UCG & OPTIMUM SOLUTIONS USERS CONFERENCE 2016

UCG Technologies will be in attendance and exhibiting at the Optimum Solutions Users Conference being held September 13 through 16 at the Hilton Suites in Downtown Nashville.

UCG's president Jim Kandrac will be presenting on Wednesday, September 14 at 1:15 pm. 

BACKUP, STAY SAFE & AVOID DOWNTIME

Top five ways to protect your organization

Jim Kandrac is the Founder & President of UCG Technologies in Independence, OH. UCG specializes in IBM Power Systems running the i OS IBM i Series, and protects all platforms from 10GB to in excess of 100TB with UCG Enterprise Cloud Backup, DR, H/A, and Enterprise Security Training. UCG has been an IBM Business Partner since its founding in 1987.  

You can download the full conference agenda here.

Be sure to stop by UCG's table and attend Jim's presentation to learn more about how your organization can benefit from UCG Enterprise Cloud Backup, DR, and H/A solutions which now include Enterprise Security Training. In the meantime, check out our video below. Hope to see you in Nashville! #OptimumUC2016

IBM i Solution Edition for UCG Enterprise Cloud Backup & Disaster Recovery

Organizations gain significant IBM i pricing benefits, and an easy-to-manage cloud backup and DR solution that delivers a low total cost of ownership!

Benefits:

• Save $6,000 to $60,000
• 4 to 16 Cores
• Discounted IBM i User Licenses
• No Charge Service Vouchers
• Discounted Rational Users

As an IBM Business Partner, UCG has worked with IBM for three decades to ensure tight integration of our solutions. That collaboration has extended to UCG’s participation in the IBM Advisory Council and includes product design and development to testing and go-to-market strategies.

The IBM i Solution Edition for UCG Enterprise Cloud Backup & DR is available for both the IBM Power System S814 and S824 line of servers. Both Power Systems feature the latest IBM processors, which represent a true leap forward to more intelligent systems that reduce complexity, decrease energy consumption, minimize downtime and drive down operational costs.

IBM features UCG's Enterprise Cloud Backup & DR services on the IBM Global Solutions Directory.

Download PDF:

IBM i Solution Edition for UCG Cloud Backup & DR

800.211.8797 | info@ucgtechnologies.com 

Spreading a Wider IT Net At UCG Technologies - IT Jungle

By Alex Woodie

Selling boxes in the midrange isn't easy. A shrinking customer base, falling margins on hardware sales, and tight IT budgets combine to put the squeeze on even the best-run reseller outfits. For longtime business partner Jim Kandrac, the shift was palpable enough to lead him to rename his Cleveland, Ohio-based company from United Computer Group to UCG Technologies.

It's notable that "computer" is no longer in the name of Kandrac's company. Are computers no longer important to the business? "The word computer is becoming more passé," he says. "They're still important, but they're less important."

In the heyday of the AS/400 and the iSeries, Kandrac's company would make 80 to 90 percent of its revenue from hardware sales. IBM's midrange server was the Golden Goose that kept United Computer Group humming, and put Kandrac's kids through college. But today, hardware sales account for less than half of UCG's revenues. The company still counts on a loyal group of customers in the Great Lakes region, but it's also been forced to broaden its horizons, and today UCG has customers spread across 31 states and Canada.

Serving such a geographically dispersed client base isn't easy. "It's challenging," Kandrac says. "In the old days, when you'd sell, you'd call somebody, make an appointment, and see them face to face. That's fine if they're local, but on a nationwide basis, it's more challenging."

To be sure, the midrange reseller channel has been evolving since the dot-com and Y2K bubbles popped in 2000. UCG has managed to hold its own and maintain share in a stable-to-shrinking market. But competition on hardware deals is fierce, and Kandrac is under no illusion that Power Systems sales will ever be as lucrative as AS/400 and iSeries sales once were, or that UCG will come to dominate the channel.

"We're a boutique firm," he says. "We're not going to be a $200-million business partner. It's not really our market. We're definitely in the midmarket. We've done business with 1,500 companies, and have a core base of 250 or so. We're looking to reach out from that and look at different segments."

As Kandrac looks to the future, he sees new opportunities rising in certain areas. The biggest is cloud-based backup, disaster recovery (DR), and high availability (HA), which today accounts for 35 percent of UCG Technologies' revenues.

