Mainline Information Systems
Holistic, High-performing and Cost-effective Storage Solutions

With the snowballing notions around big data and analytics, CIOs are struggling to contain the proliferation of data, and to do so in a cost-effective manner. Organizational risks continue to climb as data breaches overwhelm today’s information security technologies and practices. To this end, Mainline Information Systems helps CIOs by simplifying their storage infrastructure while reducing operational costs, improving ease of management in a wholly compliant manner.

The company takes a customer-centric approach to help clients with selecting the solution that most effectively fits their needs. “Our sales and technical staffs are well versed in the value of the selections being offered and they have numerous certifications enabling them to deeply understand the pros and cons of the proposed solutions,” says Bob Elliott, Mainline VP of Storage. Additionally, many of the company’s specialists have worked in the industries that their clients represent, and many have served as consumers of the technologies they support.

Mainline believes that every client is different, and in this regard, the company comprehends their business before architecting a solution that would best fit their needs. “Our first goal is to partner with our customers to understand how they do business today,” states Elliott. Mainline conducts interviews with the client’s IT teams and management to gain an understanding of the gaps between present state and desired state and then select options that address their needs. The company also has subject matter experts that follow the trends in the IT market and educate its sales teams about changes and upcoming technologies. This helps Mainline to offer solutions that are future proof and cost-efficient. Some of the recent technology developments and added functionality through which Mainline has delivered business value are NVMe Flashcore modules, multi-site replication, cloud integration, modernized scale-out backup platforms, and telecommuting workforce.

Elliott elaborates on a client success instance, a scenario of a heterogeneous environment needing multi-site replication and security compliance.

We are a strategic advisor for our customers. We will never take the quick win over doing what is right. We are in the relationship for the long haul

The client, Sisters of Charity Health System (SCHS), owned two hospitals, Mercy Medical Center in Canton, OH, and St. Vincent Charity Medical Centre in Cleveland, OH, is a Meditech EMR environment, and was approaching a compliance deadline for encryption of data at rest. The existing storage was not compliant and was nearing the end of life. SCHS also wanted to improve their backup and recovery process to become tapeless, and with a small staff (two network engineers), ease of management was critical. Having had a good experience with Mainline while at a former healthcare center, the CTO invited the company to respond to their RFP. Mainline architected an IBM Storwize V7000 solution that replicated data between the two hospitals, allowed for the integration of other existing storage equipment, improved performance, lowered cost, and simplified management. As a result of the solution, the month-end close was shortened from three days to just four hours.

By scripting many such success stories, Mainline has carved a unique niche for itself over the past 31 years in existence. “We are a strategic advisor for our customers. We will never take the quick win over doing what is right. We are in the relationship for the long haul,” mentions Elliott. The company is looking for its major vendors to continue innovation, providing roadmaps, and delivering needed value to the customers. However, if there are gaps, Mainline will validate newer technology offerings through a series of corporate guidelines and their applicability to the customers’ requirements. Furthermore, in 2019, the company acquired RTP Technologies—now named Mainline RTP—propelling annual revenue of the combined companies to $900M and expanding Mainline’s footprint in the financial vertical and NY metropolitan area.