Thursday, December 24, 2015

Happy Holidays from UCG!


In honor of our valued clients, employees, and vendors, UCG has made donations to the following charitable and educational organizations this holiday season. 


The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) is the largest voluntary health organization dedicated to funding research, finding cures and ensuring access to treatments for blood cancer patients. LLS is changing the landscape of cancer with more than 300 active research projects that explore different avenues of new and adventurous research; ones with promise and ones that will save lives not someday, but today.

Race For the Rescues. This unique non-profit, no-kill organization is dedicated to eliminating animal suffering and euthanasia.Their mission is to unite welfare organizations to fight pet overpopulation and save as many animal lives as possible. Through the creation of this fundraising platform, they help animal non-profits raise much needed funds to continue their life-saving efforts.

Our Lady of the Wayside. Established nearly 50 years ago, Our Lady of the Wayside supports children and adults with developmental disabilities through a Family of Services. This includes supporting 600 children and adults with developmental disabilities; managing nearly 70 homes in more than 30 communities throughout Northeast Ohio; operating a transportation fleet of 100 vehicles; becoming a major regional employer with a staff of 600; and pioneering The Pathways Program, an innovative Day Program for adults with developmental disabilities.

Wounded Warrior Project. Established in 2003, the Wounded Warrior Project (WWP) began when several veterans and friends, moved by stories of the first wounded service members returning home from Afghanistan and Iraq, took action to help others in need. What started as a desire to provide comfort items to wounded service members at Walter Reed Army Medical Center has grown into a holistic rehabilitative effort to assist warriors with visible and invisible wounds as they recover and transition back to civilian life. Tens of thousands of wounded service members, their families, and caregivers receive support each year through WWP programs.

The RIFI Institute, Chicago, IL. (Scholarship). The Reason, Individualism, Freedom Institute (RIFI) is a non-profit educational organization devoted to fostering active minds, empowering each individual with the knowledge, reasoning skills, and independence to understand the world and build a life of adventure and creative achievement.

In April, UCG and RIFI collaborated to offer scholarships for The Great Connections Seminar to a small number of ambitious high school students in order to expand their intellectual and cultural horizons. The students are members of an entrepreneurial business program in the Brecksville-Broadview Heights School District. UCG President Jim Kandrac is a mentor to these students, in a business plan competition which is held every year.


From our families to yours, we wish you peace, joy, good health, and prosperity. Happy Holidays! 

Thursday, December 17, 2015

Industry Reaction to Carbonite Purchase of Seagate’s Evault

By James A. Kandrac, President & Founder
United Computer Group, Inc.


During a 7:00 pm to midnight “binge watch” of Netflix’s “Son of Anarchy” series, I received the text alert, “Carbonite buys Seagate’s Evault for $14M.” My initial reaction was, “$14M…that MUST be a typo! 

A brief seven years ago, Seagate purchased Evault for some $185M. Now it is being sold for $14M. Does anyone else find this astounding? Seagate just said goodbye to a net of $171,000,000 at a time when managed service companies are selling for multiples of revenue and Evault recently inked a coveted marketing agreement with IBM. Did this really just happen?

Did Seagate just say goodbye to $185M or in addition to the $14M, will Carbonite also pay Seagate a significant portion of recurring revenue for several years?   

While the industry waits for the dust to settle, here is my initial reaction. It comes down to focus and execution or lack thereof. Seagate’s Evault had an outstanding product line with very few holes. They support virtually all platforms and databases and are said to control up to 40% of the cloud backup market, either directly or through over 500 partners.

What it appeared to lack is committed management, focus and execution.

The hope for the industry and marketplace is that Carbonite takes a very legitimate suite of products, integrates it with a much better go-to-market strategy and continues to solve client backup and DR business issues and pains. 

What does all of this mean to our VAULT400 clients? 

UCG is being proactive on behalf of our clients to ensure a smooth transition. Rest assured that UCG will continue to serve our clients in the manner of excellence they have deserved and enjoyed for nearly 30 years. Thank you for your business!

About United Computer Group, Inc. and VAULT400 BaaS
ucgrp.comvault400.com 

UCG provides cost-effective technology solutions including IBM P8 Servers (PROD, TEST, DEV, BaaS , DR and H/A), storage, and managed services in addition to a wide range of related products and services, all customized to fit the needs of their clients’ current needs and future growth. Founded in 1987, UCG is an IBM Advanced Business Partner specializing in mid-market and enterprise clients. UCG has been rated in the top 1% of IBM Business Partners nationwide.

UCG’s VAULT400 BaaS is a premier managed risk mitigation and business continuity planning service for secure online backup and disaster recovery. VAULT400 backs up an entire organization’s business-critical data to UCG’s secure data centers. Safe and off-site, the encrypted data is available online at all times for immediate, user-initiated recovery. VAULT400 works seamlessly within an organization’s existing infrastructure with no additional hardware required.