Revamped Web Site Launches

By Alexandra Suder

One of the biggest priorities on the marketing front this year has been on overhauling our Web site – and I was excited to finally hit the “go live” button on the new-and-improved www.ctgva.com last week.

We did a lot of work behind the scenes to make this a robust and meaningful site for our customers. How did we do that? We listened to what you’ve been telling us from our first years in business, nearly a decade ago.

The biggest takeaway we heard is that you don’t just want to hear that we offer great technology and services because you always trust us to do that. You want to know what CTG and our solutions can do for you. And in today’s idea economy – where IT is the biggest competitive advantage in your business – that’s more important than ever. That was the driver as we mapped out the framework for the new site.

What you’ll find now:

• Our focus on putting benefits first: In general, clients don’t come to us asking for a specific product. Instead, they come to us looking for ways to work more efficiently or solve problems. Now, at a glance, you can pinpoint the capabilities that CTG can deliver to help fuel your growth. The biggest gain is we help our clients achieve their goals and business directives: The focus becomes on opening their eyes to other possibilities that hadn’t yet been considered, but could redefine their business.

• Our expertise at your fingertips: You’ll find white papers, product videos and webinars – all available to you at a click. We’re also integrating our blog and social media channels, so you can keep up with the latest in our industry, Gartner and IDC.

• Our commitment to bringing you best: Much like our primary partner, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, we are committed to helping your transform your enterprise. The Web site is aligned to HPE’s mission to help you migrate to a hybrid infrastructure, use data to power your growth, boost workplace productivity through mobility and keep your enterprise safe and secure. No matter the size of your business, we’re committed to deploying the right solution for you.

We believe the new site structure allows you to quickly navigate the information you need, and we want to thank our partners at Agency Ingram Micro for bringing our vision for this new site to life. They brought some great ideas to the table on how to best share our story and services in engaging ways for our site visitors.

More is still to come. We’ll be regularly adding news and other information, and we envision ultimately launching an online store for various products in our portfolio.

For now, we encourage you to take a few moments, visit the site and share some feedback about your experience. The more we hear from you, the better we can continue to refine and adapt the site.

Of course, this is only one way to interact with the CTG team. While our Web site is open 24/7, we always prefer the opportunity to sit down with you in person to discuss your IT needs – and how we can put the right solutions to work for you.

Alexandra Suder is CTG’s director of marketing.

What To Look For In A Modern Firewall Solution

By Convergent Technologies Group
Your network is the central nervous system of your business—connecting employees, partners and customers and data. The value of that data found on your network is what makes every organization a target for breach. The risk from internal and external threats is very real. The compromise of sensitive financial information, personal data, or intellectual property by malicious outsiders or careless employees can cost an organization dearly.
A strong network protection platform is one that can stop internal and external threats from reaching its targets without hindering access to vital information resources. That’s where the Next Generation Firewall (NGFW) comes in.
More comprehensive than traditional traditional firewalls, a NGFW is a vital component of an effective, multi-layered cybersecurity platform. But with so many firewall options out there, how do you choose the solution that provides the right level of security for your business? When evaluating next generation firewall solutions, it’s important to look at platforms that meet your requirements for security, reliability, performance, ease-of-management and affordability.
Here are 6 factors to consider:
1. Reduced Complexity and Expense
Some of the less-expensive choices out there that are far less affordable than they seem. Many firewalls have additional charges for advanced features, and some of them actually stagnate the network. A good next generation firewall should simplify network management instead of making it cumbersome.
2. Point Product Consolidation
An effective next generation firewall consolidates the capabilities of multiple point products, eliminating problems resulting from incompatibilities between point products and piecemeal upgrades and replacements.
3. Advanced Security Protection
Modern cyber attacks come from all directions, and your next generation firewall platform needs to offer defense-in-depth protection to block them all. A NGFW that works hand-in-hand with an Internal Segmentation Firewall (ISFW) is the best approach. The ISFW sits inside your network to protect your highest-priority assets from APTs that have penetrated the network perimeter or insider threats.
4. Exceptional Visibility And Control
The most effective NGFWs give you the flexibility to protect your entire network from one view. Look for platforms with intuitive drag and drop controls and single pane of glass, centralized management for 360-degree network visibility and ease of administration.
5. High-Powered, Reliable Performance
A firewall only has to go down for a few minutes before culprits infiltrate the perimeter. And your network security can’t come at the expense of productivity. When evaluating next generation firewall solutions, ask for throughput comparisons from multiple vendors.
6. Credible Ratings and Endorsements
The single best way to determine the next generation firewall that meets your needs is to ask the experts here at CTG. Before investing in a comprehensive next generation firewall, make sure all vendor claims are validated by industry tests, and customer and analyst endorsements.
An independent systems integrator is your partner to help you identify your needs and security goals. Convergent Technologies Group works with best in class technology like Fortinet, to develop and implement network security solutions that offer the highest level of protection for your most valuable data assets.  We chose to work with the Fortinet because we believe it offers the best in its class technology and has been chosen by NSS Labs as the industry's top solution for security effectiveness, speed and total cost of ownership.
Contact Convergent Technologies Group here.