Aruba scores a 6/6!

For 15 years, Convergent Technologies Group has been delivering effective IT solutions and strategies that help transform companies and move businesses forward. We give the same care and attention to every client, whether you are a small business, or a Fortune 500. CTG works with various partners to provide the perfect solutions for your business, Aruba being one of them.

In addition to being a Leader in the 2020 Gartner Report: Magic Quadrant for the Wired and Wireless LAN Access Infrastructure, Aruba is thrilled to be recognized as having the highest scores in 6 out of 6 use cases in the 2020 Gartner Critical Capabilities for Wired and Wireless LAN Access Infrastructure Report.

  

An AI-driven enterprise embraces experience as the new uptime. It’s about leveraging tools, interfaces and data to reduce reliance on manual actions, as the future becomes more focused on operations.

 

From configuring and deploying your network, to monitoring and controlling it, Aruba solutions simplify your life and bring you a step closer to realizing the benefits of a secure and automated multi-cloud enterprise to drive powerful business outcomes for years to come.

See why Gartner has scored HPE (Aruba) highest in all 6 Critical Capabilities use cases and why we believe this shows the depth of Aruba's end-to-end portfolio.

 

Read the Gartner Critical Capabilities Report

Read the Gartner Magic Quadrant Report

 

We would love to discuss Aruba with you further! 

 

Notes from the (Work From) Home Front: Episode 2

Episode 2: Day 7: March 23, 2020

As we begin the second work-from-home week, I’m happy to report everyone seems to be handling this pretty well. We’re able to serve the majority of our customer's needs in this remote capacity and for everything else, we’re diligent about reducing exposure as much as possible.

I did notice something this past weekend though. I have no idea if anyone else experienced this or not, so I’m speaking purely of my own story.

I had a hard time keeping myself busy. I had this nagging feeling that I should have been in my home office and working on things. I chalked it up to Saturday feeling just like Friday which felt like Thursday (and so on). Wash, rinse, and repeat for Sunday. I knocked out my normal weekend chores, but I couldn’t shake this nagging feeling that I was supposed to be working.

Blurring the line between home and office definitely has the potential to (& did) cause me to continue to have my "work brain” engaged whenever I wasn’t actively doing something else, which can’t be all that healthy and could quickly lead to burnout. Without my commute as the transition signal that I was no longer at work, I was on duty all the time. I realized this is how I’ve felt at the end of each day since we started the work from home thing.

This is no Bueno.

It wasn’t until Sunday that I started to really understand what was going on. I thought I’d immediately write down these things that my brain wants me to do, then perhaps it would relax for a bit. To a degree, it helped. It took a little while to capture all the tasks, calls, ideas, etc., and by late afternoon, I was more mentally home again. I still need to figure out how to reliably transition out of work mode. The odd thing is that I have purposely kept my morning routine the same to help me transition into the working frame of mind. It just never occurred to me I’d need to equally find a way to transition back to a home life mindset.

Jeff Garell

On a final note, last night was the best sleep I’ve had since we started this work-from-home effort. I’m hoping that’s the new trend and I can give credit to this revelation.

Notes from the (Work from) Home Front

Episode 1: Day 3: March 19, 2020

Two days ago my company started working from home and so far it seems to have gone smoothly. Over the past few years, we’ve been making decisions about our own technology infrastructure to enable operation from pretty much anywhere there is an Internet connection. I won’t be brazen enough to think we had forecast some global pandemic or other disasters, it simply was to make it easier for our employees to get their job done regardless of location.

This line of thought led us to provide a laptop to almost everyone. As well as put our email, CRM/Sales tools, customer support services, and most recently our phone system with SaaS (Software as a Service) providers. The only exception still is our accounting system, and it’s not out of fear of it being in the cloud, it’s that the cloud versions don’t yet offer the full suite of features that we need. Notice I said yet, I’m sure it’ll continue to improve and expand and we’ll one day make that move.

Needless to say, the decision to send everyone to work from home was, in a technological sense, easy. In the days leading up to this, we reviewed our processes and made sure there weren’t any “paper hand offs” in our workflows. We made some adjustments to status settings in the electronic workflows to make it a little easier to glance at a screen and have an overall view of things. Some of which probably could have been considered in the past, but when we see each other every day, it’s easy to just go ask for a status or update.

We also scheduled a daily all-hands call to check-in, to see how everyone’s doing, and to clear any issues that are happening.