Over the past 10 years, UCG Technologies has carved a niche for itself in this market through VAULT400, a backup and DR environment. While the VAULT400 name is going away, the service itself isn't changing. And without the "400" attached to it, perhaps more customers will tap UCG Technologies to protect Windows, Linux, and UNIX servers as well. (The company has supported these platforms with VAULT400 for many years.)

Ten years ago, when you tried to sell a cloud-based solution, people would look at you funny, Kandrac says. But today, people just seem to get it. With that said, the cloud discussion around the IBM i has its particulars.

"The reason for going to the cloud with i is more administrative, and getting it off your plate," he says. "You don't have 10 people in IT anymore. You have four or five, and you want to spend more time on running and supporting your internal applications. If you look at the cost dollar for dollar, it's one thing. But when you start looking at the people and the resources--that's really where the money is saved."

Kandrac is also keen to sell business software--in particular the IBM i-based ERP software from his partner, VAI. The combination of industry-specific software for apparel, durable goods, retail, food, and pharmaceutical companies and cloud-based backup, DR, and HA and VAI's applications gives UCG Technologies an edge, Kandrac says.

Jim Kandrac, President
UCG Technologies

Security training is a new thing for UCG Technologies. Last fall, the company announced that all subscribers to its cloud backup solutions would automatically receive ransomware awareness training from its partner, KnowBe4.

The ransomware epidemic is rampant at the moment, and several of UCG Technologies customers have fallen victim to cyber criminals who trick unsuspecting employees into clicking on links that then encrypt the contents of hard drives. 

"Do we make a lot of money? Not really," Kandrac says. "But I feel it's so critical to protect the data, so we include it. It's a cost. I get it. But there's no magic dust out here we can sprinkle to take care of data."

Kandrac ran into IBM CEO Ginny Rometty at the recent PartnerWorld conference, and came away believing that things like Watson and analytics could have a real future. Whether or not it plays with the IBM i platform has yet to be seen, but the pervasiveness of data is certainly getting to a point where it might.

"I think people have to be creative and ultimately come up with new ideas," Kandrac says. "When big data and analytics and Watson first came out, I wondered if this was new term for business intelligence and whether you run it on spreadsheets or Cognos. I'm starting to sink my teeth more into Watson and the cognitive era, and my eyes are starting to open. I'm a conservative person so I don't jump on the bandwagon, but I see how it can potentially help."

There's nothing on the drawing board at this point, but Kandrac recognizes the importance of being nimble. The stress and toil of the rebranding exercise ("It's like December 8, 1987--the day I started the business--all over again") was a potent reminder that creation and recreation is a never-ending process.

"I need to sink my teeth into something, and sink my teeth into things that are valuable for my client base, and how I can do more with less," Kandrac says. "Our eyes and ears are open."

Reprinted with permission from Guild Companies. Copyright 1996-2016 Guild Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Tired of keeping your fingers crossed?

United Computer Group

can answer ALL of these questions for you!

We'll help answer your questions regarding the status of your power protection devices AND provide solutions to your issues:

• Confirmation of UPS sizing requirements
• Warranty status
• Extended warranties
• Replacement batteries

We can also provide any backup power requirement from UPS systems to generators and all associated installation and service needs. 

Depend on UCG to define total power load and UPS solutions for:

• New and existing server configurations
• Single server to full computer room
• UPS consolidation and economizing
• UPS warranty extensions
• Battery replacement

There is no critical power question or opportunity that is too small or too big. Give us a call at 800.211.8798 or email info@ucgrp.com today!

Congratulations to UCG Client Cleveland Plant and Flower!

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. 

UCG Business Partner Optimum Solutions Chooses VAULT400 BaaS

United Computer Group, Inc. is pleased to announce that Optimum Solutions has chosen UCG’s VAULT400 BaaS as its backup and DR solution. VAULT400 BaaS provides cloud backup for Optimum’s multiple IBM i servers to ensure quick and reliable backup and restores. Their daily backup time has been cut from hours to minutes. Data backup is automated and encrypted throughout the process with only the user having access to the data.

VAULT400 BaaS was chosen by Dave Waters, Manager of IT Operations for Optimum Solutions, to backup mission-critical engineering development data on the IBM i. 

"Beginning in 2011 we started discussions with UCG on backup and DR solutions. At that time we were testing the waters with various backup methods to move our data from tape. Tape backup had become burdensome, and when we were ready to make the transition in 2014, VAULT400 BaaS was our solution of choice," says Dave. "We did our homework."

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.

