United Computer Group, Inc. Q3 2014 Newsletter

Summertime ... the livin' is BUSY! Hello and welcome to the UCG Q3 Newsletter! The first half of 2014 flew by at warp speed as we welcomed many new clients to UCG. Clearly, businesses are migrating from tape backup to cloud-based solutions at an urgent pace. Data backup is seemingly one of those workloads destined for cloud. Consider the immediate savings a business could realize if it changed from a traditional, legacy backup model to one that is cloud-connected, as well as the IT resources companies could recover and reassign to other, more business critical needs. Tape cartridges Tape library Associated maintenance for tape hardware Software licenses  For United Computer Group, the numbers speak for themselves: from June 26, 2013 to June 26, 2014, UCG’s net monthly recurring revenue for VAULT400 BaaS  (Backup as a Service) and remote hardware recovery has increased over 33%. UCG’s use of social media continues to be a significant factor to this growth by enabling us to reach out to new clients in the US, Canada, and Europe far more effectively.   As well, we are seeing a revenue shift from traditional buy/sell business to the "cloud" and managed services. UCG services, in addition to BaaS and remote hardware DR for iSeries and Intel, include remote ITaaS for IBM Power Systems and Managed Service High Availability. Thank you for your continued and future business, and a big welcome to our new clients! We hope you enjoy this issue of the UCG newsletter.   Balancing BUDGETS and PROTECTION  by James A. Kandrac Backup as a service can be a cost-effective part of your company’s budget Determining budgetary priorities is a balancing act. Often, business executives keep a tight rein on budgets, sometimes making the IT department’s priority of protecting data difficult. However, if business-critical data is lost and a company folds, keeping the lights on or employee benefits coming won’t really matter. Download PDF of article Read article in IBM Systems Magazine Published June 2014 My Ride into the Danger Zone by Jim Kandrac June 7, 2014 was no ordinary day. Fighter Pilot for a Day® by Air Combat USA, a Christmas gift from my lovely bride of 28 years, Pamela, had at last arrived! The weather was sunny and calm, a perfect day to fly. I arrived at Cleveland Burke Lakefront Airport well prior to take off at 01200. Excitement, adrenaline, and nerves were at full tilt. Let's just say I wore black underwear "just in case". The day began with an instructional class, followed by me handling the controls about 90% of the time. The controls were very sensitive and similar to a helicopter; very slight adjustments end up being significant corrections. All in all, I had six dog fights with another competitor, pulled 4.6 G's, almost threw up, sweated profusely, did many, many, many loops and rolls while chasing the other plane, and got three kills. It was fantastic! Thanks +Air Combat USA I cannot imagine what it was "really" like during WWII. My sincere thank you to our entire United States military who protect our freedom on a daily basis.  UCG is pleased to be a sponsor for The 20th Annual OCEAN User Group IBM i Technical Conference and Vendor Solutions Expo from Thursday evening July 17th through Saturday July 19th in Costa Mesa, California. It's not too late to join us, so register today! The conference agenda features six tracks and over thirty sessions. Featured speakers are among some of the best technical experts in the IBM Power System i world including Scott Klement. Check out the Top 3 reasons why Scott thinks YOU should be at the OCEAN IBM i Tech Conference this year! Jim Kandrac will be at the UCG exhibit on Friday, June 18th. Stop by for a visit to discuss the latest IBM Power 8 announcements and the IBM i Solution Edition for VAULT400. CLIENT SPOTLIGHT EMI Corp., located in Jackson Center, OH with a second location in Wickliffe, OH, recently subscribed to UCG's VAULT400 BaaS to protect business-critical data on their IBM Midrange system.Prior to VAULT400, EMI backed up their system with multiple, expensive tapes.This meant EMI's IT team had to perform manual backups every night. With VAULT400, they now set and forget their backups. Their data is compressed, encrypted and sent to UCG's secure, off-site, HIPAA compliant data center in Cleveland, Ohio as well as their data center in Atlanta, Georgia for a second replication. With VAULT400, data is available for immediate, user-initiated restore 365x24x7. In the event of disaster, EMI will receive Hardware Disaster Recovery Quick Ship free of charge from United Computer Group, Inc. EMI uses IBM-powered Enterprise Management Software as their ERP solution. United Computer Group is an authorized distributor for this award-winning Manufacturing and Distribution software.Kay Frieders of EMI Corp. wears many hats including Controller, IT Manager, and General Manager. Kay was extremely pleased with the outstanding customer service received from UCG, underscoring our dedication to an excellent client experience each and every time. “The VAULT400 installation on our iSeries was flawless and could not have been better. In addition to the smooth installation, UCG promptly followed up with me on the seeding completion of all the backup jobs that were scheduled to make sure that everything is perfect for EMI Corp. I’ve been working for 30 years with IT people all over and it is refreshing to work with UCG; they care and it shows. It’s that kind of detail to attention that keeps customers coming back.” - Kay Frieders For more than 40 years, EMI has been one of the most experienced and reliable manufacturers and suppliers of automation equipment and maintenance products for the plastics industry. EMI supplies thousands of products and their automation systems are found in many plastic processing facilities of all sizes. On Friday May 16, 2014 UCG hosted clients and business partners for "Spring Fever 2014" at Acacia Reservation in Lyndhurst, Ohio. By all accounts, the event was a success! Highlights Virtual tour and capabilities of UCG Data Center Partner BlueBridge Networks LLC by Petar Bojovic of BBN Data Backup and Disaster Recovery for iSeries and Intel (vSphere and Hyper-v) 10GB to > 100TB by Jim Kandrac and Tim Prostor of UCG Data Intelligence and Warehouse Management by Gina Parry of VAI What is Flash?  When and why might it be considered?  by Tracey Halama of IBM Chicago IBM Power 8 update by Jim Kandrac   A/P Workflow and Document Management by Bill Wilson of Vanguard Systems In addition, guests socialized over a hot buffet breakfast and lunch followed by an afternoon of golf at Hawthorne Valley Country Club. A big thank you to everyone in attendance and to our excellent presenters!  We hope to see you all again soon. 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.com ucgrp.com | vault400.com James A. Kandrac, President Michael D. Powall, Vice President We are 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.

