Exciting CHANGES at United Computer Group!

Things are buzzing here at UCG! Now in our 29th year, our business model is evolving to meet the growing IT requirements of our clients. As a Strategic Service Provider (SSP), UCG has long been known as a trusted technology adviser. Indeed, our role becomes even more compelling with greater emphasis on cloud and managed services.

This translates to helping our clients make complex technology decisions, and find the right path to the cloud to digitally transform their businesses and increase their competitive advantage.

In keeping with our philosophy of continuous innovation and evolution, the decision was made to re-brand UCG. Upon launch of our new website in April, UCG will do business as UCG Technologies. Our URL will be ucgtechnologies.com. Rest assured that current ownership, management, employees, and top notch quality service will continue.

UCG's VAULT400 will receive an updated name as well: UCG Enterprise Cloud Backup, DR & H/A.The new name reflects our focus on providing essential IT services to the entire enterprise, including all platforms and databases. New services will include cloud, hybrid cloud, and private cloud, in addition to remote hardware DR and H/A offerings.

Our streamlined, easy to navigate site will showcase the latest in S2K Enterprise Management Software, IBM POWER8 Systems, UCG Enterprise Cloud Backup, DR, H/A, and Enterprise Awareness Training.

We are very excited about this new chapter in UCG's history, and wanted to share our news with you—our valued clients, business partners, and friends! 

Please enjoy our 30-second video, and thank you for your business!