At the end of day two, signs are showing of potential issues. Not with our tech or processes, it’s the fever, cabin fever. Those of us on the technical side are used to spending a week at home to attend our manufacturer partners live virtual classrooms for the variety of certifications we have to achieve or maintain. Additionally, most of us are not really extroverts anyway and regularly dream of getting some extended focus time.  I expect weeks 2 and on will start affecting my services team.

For those that are extroverted or thrive on human contact - some early cracks are showing up in their armor. For others, it’s having young children at home that aren’t used to leaving mommy or daddy alone for extended periods. Heck, my 12-year-old has achieved a level of boredom such that she’s doing the take-home assignments the teacher gave them, without any reminding (which she would call nagging) that she needs to do it. Perhaps there is a teeny tiny silver lining to this thing. Managing the kiddos that crave (demand!) attention and trying to maintain a working mindset and flow is a challenge that requires the patience of a saint.

Jeff Garell, VP Services

So at the start of Day 3, we will spend some time on the mental health of our folks. Talk about how to get a break from the home office if they need it. It’ll probably be in the form of reminding them that the office isn’t a plague-infested Petri dish and they can always go there to work for a few hours or a day. We just need to coordinate that “respite” with their co-workers so we can still maintain safe distances and all of that other advice we’ve all recently heard a thousand times.

HPE Discover 2018 Recap

Dalton Gormus

Last month, I attended HPE Discover 2018 in Las Vegas, NV. This was my first time in Sin City and I was transported to a whole other world. When I stepped into the Transformation Zone in the Sands Expo, I felt like I was Alice in Wonderland, completely lost but entirely intrigued. You could find everything from Lego displays to the Hack Shack. HPE Discover was a 3-day event that featured various speakers from all over the world discussing topics ranging from Blockchain to Intelligent System Tuning (IST).

The first large session I attended was, Achieving IT Agility in Mobile, IoT and Cloud with Aruba, presented by Janice Le, Aruba Networks Chief Marketer and Parth Narasimhan, Aruba, CTO. Le began the session with introducing the idea that many industries are heading into an experience economy, we are no longer buying just a good or a service, we are buying an experience. The Intelligent Edge is the experience economy we are seeing in IT, it is where smart meets digital. Aruba Networks has recently partnered with major companies like CBRE and HermanMiller Furniture to create smart and digital workplaces to make you workspace feel like home, and this is only the beginning for Aruba. CBRE is using Aruba to create smart buildings for design and IoT sensors. HermanMiller is taking their office furniture to the next level with connected desks that adjust to your height and chairs that know when you are getting up to use the restroom or if you are leaving for the evening. Narasimhan later stepped out on stage to discuss Aruba Introspect, a sensor that is used in the network to alert engineers if there is any suspicious activity going on whether it is inside or outside the company. Introspect was noted by one of our own engineers as an IT trend to keep an eye on within the next year, it is something that many companies are going to want in their tool box.

GenZ Lego Display

The General Session was the most awaited session of the week presented by Antonio Neri, HPE President and CEO. Neri addressed the digital transformation we are experiencing and the three biggest factors that HPE will be tackling during the transformation. Much like what Le was discussing with an experience economy, HPE will be focusing on transformative technology, people and economics. And to enhance this transformation the products that HPE wants to focus on are, HPE OneView, a software-defined infrastructure that eliminates the complex manual processes and increases the speed and flexibility of storage. And, Infosight, which was discussed by Aruba Networks in the previous session is another product HPE will be focusing on; currently only available for 3PAR and Nimble, but soon it will be available for all HPE products. This transformation will be vital for HPE and how companies operate, Neri said, “our purpose is to advance how we live and work”. The way we can advance and transform all of this, is to live in the intelligent edge, the “future-edge” where we interact with customers. Neri announced that HPE will be investing $4 billion into the Intelligent Edge over the next four years, only to further enhance opportunities for businesses. Following that announcement, Neri brought out Ford Motors CIO, Jeff Lemmer. The two sat on stage and discussed the strong partnership between the companies and how they will continue due to the speed and innovation HPE has shown Ford. The General Session also touched on HPE Greenlake FlexCapacity. Greenlake was featured throughout the week with displays in the Social Media forum and various sessions and booths. It is a pay-for only what you use infrastructure capacity that essentially will never run out. Pat O’Conner from Business Alliances ONX came on stage to discuss the steps to take in order to make Greenlake a part of client’s infrastructure. It is flexible, because you should never run out of the IT resources when using, it is easier for customers to engage with and it will cut down contracts exchanged by a few pages.

