SC Codeworks Story

SC Codeworks Makes a Game-Changing Pivot to IBM POWER in the Cloud

At a Glance

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Challenges

• On-site IBM POWER servers that required daily in-person visits to swap back-up tapes
• Lacked an environment designed for hosting hardware and delivering cloud services
• Managing hardware and infrastructure was a distraction from their core software business

Solutions and Impacts

• Leverage a suite of IBM POWER solutions to provide hosting and disaster recovery services to their customers
• Seamless migrations to the cloud, both for itself and several of its customers
• Access to a wide range of expertise to meet the varied needs of their customers

With Racksquared on the team to handle hardware, SC Codeworks can focus on what it does best — warehouse and transportation software.

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Becoming leaner and more efficient

At a high level, SC Codeworks’ game is helping customers ship brown boxes. A closer look reveals a lot of strategy, skill, and finesse goes into providing software solutions for 3PL providers, warehouses and transportation companies. SC Codeworks’ software allows companies to transport and deliver shipments, receive and move products throughout warehouses, fulfill orders, handle billing, and ship out again to the next destination. The company truly plays all over the court — from software development, installation, and support to consulting, disaster recovery planning, and network configuration.

In 2020, the company came under new ownership and decided to become leaner, more efficient and focused on what they do best. “We’re a software company, not a hardware company,” said Tony Baldwin, Director of Support Services at SC Codeworks. They needed to identify a new team member that could take IBM POWER hardware and infrastructure management off their hands.

Tony first became aware of Racksquared when one of SC Codeworks’ own customers made the move to the cloud with Racksquared. “We did a review of several prospective data centers to host, but it was Racksquared that really nailed it for us,” said Tony. “For what they provide, their response time, and the price point, it’s phenomenal. And we’re both based in Columbus. It’s really a win-win for everybody involved.”

When SC Codeworks decided to team up with Racksquared, there were some immediate wins. For example, SC Codeworks had a POWER9 server under lease but wanted to quit managing it themselves. With Racksquared colocation and managed services, that server is now hosted and fully managed by Racksquared, relieving SC Codeworks of the burden.

With all hardware in the cloud or colocated at Racksquared, SC Codeworks was also able to stop coming into the office every day for menial tasks like swapping backup tapes. “While that’s not a big deal most of the time, it’s completely different when there’s nine inches of snow or a power outage,” said Tony. Racksquared now handles that. It was a game-changer for us.”

A true partner

SC Codeworks serves clients that collectively ship products for more than 700 accounts, with their software managing over 15 million square feet. By partnering with Racksquared, SC Codeworks is able to offer Racksquared’s full suite of services to its own customers, including colocation, cloud, IBM Solutions, data ackup, and disaster recovery services. With Racksquared’s flexibility and responsiveness, their customers can pick and choose what works best for them. SC Codeworks is known within their industry for above-and-beyond customer service and partnership, so eliminating time spent managing hardware while offering enhanced services further enables them to fulfill on their commitment to customer care.

Racksquared’s secure, reliable, and resilient environment allows SC Codeworks to win with its clients. When its servers were on site, if a customer had an issue and called SC Codeworks, it would have to VPN into its server to communicate with the customer’s server.

Tony explained, “with Racksquared, we’re always connected and ready to go. The VPNs we are setting up with customers allow us to connect almost instantly from anywhere. If they have issues, I can address them immediately. That’s huge from a productivity standpoint.”

Actions speak for themselves

In its unique position, SC Codeworks has had a front-row view of Racksquared in action many times. Tony was able to experience Racksquared migrating its own customers to the cloud, as well as itself. All of these migrations have been essentially seamless.

“Our own transition was painless,” he said. “When we were done, we redirected people to the new server, and the only thing that changed from their perspective was a system name. I was able to call my customers and verify and check in to find that everything worked.

SC Codeworks has also watched Racksquared in action building out several VPNs with customers that host their own on-site servers. For some customers that don’t have significant networking expertise, Racksquared’s team walks them through the process step by step to get the job done.

All of Racksquared’s expertise, skill, and responsiveness makes them a great partner for SC Codeworks. “I’m very, very confident in their ability to do anything we need them to do,” said Tony.