July 2014 Q3 Newsletter UCG in the News: Q2 2014 Highlights IBM Engine of the Week: Colocation Solution Keeps Insurer Online Amid Hurricane Sandy's Wrath  Watch podcast to see how with the guidance from IBM partner United Computer Group, IFIC avoided nearly $2 million in lost revenues and learned valuable lessons to help it prepare for future incidents." +Paul Gillin "Though the IT team at Newark, NJ-based International Fidelity Insurance Company (IFIC) had rehearsed its disaster recovery scenario with precision, the team couldn't have anticipated an event that would take out power, roads and communications across a wide swath of the mid-Atlantic coast. When Hurricane Sandy hit in October, 2012, the disaster recovery team had to fail over to a co-location site with the clock ticking on its uninterruptible power supply and no phone service." UCG Champions Technology Upgrade for the Ohio AFSCME Care Plan "The Ohio AFSCME Care Plan, which covers more than 41,000 public and non-profit workers in Ohio, realized it needed a technology upgrade to support not only its current requirements, but also its future growth. To assist with its technology upgrade planning and implementation, the organization turned to United Computer Group (UCG), an information technology services firm with deep knowledge in IBM Power Systems and IBM i, which is based in suburban Cleveland, Ohio." - Dan Burger, IT Jungle  What happens when your cloud provider goes out of business? Going with cloud providers doesn’t mean you can forget about disaster planning. What if they go out of business, taking your server capacity and data with them? In this article, +Thoran Rodrigues succinctly captures the importance of conducting due diligence on prospective cloud vendors. UCG Partner BlueBridge Networks Once Again Honored as COSE NEOSA Best IT Services Company Congratulations to UCG's ​Cleveland, Ohio data center​ partner​​, BlueBridge Networks​, once again named a COSE NEOSA Best IT Services Company. As a VAULT400 subscriber, your data is of utmost importance to us and is secured at our data centers in Cleveland and Atlanta. Operational ​excellence and our commitment to High Availability, ​reliability and ​security is paramount and recognized by our peers.  Click here to download the​ Auditors Letter for our SSAE 16 SOC II Type II for the period ending 12-31-2013 which has once again been completed without exception. Please let us know what questions around safe harbor, compliance or audits you may have and how else we may assist. Visit our website for additional information on UCG's data centers. 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. TUG TEC2014 Conference Highlights Toronto Users Group Conference, TUG TEC2014, took place on April 24-25 at Seneca College at York University. The two day conference spotlighted the IBM i mid-range systems. Léo Lefebvre, TUG president stated, “I am very happy to see such a great turnout for our 21st event. Providing a vendor showcase among the many technical sessions has proven a success year after year. TUG is glad to provide this forum to connect the IBM community for this exchange of ideas." Sessions focused on a few main themes this year: Performance Management, Modernizing IBM i Applications, and IBM i and RPG Application Development. A trending topic on the use of mobile development on the IBM i was also a highlight of the conference. Tim Rowe, IBM Business Architect, provided the keynote speech. Tim noted that organizations can make IBM i applications look and feel new. It can be done either through a web interface or even a mobile device.