HPE Greenlake display

HPE made it a point to mix education and entertainment equally, which made you feel like you were not working all day. The week ended with relaxed networking and a performance by pop-rock band OneRepublic. Discover was incredibly informative, and I am grateful I was able to attend this large HPE event after only being a member of the CTG team for a few months. The biggest piece of information I took from this event was that HPE is moving in a direction that will make things simple and unified to create a better experience for partners and customers. With products like Greenlake, picking and choosing what you want rather than having it all are becoming more popular and are designed to help you save and have stronger structures.

If you are and IT professional and interested in learning more about some of these products and our services, please reach out or register for one of our events to speak with HPE and CTG experts!

Support Center Confidential

We join our story, already in progress………

By: Jeff Garell

Yeah kid, another long, slow day in the support center.  Not like the old days.  When you were either an alpha geek or you got lunch eaten by them.  But only if you brought something good though…no one likes a cheese sandwich, ya know.  Here we only have alpha geeks.  But let me continue…. 

I got memories back to working my way up from level 1..ahhh, them was the days where 12 hours was the rule not the exception.  When your adrenaline pumped like a Texas oil well….non stop and messy.   When the phones never stopped ringing and the bosses were never happy.  You could guarantee one of them big wigs would come crashing through the door looking to take out his anger on the nearest poor soul.

Those were the days, kid.  It was like the wild west, Mardi Gras, and Carnival all rolled into one.  Every day.

But not anymore….not since we got Infosight watching our backs.  Who woulda thought that some AI would steal all the fun?  That we'd provide almost 90% of the support our customers need without sweatin' our gimlet and answer calls in less than a minute.

No call tsunamis wiping us off the map like an uninhabited pacific atoll.  No mass emails that have to be run through the approval gauntlet like a guilty soul looking for redemption.   No all hands calls in the middle of the night to figure out what has bedeviled the systems.

I don't know about you kid, but I can't run through millions of data points every second….no mere mortal can.  I tried once and stumbled like a drunk on a sidewalk made of ball bearings.  Yeah kid, it's not like it used to be…..

Now that we got Infosight watching everything, hoovering up all of that performance data from every device around the globe, we just sit back and wait for that AI to tell us what to do or what to go figure out.  Ya see, if it sees a problem that it already knows about, it'll send the emails but only to those admins that might be affected, it'll do the updates, it'll …. It'll take care of it like Tyson took care of Spinks in '88.

And if it don't know what to do it tells us where to start lookin'.  That's why we're here, son.  If one of dem customers call, we look at what our AI friend shows us and can find the answer lickety split, ya know?   Dat's why this here room is mostly empty…we don't need no level 1 or 2 fellas.

And ya know what?  This thing is spreadin'.  It ain't just gonna be our Nimble storage that the AI sees.   Quicker than a wink it'll be watching over 3PAR and I hear RMC too.  Imagine all of those systems - getting that support like ours do.  Those boys in the ivory tower are already countin' their dough with how much more productive people will be.

So that's the story, kid.  As John McClane once said, "Welcome to the party, pal".  I hope you brought a good Phillip Marlow book to keep ya entertained.    Keep yer head down and eyes open and don't bother trying to beat that AI.  Our competitors can't even get close to it, like it's a flamethrower on Guadalcanal, so you got no chance.

See ya tomorrow, kid….and Merry Christmas…

Aruba ClearPass Part 2

Is your business prepared? Today’s organizations face a complex IT infrastructure, more exposed to cyberattacks than ever. The Internet of Things, an always-on mobile workforce and BYOD make visibility into your network more challenging and critical.

Identifying what’s on your network is a never-ending challenge. Not only do you need to prevent malicious users from gaining access, you have to protect against unauthorized devices and applications.

Businesses today embrace the idea of anywhere, anytime connectivity, but often ignore the need for secure network access control. Many employ a “laid back NAC” solution. Others choose the same vendor for security and network infrastructure. Both these approaches give the illusion of security, even compliance, but in reality, leave extensive security gaps.

As an Aruba ClearPass expert and partner, Convergent Technologies Group can help you reduce time spent identifying devices on your network, enforce policies, and protect your network. We will help you address questions, like:

• What’s on my network?

• How do I simplify mobile security?