Q1 2016 UCG Newsletter

Designed by Harryarts - Freepik.com Happy New Year! It's a brand new year, and at UCG we've hit the ground running! For nearly 30 years, our focus has been on continued growth through innovation. We view change as yet another opportunity to serve our clients at the highest level of excellence. And we believe that in order to continue to excel, we can never be satisfied with the status quo. 2015: A year in review. Existing clients are steadily upgrading to IBM Power8; adding cyber security training to their UCG cloud backup and disaster recovery solution; and in many cases, have undergone a complete technology refresh including the addition of S2K Enterprise Management Software (EMS).  Increasingly, companies are migrating from tape backup to UCG's secure cloud backup. In February, we entered into a partnership with Expedient Data Centers to meet our clients' growing needs. This is in addition to our existing partnership with BlueBridge Networks. UCG now has access to 19 secure data centers across the U.S. and Canada.  During numerous conversations with our clients, it became clear that we urgently needed to add an additional layer of security to protect their business critical data. Today, the risk of human error and the increasing odds that a company will be hacked cannot be denied. We listened.  At the end of September we announced UCG's partnership with KnowBe4 to add cyber security training and employee phishing tests to our cloud backup and DR solution.  Scheduled simulated phishing attacks and monthly reports now provide executives the insight they need to maximize training ROI and track security compliance.  Year-end results: We rocked! As we have added new product and service offerings and valuable business partnerships, the numbers speak for themselves! At year end, UCG's recurring revenue increased by 27%. Looking ahead to the New Year. In December, Carbonite announced that it had purchased Seagate's Evault. 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 this mean to UCG 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. James Kandrac, president & founder of UCG has published an industry response to the announcement.You can read the article here. UCG is YOUR Strategic Service Provider (SSP). Our business model is evolving as well. As a Strategic Service Provider (SSP), UCG has long been known as a trusted technology adviser. Indeed, our role becomes even more compelling with greater emphasis on cloud and managed services. This translates to helping our clients make complex technology decisions, and find the right path to the cloud to digitally transform their businesses and increase their competitive advantage. Meanwhile, back at the ranch... In Q3 2015, the decision was made to rebrand UCG in keeping with our philosophy of continuous innovation and evolution. In fact, since its founding in 1987, UCG has reinvented itself approximately every seven years. Behind the scenes, design and development at our marketing firm, MoMo Companies, has begun on our new website, expected to launch at the end of Q1. The new site will be streamlined, easy to navigate, and will include all of UCG's products and services. The site is being developed with our clients at the forefront of our minds.  A preview of what's to come! UCG will have a new name, logo, and URL! Upon launch of our new website, UCG will do business as UCG Technologies. The URL will be ucgtechnologies.com.  UCG's VAULT400 Baas will receive an updated name and logo as well. Our cloud backup and DR solution will be referred to on our website and in our marketing campaigns as UCG Technologies BaaS,UCG's BaaS and/or UCG's cloud backup and DR solution as applicable. A version of our new logo for our BaaS solution is in development now. We are all very excited about this new chapter in UCG's history!  As always, we remain focused as we continue to evolve, innovate, and stay true to our nearly 30 year tradition of engaged client relationships. Thank you for your continued interest in UCG! Please enjoy our newsletter and forward to colleagues within and outside your organization. Thank you for your friendship, your confidence, and your business.  Atlantic Dominion Distributors We are pleased to introduce Atlantic Dominion Distributors, a successful family owned business founded in 1875! They are located in Virginia Beach, VA and Hope Mills, NC.  Atlantic Dominion recently chose UCG’s BaaS cloud backup and DR solution to protect their business critical data. Atlantic Dominion currently supplies over 10,000 different products to all classes of the retail trade. They were referred to UCG by one of their valued business partners, Summit Business Associates of Richmond, Virginia. UCG specializes in cloud hosted hardware as well as cloud data backup and disaster recovery. UCG’s BaaS was selected by Christopher M. Berry, Director of Information Technology for Atlantic Dominion, to backup mission-critical data on their IBM midrange system. Berry stated, “Atlantic Dominion wanted to replace their daily tape drive backups with a cloud backup solution and also have a complete disaster recovery system in place. My IT staff and I thoroughly researched our options. It was clear that UCG’s BaaS would be a perfect fit for our operation. We have received excellent training and setup assistance from their technical staff, specifically Lead Engineer, Vladimir Capitanov. I highly recommend UCG’s cloud backup and DR solution.”    UCG’s BaaS is currently backing up Atlantic Dominion’s data nightly, compressing it, encrypting the data, and sending it over the cloud to two secure HIPAA compliant data centers that can run for seven days without re-fueling. They also have access to UCG’s Quick Ship program at no additional charge. UCG will send out a like system within 48 hours in the event of a system disaster, fire or flood. The backup system can be used up to 30 days if required. About Atlantic Dominion Distributors atlanticdominiondistributors.com  Leroy W. Davis founded the Old Dominion Tobacco Company in 1875. The company began as a cigar manufacturing establishment, supplying retail tobacco stores with handmade cigars. Mr. Davis then acquired several local tobacco jobbers that led the company into the distribution of multiple tobacco products. In 1902 Mr. Davis again bought out several other tobacco companies, and formed the L.W. Davis Tobacco Company. On May 27, 1904, the Old Dominion Tobacco Company was incorporated and was well established in the distribution business.  The company began adding lines of products other than tobacco, and currently supplies over 10,000 different products to all classes of the retail trade. The company is now under the leadership of Robin Davis Ray, great granddaughter of the founder, doing business as Atlantic Dominion Distributors. In addition to the distribution services, Atlantic Dominion Distributors offers a Food Service Division, Vending Department, CO2 and Fixture Installation Department.  From its humble beginning the company has continued to grow and is now the 16th largest convenience store distributor in the United States. They have accomplished this by meeting and exceeding the needs of their retail customers for over 140 years. 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.com James A. Kandrac, President Michael D. Powall, Vice President January 2016 Click for latest news Best practices for staying safe in an increasingly exploited digital universe start here. Sign up for your free phishing test today. Over the past several months, UCG has been in communication with our new and existing BaaS clients regarding the urgency to act now to shield their organizations from cyber attacks. To protect their organizations, over the last few years, thousands of organizations in the U.S have started to phish their own users. IT pros have realized that doing this adds an essential security layer. Today, phishing your own users is just as important as having antivirus and a firewall.  Why? If you don't do it yourself, the bad guys will. The bad guys are business people too and their time is money. They go after the low hanging fruit; your users. Traditional once-a-year security awareness training just does not cut it anymore. Is there a patch for ignorance? You'd be surprised.  Phishing your own employees and finding out who the culprits are is a logical course of action. It's a great assessment to find out the phish-prone percentage of your organization, and usually higher than you thought.    Request your free phishing test and learn more about cyber security training for your employees.  We have your data protected, but not from human error. We feel it is imperative to ensure all employees are educated and up to speed on how to spot ransomware attacks BEFORE they click on a dangerous link.  Keep your team on their toes with security top of mind! Cybersecurity predictions for 2016 by Steve Weisman, Special for USA TODAY Last year I quoted late, great sage and Hall of Fame baseball player Yogi Berra. Yogi once noted, "It's tough to make predictions especially about the future." Fortunately, for me, mine for 2015 were accurate. And so I will venture out to again make predictions, many of which should be considered warnings, for 2016 — as I remain all the while cognizant of the words of the Chinese philosopher La Tzu that "those who have knowledge, don't predict. Those who predict don't have knowledge." Read Steve's cybersecurity predictions for 2016.  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.  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.  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.  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.  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. Read more about each of these organizations. From our families to yours, we wish you peace, joy, good health, and prosperity. Happy New Year! Socially Connected You can find us on LinkedIn, Twitter,YouTube, Google+, Facebook, and here on our 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.