Cloud backup has become very competitive, but UCG has found their niche business as others have seen their doors shuttered. Focus on the IBM i and Open Systems from 10GB to >100TB coupled with disaster recovery options has proven UCG's strength in the market. 

Optimum Solutions is an industry software leader for Payroll, Human Resources and Time & Attendance. Their successful history in the HRIS software arena has placed them as an Inc. 500 award winner and named them one of the fastest growing companies in the U.S.

Request an Optimum Demo Sign Up For an Optimum Webinar VAULT400 BaaS & DR Proposal

Counting The Cost Of Power8 Systems

By Timothy Prickett Morgan, IT Jungle

"Now that IBM has put the four-core entry Power8 machine in the field to appease the processing and software group needs of a large portion of the IBM i installed base, it seems like now is a good time to finally get the price/performance analysis comparing Power7, Power7+, and Power8 machines out the door. There are many ways to dice and slice this, and I like to go through this methodically, as you all well know.

I have already compared the base system configurations in terms of their feeds, speeds, price, and raw value for dollar based on IBM's Commercial Performance Workload (CPW) online transaction processing benchmark test. These are but crude relative gauges of price/performance, I realize. That is why I also create comparisons that look at the price of raw processing capacity and the IBM i software license and support. That is what I have cooked up for this issue of The Four Hundred, to show you the cost of the inherent processing capacity separate from the system chassis and the memory, storage, and other peripherals that get added into the system. The next thing will be to look at how configured systems stack up using different generations of Power chips running IBM i and then to compare configured Power8 boxes to similarly configured machines equipped with Windows, Linux, and Unix as well as hypervisors and databases like IBM i offers."

Read full article.

United Computer Group is the IBM Power Systems hardware and services expert. We provide IBM Power Systems, IBM Blade Servers, equipment leasing, support, and more.

Learn about the new servers that are transforming the way we work. Call us at 800.211.8798 or email info@ucgrp.com to learn more!

IBM i Solution Edition for VAULT400

IBM Power 7+ Buy vs Lease PDF

The Benefits of IBM Power 7+ 

IBM Power7 - 720 Spec Sheet PDF

IBM Power Systems

IBM Blade Center

Express Servers and Storage

Maintenance Services

Business Continuity & Resiliency Services

Security Services

Annemarie Ashcraft Appointed National Account Manager for United Computer Group, Inc.

United Computer Group, Inc. is pleased to announce that Annemarie Ashcraft has joined the UCG management team as National Account Manager to further develop our growing portfolio of regional and national accounts. Annemarie will be responsible for leading sales efforts for UCG’s VAULT400 BaaS, remote hardware disaster recovery, and IBM Power Systems. She will also champion the development of UCG’s Referral Partner Channel for managed services.

Annemarie comes to UCG with a wealth of experience in IBM Power Systems i and p, having spent the last 23 years at Arrow Electronics, a longtime UCG vendor. Annemarie was UCG’s point of contact in her role as Account Manager at Arrow. Upon accepting her new role, Annemarie stated “I am excited to begin a new challenge within UCG and look forward to working with the team to further develop their already impressive product and service offerings. I feel fortunate to be joining a well-respected company that prides itself on delivering top notch technology products and services, and customer service excellence. Having worked with UCG for many years, I feel at home already!”

Annemarie will report directly to James A. Kandrac, President and Founder of United Computer Group, who said “Annemarie’s experience and industry knowledge has already made her a key addition to the UCG family. The increasing demand from our clients led us to look for an experienced, motivated individual who will fit in with our corporate culture and philosophy of providing high quality solutions and exceptional service to fulfill this role.” 

Annemarie graduated from the University of North Texas with a BBA in Strategic Business Management. She lives in Westlake, Ohio with her husband Steve and 17 year old son.

Annmarie can be reached directly at 216.520.5163, toll free at 800.211.8798 ext. 198, or via email at ama@ucgrp.com.

Please join us in welcoming Annemarie to United Computer Group!

UCG Grows BaaS Biz with VAULT400

By Dan Burger, Vice President and Executive Managing Editor, IT Jungle 

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.

Carswell, a provider of information services for legal, tax, finance, and human resource professionals based in Canada, and the city of San Ramon, California, are the latest in a string of organizations choosing to work with UCG. IT Jungle has been keeping an eye on the new business wins for the vaulting champion. The "Related Stories" links at the bottom of this article will lead you to other UCG business wins.