• Can I limit mobile devices without limiting productivity or increasing security risks?

• How do I unify internal and external security tools?

Get started by taking this brief assessment to help you determine your network’s level of security and see how your business might be at risk. To enforce security standards throughout your enterprise, you need secure enterprise network access control (NAC). 

Aruba ClearPass is changing the NAC space, helping companies understand what’s on your network and keeping your information secure. This is an important first step in building a strategy to take control of what’s connecting to your network to keep your data secure and your business safe.

For more information about what the Aruba ClearPass solution can do to defend your network, contact Convergent Technologies Group at sales@ctgva.com or 804-353-5307.

Aruba ClearPass Part 1

By Jeff Joyner

Network Access Control or NAC has been around for over a decade, but there are many organizations where this technology has yet to be embraced.  This may be changing thanks to the trend of BYOD (bring your own device).  Companies who want to have more control with the devices allowed on their network are turning to NAC to provide this type of security solution.  The HPE/Aruba ClearPass platform is a best-of-breed product that will provide granular control of wireless and wired access and be able to grow as your company grows.

Say you want to allow employees the ability to connect their personal tablets or laptops to the corporate network where you control which resources can be accessed.  And you want to make sure these devices have appropriate security software installed and updated.  You also have contractors on site that require wired and/or wireless connectivity to the network and need to have access to specific resources during business hours only.  ClearPass can do all of this and much more.

Guest wireless is often offered with either an open (no password) network or with a password that rarely gets changed.  ClearPass can automate individual password generation per user with limitations on bandwidth and time-of-day access if preferred.  You can also force guests to request access with approval from an internal user (manager, receptionist, etc).

ClearPass is flexible in that it works with many vendors, so you don’t have to rip out your current switching environment to make this solution work.  It also supports multiple operating systems including Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, iOS and Android.

For more information about what the Aruba ClearPass solution can do for your network, contact CTG Sales at sales@ctgva.com or 804-353-5307.



Jeff Joyner is a network engineer at Convergent Technologies Group.

A Recap of HPE Discover 2017

Charles Fowler

This past week I attended Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s (HPE) Discover 2017 in Las Vegas, NV. Discover is HPE’s annual customer and partner conference where HPE showcases new products and services. The conference lasts 3 days and is broken up into focus areas and general sessions. This was my first year attending as a partner rather than a HPE employee. The experience was not much different other than I hosted 4 clients vs the average 12 clients while employed at HPE which made it a bit more relaxing and fewer logistics for sure.

The general session concentrates on HPE’s direction and how they are solving the current needs of a digital world. This year’s general session focused primarily on Hybrid IT, Generation 10 Servers, and Project New Stack. Meg Whitman, HPE’s CEO, is focusing her efforts on 3 key areas: Digital Transformation, Hybrid IT, and the Intelligent Edge. These are all areas where Whitman sees the potential for tremendous growth in a world where everything computes. HPE’s recent acquisition of SimpliVity and Nimble were also mentioned in her keynote but, were not primary topics of conversation. There was a hint that those two technologies may be instrumental in HPE’s composable infrastructure solutions of the future. Whitman stated that HPE has seen a 30% revenue gain in all-flash storage last quarter and they are expecting that number to grow with the acquisition of Nimble. Whitman said while cloud computing is certainly a fit for some companies, HPE can deliver those same services in a hybrid cloud at a fraction of the cost. HPE believes more and more people are moving away from the cloud due to lack of control, security, performance, or cost. Whitman was not recommending that customers pull the plug but rather invest in a hybrid model that has all the benefits of the public cloud without some of the pitfalls. Additional cost savings may be realized using HPE’s Flex Capacity consumption model, which was also discussed in multiple keynotes and breakout sessions during the week. 

The Intelligent Edge was another focus area for Whitman, claiming a 30% increase in Aruba revenue over the last consecutive 7 quarters. As a partner, and former HPE employee, I can attest to that growth as I have seen a huge amount of Cisco customers moving over to Aruba, both on the wired and wireless networks. Aruba has jump charged HPE’s network business with no signs of it slowing down. While Aruba has mostly been present on the network edge, they will be releasing a new core switch that will be available for purchase soon. Whitman’s point about the intelligent edge was that everything will one day be internet connected, placing more importance on the edge that supports those devices. The internet of everything (IOT) is well underway.

