AS400 System Wellness Check

How TECA’s AS400 System Wellness Check Gave This IT Team a Better Night’s Sleep

Whether they’re manufacturing aggregate processing equipment or mining and delivering aggregate products, Fisher Industries has a reputation for successfully tackling the tough jobs. With 20 US locations and more than 700 aggregate processing professionals in their employ, it is mission critical for this enterprise to maintain strong, healthy, and fully-functioning IT systems. Anything less than that would leave them vulnerable, both within the industry and in the marketplace.

The Challenge — Windows Experts in an AS400 Environment

Fisher’s IT Team was comprised of many experts who possessed years of experience in Windows, but only general knowledge of the AS400 environment. They needed to optimize their system to make it work to its peak potential, but were at a loss as to how to do so.  So they managed it by applying what they did know along with assistance from IBM support and their software provider. They got by, but there were definitely gaps and holes.

Then disaster struck — complete system failure.

The Solution — AS400 System Wellness Check

In their efforts to recover what they’d lost, Fisher discovered many flaws with contingency issues. No one had tested anything. What they thought was there was not, and worse, what they were relying on wasn’t recoverable. Utilizing the assistance of IBM support and their software provider they managed to rebuild their system, but they knew something had to change.

The Fisher team met with TECA Data Safe and told them how difficult their recovery had been. TECA recommended they utilize Rapid Rebound, TECA’s cloud backup and recovery solution for express recovery in as little as 6 to 24 hours after a disaster. Additionally, TECA suggested Fisher utilize TECA’s AS400 System Wellness Check to ensure continued good health of their IT systems and a proactive response to address issues before they turned catastrophic.

The Results — Strong, Reliable AS400 Systems

Since TECA began their AS400 System Wellness Checks, Fisher’s IT team has seen more granularity in their monitoring. In addition, TECA’s weekly Wellness Check has helped them be more proactive in overcoming day-to-day challenges. For example, when TECA came on board, Fisher’s PTF installation and monitoring were way behind. But with TECA’s help, the updates are completed over the weekends and when the IT team returns on Mondays, everything is up to date.

If Fisher’s systems do have issues, TECA calls out to IBM immediately to open a service ticket, usually before the Fisher team even knows there’s an issue. What’s more, the IT team have found that when they do have an issue, TECA works with them all the way to the end, showing them what to do, providing them with documentation, and ensuring the problem has been fixed.

“Working with people who possess their knowledge and seeing what they do helps us do what we need to do on our own,” says Carl Schafer, Fisher Industries’ IT Director. “These past three years, they’ve gotten us over every hurdle and challenge with ease. Since we started working with TECA and the AS400 System Wellness Check, we’ve all slept a lot better at night.”