Xperia Taps SIS for SaaS, HA Hosting

June 25, 2013 Alex Woodie

Xperia Solutions, a provider of IBM i-based ERP software for the apparel industry, is now working with the managed service provider (MSP) Software Information Systems (SIS) to provide hosted high availability (HA) and software as a service (SaaS) options for its customers.

Xperia develops and sells a COBOL-based suite of supply chain planning, production management, and customer relationship management software used by small and midsized businesses in the apparel and soft goods industries. The company, which formerly went by the name Online Data Systems, counts OshKosh B’Gosh, Gloria Vanderbilt, and Converse as customers.

In May, Xperia announced a new SaaS:Cloud platform for its full Executiv Suite of software. The SaaS:Cloud offering enables customers to access their Xperia applications over the Internet, without the need to install and maintain an IBM i server on-site. Instead, the software runs on IBM i servers installed at SIS’ Managed Solution Center (MSC) data center. SIS is responsible for maintaining the IBM i platform, while Xperia technicians handle the Executiv suite of apps for the customer.

Lexington, Kentucky-based SIS owns and is the sole occupant of its MSC data center, which it describes as being a “tier 3, N + 1, dual redundant power, SSAE 16 certified data center.” In addition to providing IBM i hosting services, the company hosts AIX, Linux, and Windows servers.

In June, the two companies expanded the partnership and announced that SIS will also provide HA and disaster recovery (DR) options for Xperia, including the traditional Comprehensiv suite, as well as Xpressiv, the next-generation version of the suite that features a rich client GUI.

SIS HA and DR solutions for Xperia fall into the hot, warm, and cold categories. The cold option, or “Recovery on Demand,” utilizes backup tapes and features a 72-hour recovery time objective (RTO).

The warm option, or “iVault,” utilizes daily replication of IBM i backups across a secure VPN to SIS’ recovery center, and features a 24-hour RTO. The hot option, or “Recover Now,” involves real-time replication of ERP transactions across the VPN to a dedicated IBM i LPAR running in the SIS data center. The RTO for the hot option is 30 minutes or less.

Xperia also moved its headquarters from Allentown, Pennsylvania, to Emmaus, Pennsylvania, earlier this year. For more info, see www.xperiasolutions.com and thinksis.com.