Plumb Supply Company Case Study

Business Overview

Founded in 1946, Plumb Supply Company is a family owned, Midwest-based, Plumbing, HVAC, and PVF distributor serving the needs of professional plumbing and heating contractors.

With 34 locations across Iowa, Missouri, and Kansas, a large knowledgeable staff, and even larger fleet of trucks, they strive to deliver quality, innovation, and value to customers of every size, whenever they need it with a promise of 24/7/365 availability.

Business Challenge

Plumb Supply traditionally does a hardware refresh every three years. This latest round completely changed their backend process for capturing and verifying backups of their IBM i and ERP software. It became clear it was time to move away from their antiquated environment in order to continue evolving and growing their business.

In a world where 24/7 availability is expected, Plumb Supply needed a proven disaster recovery solution to ensure they were delivering the highest level of service possible to their customers and hitting all Recovery Time Objectives. It was also critical for them to find an IBM certified expert to modernize their IBM i environment and take some of that time and stress away from their internal team.

Solution

Plumb Supply needed a seamless method for spinning up a second IBM i in case a disaster would ever be declared. After assessing their current and future needs, they were down to two potential providers–LightEdge and another.

After partnering with LightEdge, Plumb Supply was able to verify the proof of concept, test their backups, update critical documentation, and verify RTO goals. They gained added peace of mind after fully integrating their IBM i backup solution at their secondary site with LightEdge, as well.

Download this case study