Whitman next introduced Clark Golestani, Global CIO and President of Emerging Business at the pharmaceutical behemoth Merck. Golestani was very complimentary of the products and services provided by HPE. He went on to say that he was doing business with HPE based on the quality of their products, capabilities to support his company, ability to respond, and security. Golestani emphasized Merck’s pathway to hybrid cloud stating that Merck could not risk their business or the welfare of their clients on a cloud only model, supporting the hybrid direction Whitman announced during her keynote. 

Next, Whitman introduced Antonio Neri (Exec VP and GM of HPE’s Enterprise Group). Neri focused on the complexity of Hybrid IT. He mentioned HPE’s commitment to simplify hybrid IT by helping customers define the right hybrid mix using Pointnext software, power the right mix utilizing the HPE ecosystem, and optimize the right mix with consumption models. The point being, companies will now have a mix of traditional IT, private cloud, and public cloud. The challenge will be managing all 3 of those efficiently.

Neri introduced Alain Andreoli, SVP and GM of the HPE Data Center Infrastructure Group. Andreoli spoke about the new Generation 10 Proliant servers, touting the inherent security features built in to the silicon of each new Gen10 server. Neri touted HPE as being the first to incorporate this into their servers. He also spoke about active protection and recovery, a technology that constantly monitors the server for malicious behavior through machine learning. Neri mentioned Niara, a recently acquired security company, as being behind some of these security improvements. There was also mention of an end-of-life security feature that would make it impossible to recover data from retired servers.

All in all, it was a great event. It was a good mix of education and entertainment. Getting ahead of what is coming can never be a bad thing. It would have taken me weeks to learn everything I was able to cover in just few days at HPE Discover. The shear amount of equipment and resources they dedicate to this event is amazing. While I find the breakout sessions useful, it is the technology expo and the keynotes I enjoy the most. My purpose for attending is to learn about existing and future technologies, and a general understanding of how these are being applied to make a positive difference in our everyday lives. If you have not attended HPE Discover, I recommend you consider attending in the future. As the Director of Sales at Convergent Technologies Group, it would be my pleasure to host you at the 2018 Discover.

Cheers

CTG and HP Secure Printing

CTG Expands into North Carolina

By Caylor Feeley

Convergent Technologies Group is proud of our growth over the last decade and our customer-focused culture. And now, we’re moving ahead in a new direction, with our recent expansion into North Carolina. 

Expanding beyond our Central Virginia headquarters will allow us to strengthen our already existing relationships, and will also enhance our ability to effectively serve a new set of clients. Convergent Technologies Group has a tradition of growing businesses in Virginia, Washington D.C. and Maryland with our IT solutions that fit our customer’s precise needs. Our expansion into North Carolina will not only grow our clientele and market reach but will provide full-service technology solutions to our customers in the region. North Carolina's economy grew from tobacco farming and textiles into a leader in modern industries, such as aerospace, biotechnology, banking and energy. The fast-growing economy and the state's thriving technology-based industries create a strong fit for CTG's presence.

Convergent Technologies Group is dedicated to cultivating positive business relationships in North Carolina and providing organizations with targeted information technology solutions, particularly in the ever-changing digital economy. Technology allows us to connect with clients wherever they are. As we have developed new relationships, we want to ensure that our clients have a local account manager who can better understand their business and market they operate in. With solutions including cloud, collaboration, data center, disaster recovery, managed services and more, we analyze our clients’ specific wants and needs to create a tailored approach that will deliver against company objectives. 

Representing us in the North Carolina region is Bailey Mountcastle, who has joined CTG as a territory account manager. A Virginia Tech business management graduate, Bailey is highly motivated and dedicated, and looks to provide every business with the most effective keys to transform its IT department into a revenue-building department. Whether you need products, services or a mix of both Bailey can recommend and deliver solutions that will benefit both your current and future technology needs. Reach out to Bailey here. 

Caylor Feeley is a junior marketing specialist at CTG.

Customer Engagement Center opens access to HPE Products, Experience

By Brandon Samuel

As an account manager, one of my roles is to make sure that I’m providing the absolute best solutions to my clients that my manufacturer partners can offer. The process of a sale can be as quick as 15 minutes – or a year or more, depending on the project at hand.

When it comes to longer-lasting projects, we often spend much time perfecting the configuration and doing rigorous testing to make sure that whatever solution is purchased will work in the client’s existing environment. This testing can require demo units to be allocated, shipped, installed, configured and tested, all of which can take several months to complete, depending on the scale of the solution.