My Ride Into the Danger Zone

Jim Kandrac, President of United Computer Group, Inc.

 

June 7, 2014 was no ordinary day. My adventure as Fighter Pilot for a Day® by Air Combat USA, a Christmas gift from my lovely bride of 28 years, Pamela, had at last arrived!

The weather was sunny and calm, a perfect day to fly. I arrived at Cleveland Burke Lakefront Airport well prior to take off at 01200. Excitement, adrenaline, and nerves were at full tilt. Let's just say I wore black underwear "just in case".

The day began with an instructional class, followed by me handling the controls about 90% of the time. The controls were very sensitive and similar to a helicopter; very slight adjustments end up being significant corrections. All in all, I had six dog fights with another competitor, pulled 4.6 G's, almost threw up, sweated profusely, did many, many, many loops and rolls while chasing the other plane, and got three kills. 

It was a fantastic experience! +Air Combat USA

I cannot imagine what it was "really" like during WWII. My sincere thanks to our entire United States military who protect our freedom on a daily basis.

 Jim Kandrac

Scott Klement's Top 3 Reasons to Attend the 2014 OCEAN IBM i Tech Conference

Top 3 reasons why Scott thinks YOU should be at the OCEAN IBM i Tech Conference this year

+Scott Klement 

1. “We work in a technology industry. Technology, by nature is always changing, so it's important to be kept up-to-date in your area(s) of expertise.”
2. “Networking with your peers is important; you should have friends you can call on or run ideas past.”
3. “OCEAN's Technical Conference and Expo is the best resource for all of this stuff in the So Cal area.”

You can network with Scott Klement, Author and Product Developer at Profound Logic Software, and an impressive group of other leading industry experts at the reception and dinner on Thursday, July 17, at the Avenue of the Arts Wyndham Hotel.

Plus, Scott will be presenting three sessions at the main event on Friday, July 18:

Three Approaches to Web with RPG - Most RPG/CGI applications that you see today use the open source CGIDEV2 tool to emit HTML.  In this session, Scott will show you how to "upgrade" your CGIDEV2 application to use CGIDEV2 with a JavaScript framework.  He will demonstrate how frameworks provide more functionality and make your program easier to maintain than emitting HTML directly. Then, he will compare the CGIDEV2 technique with the use of Open Access, to help you decide which approach is the best for you.