Before coming to a conclusion on its backup and recovery strategy, Carswell investigated its options placing an emphasis on ensuring its data could be safely backed up in the cloud. Among the requirements were yearly Auditors Letter for SSAE 16 SOC II Type II and full compliance with HIPAA/HITECH regulations.

The UCG service, referred to as VAULT400, met that criteria and is now deployed to provide daily automated backups to the cloud via encrypted data sent nightly to two UCG data centers, one in Cleveland and the other in Atlanta, Georgia.

San Ramon, a growing municipality of 90,000 residents located 25 miles from Oakland, considers itself a technologically progressive city. It has an electronic customer service program in place and also a mobile app as a way for residents to submit requests to the city. An IBM 9407-515 server is trusted to store and process sensitive employee and resident information.

IT manager Rick Maria reviewed several data backup options before choosing UCG to protect the system's mission-critical DB2 and IFS files with VAULT400 with backup to the above-mentioned data centers.

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

San Ramon is also making use of VAULT400 Reports, a Web-enabled interface for reporting the details of its cloud-based data protection plan that includes encrypted nightly backups and immediate access to its data.

When it comes to hosted services, backup and recovery is the most popular choice for IBM i shops. Managed service providers are filling the demand.

"We see a revenue shift from the traditional buy/sell business to 'the cloud' and managed services," says UCG president Jim Kandrac. From June 2013 to June 2014, Kandrac says UCG net monthly recurring revenue (MRR) from backup as a service and remote hardware recovery has increased more than 33 percent. He says UCG is on track to double MRR every three years.

RELATED STORIES

UCG Launches VAULT400 Reports

Two More Customer Wins for Vault400

Medical Supply Firm Protects Data with Vault400

UCG Lauded for Test Work by VAULT400 Customer

VAULT400 to Protect Food Service Company

Manufacturer Taps VAULT400 for Cloud Backup

Mountains Of Data Bring Recovery Issues

Dan Burger

By Dan Burger, Vice President and Executive Managing Editor, IT Jungle 

If IBM pushed any harder on promoting "The Cloud," it would rain for 40 days and 40 nights. Investments have been made in technologies such as PowerVM, SmartCloud management products, and Live Partition Mobility. And you can't undervalue the investments from the managed service providers (MSPs) and the independent software vendors (ISVs).

"We see a revenue shift from the traditional buy/sell business to 'the cloud' and managed services," says Jim Kandrac, who makes his living selling cloud-based backup and recovery services and remote hardware for disaster recovery and high availability. Kandrac's business model relies a combination of IBM Power Systems and Intel servers to handle the managed service business he refers to as backup as a service (BaaS) and infrastructure as a service (IaaS). His company, United Computer Group (UCG), is equipped to handle online backups of databases from 10 GB to 100 TB.

From June 2013 to June 2014, Kandrac says UCG net monthly recurring revenue (MRR) from backup as a service and remote hardware recovery has increased more than 33 percent. He says UCG is on track to double MRR every three years.

This doesn't prove MSPs are getting more disaster recovery business than any

other kind of cloud-based business, but it is another piece of evidence that BaaS is lifting the cloud. MSPs consider disaster recovery as the gateway to the software as a service and the lucrative services business.

"We've been doing backup and recovery for eight years," Kandrac says. "There

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

has always been a situation where the IBM i people were doing their thing and the AIX and Windows people were doing what they do. Now we are getting calls from mostly IBM i people who have had some bad experiences on the Intel side. Things didn't work as advertised. Too much pipe, too much data, problems compressing data, and trouble connecting to the remote location are some of the problems we've heard from the Intel side. Our business has improved because of this."

The challenge on the Intel side has not been on with archiving, but on restoring because companies that used to have gigabytes of data are now breaking into the terabyte range. Several terabytes of data (what Kandrac estimates is reality for 85 percent of his customers) are unable to restore in a timely matter unless they move to a high availability environment, which for some companies is a great idea, but for a lot of companies is overkill. Kandrac says hybrid solutions using solid state disk will be the way this problem is solved of getting 24-hour restores (what most UCG customers require) without the cost (almost double) of HA. It's happening now, but it's not commonplace. As companies increase from 4 TB to 8 TB to 12 TB of data, at the current capability levels of rebuilding data, the 24-hour recovery is unattainable.

"The trend I see is that the Intel guys are talking to the i guys because the Intel guys tried something that didn't work," he says.

That's opening the door for companies like Kandrac's that can do both.

DON'T GAMBLE WITH YOUR DATA

If your business critical data is still being backed up by tape, each and every day is a gamble. 