No one can blame a client for wanting to put this level of effort into making a decision. In fact, we encourage it, even if clients might walk in thinking they already have the answers. To be a valued long-term partner, we believe in investing the resources to make sure that the solutions and products that our clients ultimately purchase will differentiate that business not just today but position them to continue building for the next five years.

Let’s face it, when it comes to IT nobody really gives it much thought unless you work on the IT team. Or worse, when the network is down and you can’t do your daily tasks. CIOs and IT directors must make sure that their staff is comfortable with a solution, both from an implementation and management standpoint. The best way to ensure that confidence is by testing their data on the solution being presented. The price and the pressure are far too great of a risk for the solution to not be fully vetted.

What if there was an easier, less time consuming, but equally thorough way? What if we could tell you that the entire process could take less than half of the normal time? Well, we can – and here’s how!

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Customer Engagement Center: New York City, New York

Located in the heart of Chelsea is the HPE Customer Engagement Center. Aside from the HPE logo on the window, you probably wouldn’t give the building a second look, but once you get inside you are in technology heaven! HPE designed this space to show the latest and greatest technologies that HPE has to offer. The goal is to show the future of both one of our primary partners and the companies we serve. 

The center was designed to allow CIOs, directors and managers to not only see the latest and emerging technologies but also to discuss their bottom line. Discussions cover how each piece of hardware and software is designed to meet a specific need, while keeping ease of configuration, deployment and management at the forefront of the conversation. High-level discussions about total cost and return on investment are always hot topics, as well as conversations about making IT teams from every organization more streamlined and focused on innovation, instead of being reactive and becoming stagnant. 

CTG is excited to be taking guests to the HPE Customer Engagement Center on Jan. 26. Our attendees will get to see products in a production environment, receive a hands-on demonstration and experience a tour of cutting-edge HPE technology. 

Brandon Samuel is CTG's sales manager.

CTG Promoting Career Growth for Women in IT

By Alexandra Suder and Caylor Feeley

The biggest take-away from CTG’s participation in the RVATech/Women conference last week? Women are empowered to drive career growth in our IT industry.

Courtney Ferrell, the master of ceremonies, began the all-day event at the Science Museum of Virginia with an encouraging perspective on the creativity needed in the technology industry. She pushed the idea of finding inspiration, away from the desk and with the community. Ferrell reminded the attendees of the importance of women involving themselves within the community groups of: Richmond, other women, and the technology industry. 

                

The five keynote speakers brought strong records of success in technology. Throughout the Oct. 6 event, each shared a different perspective on the power of women in the technology community – with the lessons including:

• Yvonne Wassenaar, CIO of New Relic: Women must overcome personal fear to reach the fullest career potential in the tech industry. She encouraged the presence of more women leaders in the industry, as the current state of women leaders is caused by a perception problem.
• Laishy Williams-Carlson, CIO of Bon Secours Health System: With her experience in changing careers, Williams-Carlson encouraged all women to create and know their own personal career brand.
• Jocelyn Mangan, Chief Product and Marketing Officer of Snagajob: Mangan encouraged women to see value in every aspect of their career, to push past judgements that often follow them as they make career decisions, and to always love their job.
• Joey Rosenberg, representing Women Who Code: Breaking news from Rosenberg was that Women Who Code has officially been established in Richmond. Throughout her presentation, she encouraged women to applaud other women as they tackle the male-dominated industry of technology. Rosenberg gave CTG a shout out during her presentation because half of our company’s employees are women!
• Dr. Karen Rheuban, M.D., professor of pediatrics at University of Virginia. She shared with us the exciting innovations in technology that allow for telemedicine.

Our CTG employees attended different breakout sessions. One session focused on building ideas in a real-world setting through the use of Legos, while creating an environment that opened the mind to ideas and communication. The second session introduced the concept of intrapreneurship and how to use this concept in the workplace, where you act as an entrepreneur within the enterprise. The final breakout session explored the changing world of virtual reality and augmented reality, with a look at privacy concerns and how the VR/AR affects the technology, business and personal spheres.

We and our female colleagues are inspired and motivated by what we learned at this year’s RVATech/Women conference – and we’re looking forward to doing our part to continue to build empowering communities within the technology industry. With an understanding of community comes inspiration and with inspiration comes innovation. Keep your eyes and ears open!

Alexandra Suder and Caylor Feeley run CTG’s marketing department.