Working With JSON in RPG - JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) is quickly becoming an important document format for business data interchange, so what's the best way to process it from RPG?  JSON provides the same benefits as XML, but is smaller (and so transmits over a network more quickly) and is much more efficient than XML to work with in web applications.  Naturally, this means that your RPG business applications need to learn how to speak JSON in order to talk to many of the newer web services or exchange data with many tech-savvy business partners.  In this session, Scott will explain how the open source YAJL tool can be used from an RPG program to process or generate JSON in an efficient manner.

Accessing External Databases from RPG - Ever wanted to access an SQL Server from an RPG program? How about MySQL, Oracle or even DB2? Although some database manufacturers may not make drivers for IBM i, it's possible to use Java's JDBC drivers from an RPG program.  

By the end of this session, attendees will be able to install JDBC drivers for use in RPG and write RPG code to issue SQL statements against JDBC drivers.

Details & Registration 

Thanks and see you at the conference!

Margaret Matthews - OCEAN VP Programs & 2014 Conference Chair

Register for OCEAN Tech Conference TODAY for best pricing!

UCG is pleased to sponsor and cordially invite you to attend The 20th Annual OCEAN User Group IBM i Technical Conference and Vendor Solutions Expo from Thursday evening July 17th through Saturday July 19th in Costa Mesa, California.

The conference agenda features six tracks and over thirty sessions. Featured speakers are among some of the best technical experts in the IBM Power System i world.

Early registration pricing is available through TODAY, June 20 at $195, or if you register on the same day as a colleague or friend, $170. After June 20, registration is $245.

James Kandrac, President & Founder of United Computer Group, Inc. will be at the UCG exhibit on Friday, June 18th. Stop by for a visit to discuss the latest IBM Power 8 announcements and the IBM i Solution Edition for VAULT400.

Hope to see you there!

Crunch time at UCG thanks to Herr Foods!

UCG's Senior Consultant Tim Prostor returned from a dual VAULT400 appliance install at Herr Foods headquarters in Nottingham, PA with several bags of their tasty snacks. The team at UCG thoroughly enjoyed them and decided to run an informal taste test. Here are the results!  

UCG Managers (L to R)
Mike Powall, VP; Tim Prostor, Senior Technical Engineer;
Gina Creager, Administrations & Operations Manager
Michael Seday, Senior Consultant

Scoring System

#1 = 5 points

#2 = 4 points

#3 = 3 points

#4 = 2 points

#5 = 1 point

#6 = 0 points

The winners were: 

1. Extra Crunchy Honey Sriracha Kettle Cooked Potato Chips and Kettle Lattice Cut with Sea Salt = Tied for First Place - 18 points
2. Ripple Kettle Cooked = 14 points
3. Kettle Cooked Chips = 12 points
4. Crunchy Cheese Sticks = 7 points
5. Old Bay Seasoned Cheese Curls = 6 points

Looking for a fun family activity this summer? Check out Herr's Snack Factory Tour in Nottingham, PA. 

Schedule your tour online

The folks at UCG will be more than happy to taste test new products anytime for Herr Foods; just send them on over! Thanks again!

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.   

Balancing BUDGETS and PROTECTION

Published in IBM Systems Magazine June 2014

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

Backup as a service can be a cost-effective part of your company’s budget

Determining budgetary priorities is a balancing act. Often, business executives keep a tight rein on budgets, sometimes making the IT department’s priority of protecting data difficult. However, if business-critical data is lost and a company folds, keeping the lights on or employee benefits coming won’t really matter.

Before you think BaaS is a luxury and perhaps an unnecessary one at that, consider nationwide studies have indicated that firms have a 1 to 2 percent chance annually of experiencing a complete disaster, but upwards of a 70 percent chance annually of experiencing data loss. In my opinion, only two kinds of companies exist—companies that have lost data and companies that will lose data. Losing data has significant consequences for your business and your clients—not just from a financial perspective in lost time and recovery costs, but also damaged reputation and the long-term consequences of permanent loss of critical data.

Link to full article in IBM Systems Magazine or download PDF.

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