The fact is you are putting your business, your clients, and your reputation at risk. Who needs that kind of unnecessary stress?

Discover the benefits of UCG's VAULT400 BaaS

 

Call UCG at 800.211.8798, email info@ucgrp.com, or complete our complimentary risk assessment. An expert from United Computer Group will guide you through everything you need to know from identifying your business issues and pain points to protecting your data and your business. For more information, visit our websites at vault400.com and ucgrp.com. 

Download PDF Balancing BUDGETS and PROTECTION
IBM Systems Magazine, June 2014

An excellent read!

Balancing BUDGETS and PROTECTION by Jim Kandrac, Founder and President of UCG. The article was published in IBM Systems Magazine this month. Includes helpful tips on how to secure funding for BaaS.   

Optimize Your Business Performance with S2K Enterprise Management Software

The Future of Enterprise Management Software Has Arrived.

Regardless of industry, organizations that recognize and use information technology to help their businesses react to competition and quickly respond to change will be tomorrow’s industry leaders. S2K Enterprise Management Software harnesses the power of technology and enables businesses to better anticipate consumer needs and enhance productivity. 

Find out how your business can benefit. Schedule a demo today!

SCHEDULE DEMO

"Since our purchase of the S2K Enterprise Management Software package from UCG, we have added several warehouses and grown significantly. This system has allowed us the ability to better manage our business on an IBM Power Systems platform, which is ideal for growth."   - Keith Price, VP of Information Services, Seneca Medical, Inc., Tiffin, OH

 

"Selecting UCG to provide our IBM Power System and S2K Enterprise Management Software was an outstanding choice. From technical support and disaster recovery, to generating new ideas and resources for growth, UCG is a trusted business partner. This is a critical component for any progressive company."  - Berk Enterprises, Inc., Warren, OH

IBM Power Server Capacity Planning

Based in Northeast Ohio with over 1,500 clients, United Computer Group is proud to represent IBM products and services in addition to those of our strategic partners. 

IBM Power Server Capacity Planning

UCG is an authorized +Midrange Performance Group Business Partner. We use MPG's capacity planning software and consulting services to ensure our customers' IBM Power Systems are sized correctly for their current and future workloads. MPG's Navigator Family software has been deployed in thousands of IBM Power Systems capacity planning and problem determination engagements worldwide over a period of more than 12 years. This significant experience factor is why UCG urges all its clients to deploy the Navigator Family software on your servers. 

Start collecting the data today to let us together make an informed decision tomorrow. Download the MPG Performance Navigator free of charge.

For more information on UCG's product and service offerings, click here.

Grow Your Managed Service Business

IBM Power Cloud Briefing for MSP’s Sponsored by IBM and Arrow

On behalf of United Computer Group, Inc., I was honored to be one of 25 IBM Business Partners invited to attend the IBM Q114 Power Cloud Briefing for MSP's. The event took place at the IBM Executive Briefing Center in Austin, TX on March 18-19.

To meet future client demands, MSP's must be able to expand infrastructure and service delivery capabilities while minimizing cost and increasing client value. The event focused on helping MSP's capitalize on new market opportunities and enable us to provide the right mix of services, products, and programs to clients.

Outstanding sessions and an honor to meet "Watson" and Ravi Arimilli, IBM Fellow, Analytics, Big Data and Cloud Platforms, who presented "Power: Journey and the Road Ahead."

Jim Kandrac with Watson

A fascinating article by +Matthew Herper was published this week in Forbes about Watson’s role in cancer research:

IBM's Watson Attempts to Tackle the Genetics of Brain Cancer

“This morning, IBM and the New York Genome Center announced a partnership to test whether Watson, the computer that won on Jeopardy, can sift through the genomes of cancer patients and help doctors pick drugs. This effort could hold the key to making DNA sequencing for cancer affordable, but there is a vast amount of work to do that will take years at a minimum.” Read article. 

As an interesting aside, Watson is engaged with a client (unnamed) and is working to ingest data to reduce their call center staffing from 3,000 to 100 people. You won't know you are NOT talking with a human. 

Many thanks to John Hardy, Senior Briefing Consultant, IBM Austin, TX; Jim Pinto, IBM Business Unit Executive, Power Systems Service Providers; and Dave Waddell, Brand Manager, IBM Power Systems, Arrow ECS for hosting this event, and to all who participated.

Jim Kandrac
Founder and President
United Computer Group, Inc.