, has expert knowledge. He prepared me in advance for what to expect and has been very attentive. He has done everything he promised to do on time. No surprises.”
Michael Hart Recommends Cloud400
“I would definitely recommend Cloud400. I would say Cloud400 makes it easy. It’s just simple. We called. You got the job done. We’ve got an iSeries in the cloud now.”