United Computer Group, Inc. Q4 2014 Newsletter

Here's to a terrific fourth quarter! Hello and welcome to the UCG Q4 Newsletter! If the first three quarters are any indication, UCG will wrap up the year with much to be proud of. We've welcomed many new clients to the UCG family, and enjoyed visiting with current clients and business partners at various events across the US and Canada.   This newsletter has been designed and developed for current and prospective UCG clients. Our goal is to highlight events from the previous quarter, and provide insight to current and future products, solutions, and services in an interesting and easy to read format.  Thank you for your continued interest in UCG, and a big welcome to our new clients! Please enjoy this issue of the UCG newsletter and forward to colleagues within and outside your organization. Sincerely, James A. Kandrac, President & Founder Michael D. Powall, Vice President Tech Czar Talk: Reinvention is key for tech companies UCG is very pleased and honored that our company was featured in Michael DeAloia's column Tech Czar Talk in the Sunday, August 17 Plain Dealer Business Section. We appreciate that Michael succinctly captured the essence of our 28 year history, and would like to share his article with you. We hope you enjoy it.  - Jim Kandrac "Evolution is natural law in life and in business. Evolution weeds out the weak and rewards the clever. This week's column celebrates the evolution of our local technology ecosystem and highlights the benefits of investing in evolution as opposed to fighting it." - Michael C. DeAloia, special to the Plain Dealer Hardware Broker to Managed Services Provider. If you ever get to spend a few moments with James Kandrac of United Computer Group (ucgrp.com) treat yourself. Good soul. Fascinating cat and perhaps the least well-known, but successful, tech entrepreneur in this region. More than 25 years ago, Kandrac founded United Computer and has been the steady hand of leadership ever since. Coming out of college, he thought he wanted to work for "Big Blue" - IBM - but after an internship there he thought the environment might stifle his entrepreneurial flair. He vividly remembers coming home to his wife and 6-month old baby and lamenting his IBM fate when his wife offered up, "I don't care if we live above a bar on W. 25th Street, you have to love what you do." And soon thereafter he launched United Computer Group. Click for full article. CLIENT SPOTLIGHT: Hi-Tech Health Hi-Tech Health Upgrades to UCG’s VAULT400 BaaS Following Disaster  United Computer Group, Inc. is pleased to announce that Hi-Tech Health of Hackettstown, New Jersey has chosen UCG’s VAULT400 BaaS as its backup and DR solution. Hi-Tech Health experienced first-hand the disruption that occurs when disaster strikes. Although they had a BaaS solution in place, it failed to return the company to operations in an acceptable timeframe. Adding insult to injury, the provider’s customer service and pricing were disappointing. Michael Carrara, President of Hi-Tech Health, responded to a USPS mailing he received from United Computer Group, Inc. highlighting their VAULT400 BaaS solutions. Michael was intrigued and requested a proposal. He also took the time to do due diligence and drive from New Jersey to tour UCG’s Cleveland, Ohio data center with Mike Powall, UCG’s Vice President.  The solid proposal addressed and met all of Hi-Tech’s requirements; the site visit sealed the deal for Michael and Hi-Tech.  Michael Carrara stated, “After meeting your staff and receiving a detailed tour of your data center, I felt confident that my data will be in safe hands with UCG. From my beginning discussions with Mike Powall several months ago, I have been extremely pleased with the level of expertise, professionalism, and responsiveness by everyone I have spoken with at United Computer Group. I look forward to a long working relationship." Read full press release. Download our technical brief: Compliance for Healthcare Organizations.  About Hi-Tech Health  hi-techhealth.com Hi-Tech Health was incorporated on May 1, 1990 when a shift in the Health Care Industry made a visible turn towards more individual and client specific offerings. Since then, Hi-Tech Health has specialized in providing custom designed Claims Administration Systems for Third Party Administrators, Insurance Companies, Preferred Provider Organizations and various other Claims paying entities. Hi-Tech Health's staff is comprised of highly motivated, energetic programmers and IT Professionals with an extensive knowledge of the Health Care Industry.   Congratulations to UCG Client Cleveland Plant and Flower Celebrating 101 Years in Business! Longtime United Computer Group IBM Power Server client Cleveland Plant and Flower is celebrating their 101th anniversary! Founded in 1913 and located in Parma, Ohio, CP&F is one of the largest wholesale distributors of floral products in the United States.  Kudos to Chuck Macuga, Kevin Priest, and the entire staff at CP&F. We wish you continued success! Please enjoy their video, courtesy of cleveland.com.  