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!

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.com • vault400.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.

Happy Thanksgiving from UCG!

“Gratitude is the healthiest of all human emotions. The more you express gratitude for what you have, the more likely you will have even more to express gratitude for."  -Zig Zigler

For nearly three decades, United Computer Group has placed its highest value on the relationships we have built with our clients, business partners, and vendors. At Thanksgiving time, we pause to think about all we are grateful for and give thanks.

Thank you for your business, your trust, and your friendship. From everyone at UCG, we wish you and yours a happy, healthy, wonderful Thanksgiving.

Jim Kandrac, Mike Powall, and the UCG team

UCG's CLIENTS HAVE IT ALL!

HOME       ABOUT      VAULT400       EMS     TALK2US     BLOG TOOLS.  KNOWLEDGE.  VALUE.  FOCUS.  EXECUTION. 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 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.  Learn more at ucgrp.com. UCG's VAULT400 BaaS Cloud Backup and Disaster Recovery Accelerate business outcomes with local offsite cloud backups and restores. VAULT400 BaaS securely and efficiently protects your organization’s critical data, automatically backing up desktop, laptop, and server data from across your organization. A simple web browser can be used to configure your desired backup policies and monitor your backups. With no additional capital expense, more resources can be put back into accelerating the core business. Learn more at vault400.com. Key Benefits End-to-end security Scalable, automatic data protection Cyber security training  19 secure, compliant data centers Remote hardware DR Ensured recovery Enterprise application and hypervisor support Optimized for the entire enterprise Customer choice of trusted clouds Expert help 24/7/365 Download VAULT400 BaaS data sheet (PDF) CUSTOMER TESTIMONIAL  IBM Power Systems | VAULT400 BaaS   Support excellence, disaster readiness, and technology that scales with your business.   “We operate 24/7/365, so ensuring our systems are always up is critical. When it was time for a complete technology refresh, we turned to UCG. The IBM i system they provided is absolutely essential because of its reliability.    UCG’s VAULT400 BaaS is a secure, cloud backup and DR solution that always works. We no longer have to deal with the time and hassle of backup tapes.”    - Marc Masters, IT Director W&LE Railway S2K Enterprise Management Software (EMS)   Enterprise Management Software application for financial management from UCG.  Monitor your business’ financial health in real time. “Our S2K EMS financial software provided by UCG allows for the most complex input while providing sophisticated reports needed to make effective decisions.” - Donna Phillips, CFO S2K’s feature-rich supply chain and business management software solutions can improve your company’s internal efficiencies and external responsiveness while delivering bottom-line results. Learn more at ucgrp.com/ems. Key Benefits       •  Responsive Design        •  Cloud Based        •  Collaborative        •  Configurable   How much confidence do YOU have in your current hardware, data backup, DR, and cyber security programs? YOU CAN HAVE IT ALL! 800.211.8798 | info@ucgrp.com

Power Systems Tech Showcase: The Rising Cost of Security Breaches

by Margarette Burnette 

"If your company faced a cyber attack this year, it could cost $3.8 million. That's according to a new study from the Ponemon Institute, a cybersecurity company based in Traverse City, Michigan. 

The recently released “Cost of Data Breach Study: Global Analysis,” sponsored by IBM, found that cyber attacks are also increasing in frequency."

Read article online here or download PDF. 





What can you do to help protect your company from cybercrime?

The recent Ponemon Institute report states that "Malicious or criminal attacks continue to be the primary cause of data breach. Forty-nine percent of incidents involved a malicious or criminal attack, 19 percent concerned negligent employees, and 32 percent involved system glitches that includes both IT and business process failures."

The importance of a security-minded culture across your business cannot be overstated.

As the result of our recent partnership with KnowBe4, UCG’s VAULT400 BaaS will now include a turnkey managed solution version of their cybersecurity solution suite via remote implementation in less than 90 minutes. The KB4 team has built, deployed, and supported market leading e-learning applications and has deep roots in IT Security.

Scheduled simulated phishing attacks and monthly reports will provide executives the insight they need to maximize training ROI and track security compliance. As an added value, a base number of KB4 users will be included at no additional charge to current and new VAULT400 subscribers.

Free Phishing Security Test

It's important to remember that it's not a matter of IF you'll be hacked, but WHEN.

Sign up for our complimentary Phishing Security Test to find out the level of risk to your business, and how security awareness training can lessen the chances that you'll be the victim of ransomware.

Visit ucgrp.com, call 800.211.8798, or email info@ucgrp.com to learn more.