Test the Best: HPE’s Hyper Converged Solutions

By Jeff Garell

Have you ever run up against a resource constraint and the only way out was hugely expensive, required extensive design and engineering and then a migration just to be able to expand your resource pool?

Well, you’re not alone. I’ve been a victim of lock in or vendor’s short-sighted design many times in the past 33 years.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s Hyper Converged solutions are engineered to simply “tack on” storage and compute that folds into the infrastructure like its been there all along. I know, it sounds like magic, but it’s not: it’s foresight and thoughtful engineering that makes HPE’s Hyper Converged solutions the best in the industry.

If you aren’t already in a hyperconverged market, you better start looking ahead. According to the well-respected industry analyst Gartner, this market segment will grow nearly 80 percent to reach almost $2 billion this year. This is big-time business, growing at an expected pace to reach nearly $5 billion – almost a quarter of the integrated systems niche – in just three more years.

And that’s why you need to come spend a couple of days here at Convergent Technologies Group. We’re going to give you an inside-out tour of what HPE’s Hyper Converged platforms have to offer during our Technical Summit on Sept. 21-22. We’re also giving you direct access to Joe Vidal, whose unofficial title is the HPE converged evangelist. More formally, he directs the company’s Americas Hybrid IT Channel Architecture Team. Not only will you learn about what’s on the market, you’ll get a glimpse of what’s coming next.

And yes, you have a host of different options to explore, but we aren’t the only ones who give the highest marks to HPE’s Hyper Converged systems – and you’re right to compare and contrast, especially when you’re making that kind of investment. The folks at BizTech magazine call HPE’s platform “a breeze” to deploy, while Gartner routinely rates these solutions in the upper right of its Magic Quadrant.

Actually, we encourage you to explore other options because we know that that will make you only more confident that HPE is the route to go. You’ll see that HPE delivers the optimal performance at the greatest value.

In addition to all of this Hyper Convergey-ness (yes, I’m copyrighting that, see me after the summit for licensing deals), we’ll dive into why Aruba is the leader in wireless and how they made the Super Bowl even more super. Plus, if you haven’t seen it before and even if you have, we’ll be covering storage with the HPE 3PAR and a deep dive into why it was a game changer when it was first introduced and why it still leads the pack.

But don’t just take our word for all this. The Technical Summit is your chance to come see it all for yourself – and take some of this cutting-edge technology out for a spin.

Jeff Garell is a co-founder of Convergent Technologies Group.

Executive Retreat at The Greenbrier to Focus on Continuity, Transformation

By Elizabeth Foster

“Continuity” and the willingness to “step and think outside of the box” are words that describe The Greenbrier, Convergent Technologies Group and Hewlett Packard Enterprise.

In June, The Greenbrier – a historical legacy as one of America’s best resorts – and its community was tested as it faced massive flooding, the result of unprecedented levels of torrential rain. The national news showed images of homes, cars and other debris swept away in seemingly unstopping waves of water and mud. While the devastation destroyed much of the community, it didn’t stop the heart and resiliency of the community, which was buoyed by the reaction and support of The Greenbrier.

Even though this majestic, historical property was assessing severe damage across its property, the resort’s leaders opened its heart and its rooms to those who had lost everything. Two months later, many are still in the early stages of rebuilding their homes – and their lives.

Recognizing its role as a beacon in the community and a major employer in the region, The Greenbrier worked diligently to re-open its doors. In two months, Convergent Technologies Group will return again to The Greenbrier to host its annual Executive Retreat, partnering with HPE to discuss that latest in technology today – including resiliency when the unexpected might occur.

The background for the Oct. 21-23 is fitting. HPE is known for plowing through challenges, and today is recognized as a juggernaut for innovation and tried-and-tested technology. As a Platinum Partner, CTG shares those same values, refusing to settle for the status quo and pushing for next-generation solutions. At the same time, both companies have a history of empowering their people to be nimble, to be intuitive, to strive for excellence on a daily basis and to never settle for less than perfection.

For the Executive Retreat, technology leaders from Maryland, the District of Columbia, Virginia and North Carolina will be coming together with HPE’s Chief Business Strategist & Innovation Officer (aka Chief Creatologist) Joe Batista and CTG executives for open and frank discussions about today’s challenges. From digital transformation and the Internet of Things, from mobility issues to the need for hyper converged systems to handle virtual and storage environments, HPE and CTG together bring a new way of thinking and doing business. Collaboration is key but not the main factor for spurring on changes in technology. Executives are forced to do more with less with shrinking budgets and manpower, while still delivering business processes and continuity.