Visit Our Resource Libraries Be sure to take advantage of the valuable information available for download in our VAULT400 and Enterprise Management Software Resource Libraries. United Computer Group, Inc. 7100 E. Pleasant Valley Road, Suite 250 Independence, OH 44131-5556 Toll Free: 800.211.8798 Main: 216.520.1333 Email:info@ucgrp.comucgrp.com | vault400.comJames A. Kandrac, President Michael D. Powall, Vice President Socially Connected You can find us on: LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, Google+, Facebook, and on our UCG Blog. We make an effort to connect on social media with our clients, vendors, and business partners, so please reach out and let us know where we can find you. Speaking of social media, where have you found the most success connecting with other technology companies/ technology-minded individuals? Let us know what you think at info@ucgrp.com. UCG October 2014 Q4 Newsletter UCG in the News: Q3 2014 Highlights Congoleum Corporation Selects UCG’s VAULT400 BaaS as Backup and DR Solution “We realized immediate benefits including reduced disaster recovery costs; the need to handle tapes on a daily basis has been eliminated; and we ensured our data was stored securely offsite from the server." - Dan McCullough, Manager of Datacenter Operations, Congoleum Corporation UCG Business Partner Optimum Solutions Chooses VAULT400 BaaS As B2B partners, UCG and Optimum Solutions have opened many doors to provide clients with complete HRIS and cloud backup and DR solutions. UCG's IBM i clients have strong support with their strategic partner in making payroll and HR management simple. Optimum Solutions clients have a proven backup and DR solution available to them for IBM i, Windows, VMware and all supported platforms with VAULT400 BaaS.UCG Grows BaaS Biz with VAULT400 Cloud-based backup and recovery services and remote hardware for disaster recovery and high availability continues to attract IBM midrange shops and United Computer Group has become a trusted partner with many of them. Last week, the Cleveland, Ohio-based company announced two more companies that have decided to contract with UCG for what is being referred to as backup as a service, or BaaS. - Dan Burger, IT Jungle Achieve Business Excellence at the 2014 VAI User Conference! November 6 - 8 Disney's Boardwalk Resort UCG is a sponsor and exhibitor, so be sure to stop by for a visit. If you'd like to set up a meeting ahead of time, give us a call at 800. 211.8798 or email info@ucgrp.com Hope to see you there! Register today! The 2014 VAI User Conference is being held at Disney's BoardWalk Resort in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. Mixing business with pleasure is easy with the unique setting of Disney® Theme Parks and Disney's Championship Golf Courses. Come soak in two and a half days of knowledge from VAI technology experts, enjoy networking opportunities with colleagues, spark new friendships, and exchange experiences and ideas with fellow attendees. With over 70 educational classes, informative general sessions, exciting and inspirational keynote speakers, new hands-on training labs, new executive business round-table sessions, our Technology-Partner Solution Center, and exciting and fun networking events, the 2014 VAI User Conference is bigger and better than ever! Your DR Strategy Guide for IBM i Available for Download Now! Thank you for taking time to read the DR Strategy Guide for IBM i, brought to you by Maxava and United Computer Group. If you or your team are responsible for the ongoing health and protection of your IBM i systems and data, this guide is for you! Click here to download your DR Strategy Guide.  United Computer Group, Inc. (UCG) was founded in 1987 by James A. Kandrac. UCG has been an IBM Business Partner since 1989 and an IBM Advanced Business Partner since 1991. Customers have rated UCG in the top 1% of IBM Business Partners nationwide.  UCG offers VAULT400 BaaS and IBM Power Systems, in addition to a wide range of related products and services. United Computer Group, Inc. and Maxava have been business partners since 2008. Maxava HA is the solution of choice when UCG clients need RTO and RPO of less than 1 hour. Read more. Become a UCG Partner United Computer Group partners enjoy collaborative, rewarding, and mutually beneficial arrangements to bring industry-leading technology solutions to the mid-market. Our core business philosophies ensure that our clients have an excellent experience. We are focused on delivering solutions to help them solve their most complex technology challenges. As an IBM Advanced Business Partner, UCG has been actively marketing Power Systems-based enterprise solutions since 1987. We place great value in finding the right partner to provide a high level of sales, marketing, and technological support to our clients. Interested? Click here to fill out a brief form and we will contact you within 24 hours. We look forward to working with you.

