“After We Priced Out All The New Hardware We Would Need, We Figured We Could Go To The Cloud For This Amount Of Money And Never Deal With Any Of These Issues Again.”
Background
Regal Plastic Supply Company is a family owned business since 1954 based in Kansas City, Missouri. Regal Plastic is the Midwest’s leading supplier of see-through and industrial plastics with 18 locations and on-site custom design, cutting, drilling and fabrication services.
Regal Plastics has supported up to 125 users with an IBM POWER6 8203-E4A at V7.2 with Infor A+, Optimum Payroll, Optio for forms printing and MITS Distributor Analytics.
Data Loss And EOS Notices. What Else?
Rob McFarlane, MIS Manager at Regal Plastics, explains, “In early 2018, we had a SAN array go bad. We lost all of our Wintel data. It was one of those things that made us take a look. What else do we need to protect our data? So we started pricing everything out.
“Then we got notified of the End Of Service on the iSeries and End Of Life notices from Cisco on their switches and firewalls.”
Decision: All New Hardware Or Cloud?
“After we priced out all the new hardware we would need, we figured we could go to the cloud for this amount of money and never deal with any of these issues again.”
5-7 Year Breakeven And No Hassles
“For us it just worked out that in a 5 to 7 year window it was about the same amount of money to go to the cloud compared to on premise. So, we figured why jack with it on premise? It just made sense.”
Cloud Search Begins
Rob continues, “Then we talked to some cloud providers. Their attitude was ‘You’re going to the cloud, so we should be able to charge you tenfold.’
“We told guys like that, ‘What? That doesn’t even make sense.’
“We then contacted a New York-based Infor consulting company. They hooked us up with somebody that gave us a price that was ridiculously high.”
Web Search Leads to Cloud400
“Then I searched the web and found Cloud400. We kind of went from there.”
Reasonable Quote From Knowledgeable Cloud400 Guys
“To me, the Cloud400 guys knew what they were talking about and gave me a really good quote.
“I thought Cloud400 was more in line with the way it should be. So, we went with Cloud400.”
High Priced Other Guys NOW Try Price Match
“Then the other guys came back and offered to cut their price to match Cloud400.
“I told those guys ‘I don’t work that way. You guys are going to tell me you will cut your price in half now? That tells me you are trying to charge me too much to begin with.’
“When you step up to the plate, I expect you to hit the ball. I mean, it’s game on. Not this ‘Let me match the price’ stuff.”
Evaluation Starts With Cloud400 Assessment Checklist
Rob continues, “The Cloud400 evaluation process was fine. I got the Cloud400 Assessment Checklist that collected the information the Cloud400 team needed to provide me my proposal. It had all the instructions and IBM i commands I needed to get the required information and reports.
“The process as a whole was easy and straight-forward.”
Rob Loves His Firewalls
“This Cloud400 project made me appreciate my Meraki firewalls more than ever. They are a wonderful device. When working with the Cloud400 connectivity guys, they explained that most firewalls have 15 or 20 variables to get the firewalls to communicate and nothing ever communicates the same way.
“So we shipped our own Meraki firewalls to host with Cloud400. It has its own cloud-based GUI to set up all my locations. It just works. It does all its own work in the background. It makes the connectivity simple. So all the firewalls communicate to the browser commands I set up, and Meraki just makes it happen.
“I had not been a firewall guy to begin with, but this makes it so easy.”
Only Needed 2 Weeks Of Cloud400 Free 60 Day Trial
“When it came to the Cloud400 60-Day Free Trial, we did not even go the full 60 days. It was more like 2 weeks.
“I mean, it either works or it doesn’t. Cloud400 just works. Once it works, it’s like, ‘OK, now when can we go live?’ So we planned to go forward with go live.”
Cloud40 Go Live Easy, Without Issue
“The Cloud400 Go Live process worked without issue. It was simple to get the two Meraki firewall units hosted at Cloud400. Getting the Wintel servers up and running was relatively painless. The iSeries came up without any issues. Everything came together smoothly.”
Remote Users Can’t Tell Difference
“Overall, the cutover to Cloud400 was pretty straight-forward. We only had a few minor issues with our Wintel at our end. Our remote users could not tell any difference between our on premise server and Cloud400.
“Overall, Cloud400 is running very well and achieving what we wanted.”
Rob McFarlane Recommends Cloud400
“I absolutely recommend Cloud400. I don’t know why anyone would waste their time on an on premise server and Wintel machines. You have zero reason not to do this.”