CloudSigma Facilitates a Smooth Cloud Migration for US Custom Integrator Distributor

Customer Profile

Our customer is the largest independent CI (Custom Integrator) distributor in the US. It services local and national dealers that span across multiple channels of business that include residential/commercial A/V, and security. The company is the “one-stop” solution with over 8000 stock items from 126 premium manufacturers.

Our client uses a combination of technology from HCI server stacks in various data centers to cloud-hosted solutions. It also goes the extra mile by offering a broad variety of services to its Custom Integrators. This includes delivery, financial support, sales and product training, marketing services, 24/7 dealer online shopping, and much more.

The Challenge

“We needed to have an ability to move servers that the IT team had no idea were there or how they were configured. So, we needed to find a tool that would do a one for one copy of the servers. We knew tools existed out there, but we wanted to find the best solution for the best price. We were in the middle of researching when we found CloudSigma.”Senior Cloud Architect @ Client’s company

In 2018 our client acquired a home-technology distributor company. With that, it inherited an expensive Managed Services hosting provider that hosted the home-technology distributor’s servers and services. The provider was not only extremely expensive but also very slow in getting back to our client’s server inquiries. That’s why there was no doubt that our client had to find a better provider for its cloud infrastructure.

One of the challenges the company was facing while looking for the best cloud solution was that it was in a very unique situation- the original IT team that installed the initial server setup was no longer with the company. Thus, our customer had complicated server setups they needed to migrate with programs they haven’t used before without the IT team that set them up. It was a challenging situation, which demanded a provider that could enable as easy a migration process as possible.

Another issue for our client was finding the best services to fit its needs at the best price. It needed a provider that would not only ensure a smooth migration, but also a smooth process of integration and management of the servers while offering reasonable pricing.

The Solution

Our customer considered a bunch of different cloud hosting services until the team found CloudSigma. Immediately, they were drawn to the competitive pricing. Our flexible cloud environment let them pay only for the services they needed and used.

“We really liked CloudSigma’s initial offering. We knew that with other vendors, we had to pay for expensive third-party migration tools. On the other hand, CloudSigma offered us a free and ready to use migration tool without the extra costs.”

“Besides pricing, the other main difference that set CloudSigma apart from the other options was its user-friendly platform. When we started looking and playing around with the API and the management of the VMs, as far as how easy it was to scale, the ability to create private networks on the fly and manage them motivated us to select CloudSigma.”Senior Cloud Architect @ Client’s company

Another decisive factor that made the Custom Integrator distributor choose CloudSigma was that compared to some of the hyperscalers which were the company’s alternative providers, CloudSigma is very easy to use.

CloudSigma’s advantage over hyperscalers such as AWS is that when it comes to hyperscalers it can be very complicated to create private networks and secure them. Having servers on the cloud is not enough to protect them. Тhere needs to be a lot of work done to make sure that the right firewalls are installed and the correct security rules are implemented.

“I have a lot of experience securing servers on AWS, and I find CloudSigma to be fundamentally much much easier to use. Its interface is way more user-friendly.”

The Implementation

“The migration tool itself is very impressive to use. It is the kind of tool that makes it possible for anybody with a basic understanding of how servers and networking work to easily and successfully migrate their servers to CloudSigma. We have been extremely happy with it.”Senior Cloud Architect @ Client’s company

When it comes to migrating to the cloud, our customer’s cloud architects knew they had their work cut out for them as the original IT team that installed the server setups was no longer with the company. However, CloudSigma’s server agent and migration tool made it extremely easy to move servers that the current IT team didn’t even implement. CloudSigma proved to be very flexible when it came to moving the drives and importing them in any order the team wished. They were able to easily combine a lot of servers and remove the unnecessary ones from the stack.

In addition to the easy to work with interface and straightforward migration tool, the technical support team at CloudSigma made the implementation process a piece of cake for the company’s IT team.

“The support team of CloudSigma was fantastic. Hardly ever did I have to wait more than a minute before I had somebody helping me. And that’s regardless of the time of day and the day of the week. It could be 4:00 AM on a Sunday, and I would get a response within a minute from the support team.”Senior Cloud Architect @ Client’s company

Working with our support team was very straightforward for our client. The company liked that it could send over screenshots to support that demonstrate their issues at hand. Previously, they have been working with a telephone-based support team. However, they found the chat-based support of CloudSigma, not only more responsive but also preferable to work with. Especially at those inconvenient times of the day when you don’t necessarily want to get on the phone with someone.

“The support is none other. I’ve never had support like this with another vendor before. It allowed our IT team to work through the night when needed. It further gave us confidence with how fast it was.”

The Change

“Since migrating to CloudSigma, we’ve had a peace of mind that our needs will be met. We love the fact that we can jump in a chat with support and receive help within minutes of starting a conversation. We went from a frustrating expensive solution with slow support, to CloudSigma’s fast competitively priced solution.”Senior Cloud Architect @ Client’s company

Ever since migrating its infrastructure to CloudSigma, the Custom Integrator distributor has been enjoying the perks of working with a flexible and economical cloud provider.

Our customer decided to use Pfsense as a virtual firewall and router. It took little time for their IT team to learn how to work with it. CloudSigma’s self-help tools further allow them to effortlessly expand drives, increase and decrease RAM and CPU. They can also adjust drivers used for connections on the fly with their VMs.

“Once we learned what CloudSigma can do, we knew that it’s very powerful. We have the ability to create sandbox servers on the fly and everything. We really have been loving it.”Senior Cloud Architect @ Client’s company

In addition, the client’s server setup was implemented by its previous IT team. As a result, the new team was facing some issues at the beginning with figuring out how it works. Since migrating to CloudSigma, the company was able to troubleshoot such issues by spinning up clones of the servers in a separate network where they could test against before pushing it to live.

The Future

The future is looking bright for CloudSigma and our client’s collaboration. The Custom Integrator distributor plans to continue to use CloudSigma for creating sandbox servers and isolated networks for testing purposes. The company has no doubt that when their business grows, they will expand their resources with CloudSigma as their provider.

“If you are looking for a company that gives you reliable support, charges transparent prices, and will help you 24/7 along the way, CloudSigma is the company we trust and recommend.”