The Problem

W.B. Mason transformed from their brick and mortar heritage to become a leading-edge logistics and e-commerce powerhouse. However, W.B. Mason’s IT department was running into a number of challenges. Mike Yarosh, VP of IT Infrastructure, knew W.B. Mason needed to strategically change their approach and find a partner he could trust to handle the underlying infrastructure and its growth.

Responsible for all IT infrastructure, Mike and his team are entrusted with making sure the business is up and running, no matter what. This includes not only managing the servers and databases but keeping the network up as well. Mike noticed that the majority of time was spent closely monitoring and limiting system usage. Too much time was spent addressing complications that resulted from HVAC systems freezing up in winter and sporadic power losses. “Simply put, we outgrew our data center and needed to expand. It was more challenging than we expected to find a partner that was able to provide reliable power and service around the clock that we were confident in.”

The Solution

Mike and his team toured and evaluated over 100 data centers across the Northeast. "We had seen many facilities, including Markley, where huge corporations were trusting their infrastructure. But Markley had better equipment and was better designed -- there was no question about it." He was hesitant to base his IT environment in a large city but quickly realized Markley’s facilities were unlike any other he had previously seen.

What appealed to Mike was that rather than putting money into tech-savvy embellishments such as little blue lights, Markley was investing in what actually mattered: the backup generators, uninterruptible power, and cooling systems,- and the in-house staff to manage and maintain these systems. Plus, Mike was impressed with Markley’s client-focused culture that emphasized operational excellence and the proactive maintenance of its infrastructure, which other suppliers seemed to neglect or minimize due to cost.

“During our first tour, I remember asking Jeff Markley, the CEO and founder, how often Markley had used its generators. He replied that Markley had opened the facility in 1998. While the generators were actively tested, they had never had to use them in an emergency. That was unheard of to me.”

Today, W.B. Mason runs its complete IT infrastructure with the support of Markley colocation and connectivity services.

Conclusion

With their IT systems secured at Markley, Mike and his team are confident of their underlying infrastructure and can dedicate themselves to other projects. Moreover, housing their infrastructure at Markley also helped them to significantly reduce spending on telecom services.

Working across the Markley Network, Markley’s carrier-neutral network of over 100 telecom providers, W.B. Mason obtained multiple competitive bids. By moving to Markley, W.B. Mason was able to purchase 5X the bandwidth they had at their old location for a fraction of the cost. The savings were substantial: the total cost for bandwidth and rent at Markley was less than what W.B. Mason was paying for bandwidth alone at their previous location.

W.B. Mason was also able to invest in a private fiber connection directly to its warehouse in Boston’s Seaport District. This would have been otherwise unattainable within the company’s budget. By choosing Markley, W.B. Mason has been able to allocate money to other critical IT projects.