"We Paid $99,200 Less Than I Thought We Would Have To Pay For Our New IBM Power7 i."
"I knew Source Data’s prices were always better than the ‘big kids’, so I invited them to participate in our upgrade planning."
Background
Founded in 1976 by Jack Nellessen and located in Castle Rock, Colorado, Master Magnetics, Inc. manufactures and distributes magnets and magnetic devices for commercial, industrial and consumer use.
PCI Compliancy And Year-End Tax Incentives Motivate An Upgrade To New POWER i
Master Magnetics operates Application Plus with 50 users. The System i production server 9406-525 had 4 GB memory, 490 GB disk (8 x 70 GB disk RAID5, 53% disk utilization) on V5R4 with 3800 CPW.
Management wanted to be PCI compliant so Application Plus could process credit card transactions properly and swiftly. The new Application Plus ePayments credit-card processing module runs on V7R1 and works with VeriFone. With ePayments, Master Magnetics would be able to immediately process credit card transactions on line with Application Plus without access to a credit card machine.
Management also wanted to take advantage of year-end capital equipment tax benefits.
Bob Loser, Master Magnetic’s I.S. Administrator, was tasked to move the company to IBM’s newest POWER i server technology.
“I had worked with Source Data Products, Inc. in the past,” says Bob. “I knew Source Data’s prices were always better than the ‘big kids’, so I invited them to participate in our upgrade planning.
“The previous IBM Business Partner that supplied our 9406-525 sold us a server with integrated xSeries Intel servers that was probably much bigger than what we needed. I recall it was over $170,000.
“When I asked for help to determine our server options, Source Data sent me their proprietary POWER i Assessment Checklist. Besides requesting our 9406-525 rack configuration, the SDP assessment covered topics like user count, application software and related application modules, performance characteristics, disk utilization and server-to-server integration. I really found the assessment quite thorough.
New IBM POWER i Is $99,200 Less Than Expected
“Based on my last experience with the 9406-525, I had expected the POWER i to be in a price range of $125,000.
“Then I had a conference call with Bob Losey and Mark Breisacher, a senior SDP OS400 tech. During the conference call, they explained that by decoupling the integrated xSeries Intel servers the IBM POWER i entry server had more performance and capacity than our 9406-525 and was far less expensive than an Enterprise POWER i. The POWER i 8202 they suggested was over $99,200 less than I thought we would have to pay!
“An unexpected challenge came up during the conference call. Our 9406-525 had three integrated xSeries servers with virtual disks in the IFS. It became apparent we could easily justify replacing these xSeries with new IBM x3650 with their own internal disk unit and VMware. We determined we could connect these new Intel servers to the POWER i via high-speed Ethernet. It was that straightforward.”
We Got A New POWER i and Three System x For $52,600 Less Than We Expected
“So, we got a new POWER i and three x3650 with 3 years of IBM support for $62,361 – over $52,600 less than our original budget!
Remote V7R1 Version Upgrade Provides A Smooth Migration
“It was really important to us to have a smooth migration from our 9406-525 to the new POWER i. Mark Breisacher explained how he can take a complete backup of our system at V5R4 and upgrade it to V7R1 at the SDP tech center. I recall Mark calling it the 4-hour version upgrade.
“I could see the advantages of SDP’s remote version upgrade approach. First, Source Data Products would test my system backup and recovery – like a free disaster recovery test that validates our backup.
“Second, once upgraded to V7R1, I can remotely test this version by VPN to validate the applications software and that the data base works properly at the new OS400 level. My production is not impacted by this testing.
“Once validated, Mark preloads our upgraded system to our new POWER i. When the 8202 arrives at Master Magnetics, we just restore our last backup. So the set up and cutover only takes about 4-6 hours — not the entire weekend like the last cutover to the 9406-525.”
Onsite POWER i Set Up Was Simple And Short – Saved Us A Lot Of Time
“The actual onsite conversion was simple and short. This was my first experience with pretesting and preloading. The cutover went quite well. Mark even brought a tape drive compatible with our new LTO-5 so we could save current data from the 9406-525 to restore to the new 8202 so balances were current.
“The SDP preloaded 8202 migration really saved us a lot of time and went smoothly.”
I Would Recommend Source Data Products. They Are Straight With Me And Their Prices Are Always Better Than The “Big Kids”.
“I would recommend Source Data Products. I have worked with Bob Losey over the years. He is straight with me and their prices are always better than the ‘big kids’.”