“I’m new to IBM POWER i. I’m a Windows guy. I compared pricing we got from local IBM BP for new IBM POWER i. Their price was too high for capacity we did not need.”
Background
Leisure Arts, Inc. is a publisher and distributor of “how-to” and lifestyle publications with an emphasis on creative crafts, needlework, decorating, and entertaining. Established in 1971 in Libertyville, Illinois, Leisure Arts relocated to Little Rock, Arkansas in 1975. Leisure Arts became a Comcast owned company in October 2013.
Publications are sold to individuals through their website and to major craft retailers. Pattern books on many other topics including scrapbooking, quilting, counted cross stitch, beading, painting, sewing, and home decorating are included in their range of do-it-yourself publications.
IBM 9406-810 Supports 118 users, 20 laser printers, 6 bar-code printers
Leisure Arts, Inc. relied on an IBM 9406-810 running OS400 V5R4 with 2 Logical Partitions (LPARs), 4 GB memory and 400 GB of disk storage. The 9406-810 supported 118 users, 20 laser printers and 6 bar-code printers in their 200,000 square foot distribution center.
Custom Software And Packaged Applications Work Together
Leisure’s custom applications include order entry, billing, tracking, and inventory management. Their packaged applications include Manhattan Associate’s PKMS Warehouse Management System, Extol’s EDI, and Malvern shipping software as well as UPS WorldShip.
Automated Warehouse And Shipping Departments With Value-Add Area
Leisure’s warehouse team has wireless devices to locate and pick inventory. Shipping has a value-add area to add labeling wanted by the retail customers. Once labeled, packed and palletized, a palletized “license plate” permits Leisure to know every individual item in every location. Leisure produces ASNs to prepare the final pallets for shipping and prints the manifest that goes with the shipment.
New Warehouse Facility Needs Newer IBM Server
By August 2012, anticipating relocating to a new warehouse facility and the need for a newer IBM server, IT Manager Brian Roden had collected pricing from a local vendor for a new 8202-E4C, 4-core 3 GHz, 8GB RAM, with 8 139GB drives and unlimited users.
Local IBM Vendor Pricing Seems High
Brian explains, “I wanted to compare a hosted iSeries solution with the pricing we got from a local vendor for a new IBM POWER i. We had an iSeries 9406-810 with 2 LPARs that was due for replacement and had been pricing an upgrade with a local IBM vendor. They had proposed an 8202-E4C, 4-core 3 GHz, 8GB RAM, with 8 139GB drives and unlimited users. The price just seemed high for capacity we probably did not need.”
Web Search For On-Premise Alternative Leads To Source Data
Brian decided to search the web for an alternative to an on-premise POWER i and found Source Data Products, Inc. and Cloud400.
“Initially we took a very close look at Cloud400. I really liked the idea that Cloud400 provided in-depth OS400 expertise and systems management as well as hosting the newest IBM POWER i servers in a secure data center far away from tornado country. It seemed like it would provide an easy way for us to transition to our new building.”
Brian continues, “However, by January 2013, management decided we were not quite ready for remote cloud hosting. So, I asked Source Data what options they might suggest for an on-premise POWER i server.”
Used 9406-520 TCO More Expensive Than New POWER i
“We thought a used 9406-520 might offer us a good value. Source Data showed how the cost of ownership for a used 9406-520, including IBM hardware support (HWMA), software support (SWMA) and After License Fee (ALF) actually made this POWER5 more expensive than new POWER i technology.”
New POWER7 i With Unlimited Users – “real interesting”
“Next, Source Data presented us a used POWER6 i option. That looked pretty good. But when Source Data showed us pricing for a new POWER7 i with unlimited users – that was real interesting. Source Data showed us a POWER7 i that represented significant cost savings compared to other quotes we had received.”
SDP Very Experienced with POWER i And IBM Support
“We knew we would not be ready for a new POWER7 i until our new warehouse was ready later in the year. So, how would we handle the renewal of our IBM hardware and software support for our 9406-810. What to do?”
Brian asked SDP the best way to handle the 9406-810 IBM support. “SDP explained that I could renew IBM support so my system was protected. Then, after I go live on the new POWER7 i, on our behalf SDP could submit to IBM a request for a refund for the unused portion of our support term. SDP explained that they commonly do this for their clients who upgrade their servers in the middle of a support term.
“It just seemed to me that SDP was very experienced with POWER i and IBM support. They seemed to have all the answers,” Brian summarized.
Migration Planning Begins
“We decided we wanted to receive the new POWER7 i in mid-September in preparation to move into our new warehouse. So in mid-June we started planning our migration with Source Data.”
Valuable Planning Sessions with SDP’s Senior Engineer Mark Breisacher
“We had several planning sessions with SDP’s Senior POWER i Engineer Mark Breisacher. We wanted to upgrade our system from V5R4 to V7R1 and consolidate 2 LPARs to 1 ASP to simplify our systems management.”
New POWER7 i Preloaded With Our System At V7R1
“We sent a copy of our system to Mark in mid-July. It was a lot of work. We really liked Mark’s expertise. By August 23, 2013, Mark had our POWER7 i preloaded with our system at V7R1 and prepped to ship to us. That worked great. Previously, the local BP brought the new system in here and did the backup and restore over a weekend.”
System Up In Short Order – “Literally Christmas In July”
Laticia Dittrich, Vice President of Technology and Planning, adds, “It was literally Christmas in July. Box shows up. Power it up. Here’s how you cable it. We had it up in short order.”
Brian continues, “Much easier and faster than when I order and set up a Dell. SDP got it ready and sent it to us. When we got our new POWER7 server, we could test it in parallel with our 9406-810.
Mark Breisacher Available When Needed – Transition Really Smooth
As Brian explained, “Mark was great. Available whenever we needed him. Available on the Saturday we cutover if we needed any help. His questions prompted our guys to think through some issues so our transition really went smooth.
“We cutover to our new POWER7 on October 5, 2013. We did a lot of testing starting around 10. Creating pick tickets and setting users up on the line. We discovered we missed a file so we imported the new file from our 9406-810 in a matter of minutes – everything went fine.
“After a couple of days, once everything was cool, we shut down our old system. We had no show stoppers. We had little things here and there, as can be expected.”
Tremendous Speed Of New POWER7 i
The speed of the new POWER7 i was impressive. Brian comments, “The speed of the system is tremendous. World ship used to take up to 1.5 minutes to retrieve package data. Our programmer Hector determined the response on the new system was 3-4 seconds – and that’s querying multiple tables in a sequence of queries.
“One of our guys who does lots of query and analysis told me that queries that used to take 20 minutes now take 30 seconds.”
SDP Walked Us Through Process – Reduced Our Risk
Laticia adds, “You helped walk us through the process. And in so doing, you reduced the risk we were taking to move from our old server with 2 LPARs at our old warehouse to our new POWER i with one partition at our new warehouse.
“This project had a lot of visibility in the company and our management team expected it to be handled.
“Neither one of us had been through a systems change like this at that level. It is a big investment for the company and has a major impact on overall productivity. So, you really only get one chance to do it and you have to do it right.”
Brian Definitely Recommends Source Data
“I would definitely recommend Source Data,” concludes Brian. “You delivered on what you said you would give us, made the process of getting a new system and going live easy. You helped me out personally as one who is not as experienced in the IBM i world as with Windows. You explained things to help me understand what was going on. You definitely came in with a better price than we had been getting for years.”