We no longer have to worry about backing up our system, and we can be assured that in the case of a disaster, we have a strong backup plan in place.
Erik Larson
IT Systems Administration, Cresco Equipment Rentals
About Cresco Equipment Rentals
With 19 locations across California’s Bay Area, Cresco Equipment Rentals serves both large and small contractors with the tools and equipment they need for commercial and residential projects. Reliable access to its ERP system is essential for managing rentals, inventory, and daily operations across every location.
- 19 Locations Across the Bay Area
- Supports Commercial & Residential Contractors
- ERP-Driven Equipment Rental Operations
Industry: Technology (ERP for Construction & Equipment Rental)
The Challenge: A Critical System Failure Exposed Infrastructure Risks
In 2011, Cresco Equipment Rentals experienced a multi-disk failure that shut down its AS/400 system. The outage impacted the entire organization, preventing all business operations for multiple days.
To recover, Cresco had to restore the system from a nightly backup. While the company was fortunate to lose only one week’s worth of image data, the incident revealed serious vulnerabilities in its infrastructure and disaster recovery strategy.
The outage highlighted several critical challenges:
- Limited disaster recovery capabilities
- Lack of infrastructure redundancy
- High risk of prolonged downtime
- Insufficient internal IT support resources
- Business-wide operational disruption
After the incident, Cresco evaluated its options. The company could either invest in building a more robust internal infrastructure with a strong disaster recovery plan or outsource its environment to an industry-leading cloud provider. Ultimately, Cresco chose to outsource its infrastructure to ensure long-term reliability and resilience.
How Meridian IT Became a Trusted Infrastructure Partner
Cresco Equipment Rentals had a long-standing relationship with Wynne Systems, the developer of its ERP software. When Cresco began exploring cloud and disaster recovery options, Wynne recommended Meridian IT’s Platform as a Service (PaaS) solution.
Cresco needed more than just hosting—it needed a partner that could deliver:
- High Availability (HA) to keep ERP systems running 24/7
- Redundant, fault-tolerant infrastructure
- Disaster recovery in a geographically diverse location
- Support staff with IBM Power Systems expertise
- A security- and compliance-focused architecture
- Best-practice technical design
Meridian IT brought the experience, expertise, and managed services Cresco needed to confidently modernize its ERP environment. With continuous monitoring and enterprise-grade support, Meridian became an extension of Cresco’s technology team—ensuring system reliability around the clock.
The Solution: A Resilient, Cloud-Based ERP Environment
Meridian IT delivered a high-availability, cloud-based solution designed to protect Cresco’s business-critical systems and eliminate the risk of prolonged downtime.
By outsourcing its ERP infrastructure to Meridian IT, Cresco no longer had to worry about backups, system monitoring, or disaster recovery planning.
“We are very pleased with our relationship with both Wynne Systems and Meridian IT. Our system is now monitored 24 hours a day, seven days a week, with high availability software. Our infrastructure is in good hands with our partners, and we no longer lose sleep over these technology issues.”
– Erik Larson, IT Systems Administration, Cresco Equipment Rentals
Seamless Implementation Without Business Disruption
Because many Cresco locations operate seven days a week, avoiding downtime during the transition was essential.
Wynne Systems and Meridian IT completed a real-time replication of Cresco’s ERP environment over several weeks. The final “failover” was performed overnight and took just two hours to complete.
By the next morning, Cresco Equipment Rentals was fully operational on the Meridian IT platform—without any interruption to daily business.
“We have worked with Wynne Systems for many years, and they are a trusted advisor. When they suggested they could help us by managing our infrastructure through Meridian IT, we jumped at the opportunity to work with them. We knew we could create a leading-edge infrastructure with an advanced disaster recovery program, but we felt that it would be best to leave the monitoring and management of our infrastructure to industry experts.”
– Mark Lingenfelter, Controller, Cresco Equipment Rentals
Results: Always-On ERP and Stronger Business Continuity
Today, Cresco Equipment Rentals can focus on renting and selling tools and equipment—without worrying about system outages or data loss.
Its ERP environment is powered by robust, state-of-the-art infrastructure and continuously monitored by experts from Wynne Systems and Meridian IT. If an issue arises, it can now be isolated to a specific location instead of impacting the entire organization.
Results at a glance:
- 24/7 ERP Availability — High availability ensures continuous operations.
- Stronger Disaster Recovery — Geographically diverse DR protects critical data.
- Improved Reliability — Redundant infrastructure reduces risk.
- Reduced IT Burden — Monitoring and management handled by experts.
- Business Continuity — Outages no longer halt company-wide operations.
With Meridian IT’s support, Cresco transformed its ERP environment into a resilient, always-on foundation for long-term success.
