Enabling Resilient, Scalable ERP Delivery for a Construction-Focused ISV on IBM i

An Independent Software Vendor (ISV) serving the commercial construction industry engaged GlassHouse Systems (GHS) following a business-critical disruption that exposed fundamental limitations in its infrastructure strategy. The ISV provides a specialized ERP platform that handles core financial operations, payroll, job costing, vendor management, and reporting for over 150 large construction firms. Their software is mission critical. It is a financial system of record used to support compliance-sensitive processes such as union payroll, tax filing, and cost control across high-value construction projects.

The engagement began after the ISV experienced a severe security breach that rendered its systems unavailable for nearly three weeks. The root causes included inadequate backup architecture, insufficient recovery capabilities, and rigid on-premises infrastructure that could not meet the demands of a rapidly growing customer base. The outage not only disrupted operations but also eroded client trust. This was especially damaging given the ISV's position as a trusted financial platform vendor.

In parallel, the ISV was facing operational constraints with its legacy IBM i hardware. As customer demand grew, the company was forced to procure new systems for capacity expansion. This was a slow, capital-intensive process that introduced delays of several weeks and created internal tension around delivery timelines. Each new client deployment required manual hardware sizing, procurement, and provisioning. This limited scalability and standardization.

GHS proposed a transformation strategy grounded in IBM Cloud PowerVS. This enabled the ISV to migrate its IBM i workloads into a cloud-native environment without rewriting applications. Using PowerVS, the ISV can now:

• Deploy client environments on demand, reducing provisioning time from weeks to hours.
• Architect flexible tenancy models using isolated LPARs per customer while maintaining operational consistency.
• Implement automated, policy-based backups with replication to a secondary cloud region.
• Prepare for customer-specific managed services tiers with disaster recovery and security options aligned to contractual requirements.
• Reassure clients with auditable improvements in security posture, recovery readiness, and platform governance.

This migration also enabled operational shifts toward modern service delivery. Instead of sizing for peak capacity or relying on multi-tenant sprawl, the ISV can now align infrastructure allocation with real-world usage. This controls cost while improving agility.

GHS continues to advise this ISV as they re-earn customer confidence and reposition their platform for subscription-based growth. By moving into IBM Cloud with native Power support, the ISV now has a path to operational stability, secure disaster recovery, and SaaS-aligned agility. All of this is achieved while preserving the performance, transaction integrity, and stability of their IBM i core.