IBM i Shops Turn to VAULT400 for Protection

By Alex Woodie, IT Jungle

Alex Woodie
Senior Editor at Guild Companies' 
IT Jungle publications.

A pair of New Jersey companies have adopted United Computer Group's VAULT400 service to store backups and protect their IBM i environments, the vendor announced recently.

Hi-Tech Health, a healthcare claims servicer based in Hackettstown, and Congoleum, a flooring manufacturer based in Mercerville, are the latest success stories touted by UCG, which is based near Cleveland, Ohio.

VAULT400 wasn't the first backup as a service (BaaS) plan used by Hi-Tech Health. According to UCG, the company had a relationship with a separate BaaS provider, but it failed to get the company back up and running in an acceptable timeframe following a disaster declaration.

After touring UCG's data center, Hi-Tech Health president Michael Carrara felt comfortable choosing VAULT400's cloud-based backup and recovery service, with a 12-hour recovery time objective (RTO). "After meeting your staff and receiving a detailed tour of your data center, I felt confident that my data will be in safe hands with UCG," Carrara says in a press release.

Congoleum also selected the VAULT400 BaaS offering with the 12-hour RTO. The company was looking to move beyond tape backups for its Power5-based system, and VAULT400's approach—which utilizes a native IBM i agent that moves encrypted backups over the network to UCG's data center--fit the bill.

"The installation and setup were quick and painless," says Dan McCullough, manager of datacenter operations for Congoleum. "Vladimir [Capitanov, UCG's lead engineer] really knows the product and process very well, which made the setup seamless. The seeding went well, and progressed more quickly than expected."

Congoleum has yet to call on VAULT400 during a disaster, but the service is already paying dividends. "We realized immediate benefits including reduced disaster recovery costs," McCullough says. " The need to handle tapes on a daily basis has been eliminated … Additionally, if I need to restore a file, I don't need to retrieve a tape, load it, restore the file, and then reset the drive for the next save. So that makes my life a lot easier."

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Join EXTOL University Conference Sponsor United Computer Group October 6 - 9 in Dallas!

The 2014 EXTOL University promises to give customers a personalized educational experience in the heart of downtown Dallas, TX.

UCG is a proud sponsor of the 2014 Extol University Conference. Be sure to stop by our booth to say hello and learn about our latest innovations! 

"Prepare for a brand new educational experience at this year's EXTOL University! We've added several new hands-on sessions for advanced users, along with some "back to basics" refresher courses to ensure that all attendees have the flexibility to maximize every learning opportunity.

We've been listening to your suggestions and feedback, and believe that the 2014 EXTOL University will provide the best source of education that not only will positively impact your role, but improve your company's business operations."

(Left to right)
Jim Kandrac, UCG; Gina Parry and Dan Bivona, VAI
at EXTOL University

ucgrp.com