“We were maintaining our own offsite hosted environment. And although it worked well, it was very cumbersome and very costly to maintain that facility.”
Gary Klosak
Director of Information Technology, Kolcraft
About Kolcraft
As a third-generation family-owned and operated business, Kolcraft understands the power of innovation. Since its inception in 1946, Kolcraft has specialized in the creation of high-quality baby products. Kolcraft’s partnerships with leading industry providers has enabled them to manufacture some of the top-selling, most award-winning products in the market.
Kolcraft has long remained a number one choice of parents due to the introduction of ground-breaking products, such as the Carri-Cradle, the first all-plastic combination of carrier and rocker. With 70 years of experience in baby product manufacturing, Kolcraft remains focused on how to most effectively embrace new technologies and utilize its resources. These strategic insights and practices are what have given Kolcraft a leading edge in a highly competitive market.
Industry: Manufacturing (Baby Products)
The Challenge: Protecting Innovation and Enabling Growth
Kolcraft faced several pressing IT challenges that threatened both operational efficiency and their ability to innovate:
- Existing offsite backups were costly, cumbersome, and lacked local monitoring
- Needed a disaster recovery solution to keep operations running during outages
- Current infrastructure could not safely handle ERP upgrades without costly hardware
Kolcraft needed a solution that could ensure operational continuity, protect valuable intellectual property, and provide the flexibility to support ongoing growth and innovation in a highly competitive market.
How Meridian IT Enabled Strategic Cloud Adoption
To address these challenges, Kolcraft turned to Meridian IT, a long-term partner with nearly a decade of experience working alongside their IT team. Meridian IT helped Kolcraft evaluate where cloud technology could add the most value and implement solutions in a practical, results-driven way:
- Assessment and Planning – Meridian’s experts conducted a thorough review of Kolcraft’s infrastructure, identifying areas where cloud technology could optimize backup, disaster recovery, and ERP testing without unnecessary disruption.
- Backup as a Service – Implemented secure, validated backups transmitted via the cloud, ensuring critical product data and intellectual property remained protected and compliant with industry regulations.
- Disaster Recovery as a Service – Established a reliable, stand-by system that could be activated immediately during an outage, minimizing downtime and keeping operations running smoothly.
- Infrastructure as a Service – Provided a scalable sandbox environment for ERP testing, eliminating the need for new physical hardware and reducing overhead costs.
Meridian IT’s approach was consultative, ensuring the cloud was integrated as a practical tool rather than a blanket replacement for existing systems. By aligning technology with Kolcraft’s operational goals, the partnership enhanced agility, efficiency, and security while empowering the IT team to focus on innovation.
“Mike Riva and Meridian have shown us, through many different examples and many different types of presentations, how we can cut our costs, improve our efficiency, and have a more solid solution through their services in Kenosha. It’s been working fabulously ever since.”
– Gary Klosak, Director of Information Technology, Kolcraft
The Solution: Flexible, Efficient, and Secure Cloud Infrastructure
Leveraging cloud technology transformed Kolcraft’s IT operations by providing scalable, efficient, and secure infrastructure.
By combining the right technology with expert guidance, Meridian IT ensured Kolcraft’s cloud solution aligned with industry regulations, internal IT objectives, and the company’s long-term growth strategy. Technology became not just a tool, but a strategic advantage.
Results: Smarter IT, Cost Savings, and Future-Ready Operations
Kolcraft’s partnership with Meridian IT delivered measurable benefits across their organization.
Results at a glance:
- 75% Reduction in Data Centers – Physical servers were reduced from 50 to 3 through virtualization, simplifying infrastructure and lowering maintenance costs.
- Greater Agility – IT staff can now test ERP and other applications on-demand, accelerating innovation and project timelines.
- Enhanced Security and Compliance – Reliable backup and disaster recovery solutions ensure that critical data is always protected and accessible.
- Operational Efficiency – Freed IT resources allow the team to focus on higher-value initiatives that drive business growth.
- Cost Savings – Avoided unnecessary hardware purchases while reducing ongoing maintenance expenses.
With Meridian IT’s guidance, Kolcraft now operates a modern, secure, and scalable IT environment—positioning the company to continue innovating and growing with confidence in a highly competitive market.