Perhaps not surprisingly, Batista’s keynote address will explore “The Pivoting Industry: What’s Your Next Move?”

Our CTG co-founders, John Monahan and Jeff Garell, have a united vision and focus for supporting their clients. They believe that executives who attend The Greenbrier Executive Retreat this year will expand their knowledge by learning key business best practices and how to maximize hyper converged environments to lower cost and down time – not to mention finite details on how to shrink and lower the cost of data footprint in the data center. And that’s just a few highlights.

We’ll be sharing more in the coming weeks about this Executive Retreat, which will featured rich discussions about technology and innovative thinking against the backdrop of historical elegance at The Greenbrier. Have you talked with us about saving a seat for you at this once-in-your-business-lifetime experience?

Elizabeth Foster is an inside sales representative at Convergent Technologies Group.

Synergy Creates Opportunities as a Bridge between Traditional, New IT

By Rod Knowles

A common question we hear from our clients and potential customers is how do they get from Point A to Point B? Meaning, they have invested significantly in traditional infrastructure, but they are lured by new technology that offers to open up new opportunities for their business. What are they to do?

Fortunately, our good partners at Hewlett Packard Enterprise have come through with the innovative Synergy portfolio, which breaks ground as composable infrastructure. Put more simply, this is a new architecture that allows you to construct your resources to your exact application needs, coupled with software-defined intelligence and a unified API.  HPE is the first manufacturer in the world to architect this kind of hybrid platform, which is the byproduct of thinking out of the box in how we build IT infrastructures.

Synergy closes that gap and integrates traditional IT environments, which are focused on operations drivers, with the new style of IT, which are more about applications and services. The upsides to all that are, new revenue streams and better customer experiences. 

Your tools in moving to that environment – which is the hallmark of the Idea Economy – are more about mobility, data analytics and cloud computing.  In other words, you can bring new products and services to market quicker with greater agility by utilizing composable infrastructure.

Let’s look at three key benefits:

• Operational velocity: Imagine needing to modify only a single line of code to maximize your business information – with the data center operating as the heart of any sized company – and put your data to work for you in an instant.

• Frictionless IT: Synergy is the ingredient that makes everything work together seamlessly, maximizing the horsepower of your legacy systems and opening the door to new technology. This provides the framework for your DevOps, pushing your business to advanced levels of collaboration and automation.

• Reduce costs: Take better advantage of cloud capabilities, gaining efficiency and ensuring you are maximizing every resource. Plus, Synergy is designed for easy scalability to grow with your business. 

Why Synergy? And why now?
Today’s marketplace calls for businesses to increasingly deliver services that are application centric, according to our colleagues at HPE. In the battle to remain relevant, businesses need to harness the reliability and cost-efficiency of legacy systems, but tap into greater flexibility and speed.

As Antonio Neri, executive vice president at HPE, puts it: “Market data clearly shows that a hybrid combination of traditional IT and private clouds will dominate the market over the next five years. Organizations are looking to capitalize on the speed and agility of the cloud but want the reliability and security of running business critical applications in their own datacenters. With HPE Synergy, IT can deliver infrastructure as code and give businesses a cloud experience in their data center."

What Synergy can do for you
With two of our CTG engineers among the first 100 individuals worldwide to earn certification in this new platform, we quickly recognized how Synergy is bringing breakthrough innovation to our industry. Trust us to show you how this platform can be integrated into your infrastructure and transform your business to seize untapped opportunities.

Rod Knowles is a solutions architect at Convergent Technologies Group.

Benefits of Working at CTG

We believe in hiring the right people and giving them the opportunities to grow with our company. We consider ourselves as something more than an IT company: Our business model relies on great people, and we empower them to do great things that ensure our clients achieve their business goals. Since our founding in 2006, we have continued to refine our compensation packages to reflect that value we place on our employees.

SALARY: We start by offering competitive salaries, which are based on experience and market location. Attractive salaries demonstrate our investment in hiring the right people and starting a long-term investment in their future with CTG.

REWARDS: Bonuses reflect ambitious-but-achievable job goals, which are aligned with our corporate business strategy. Put another way, when our business hits targeted milestones, our people share in our success.

HEALTH BENEFITS: We offer full medical, dental and vision insurance, allowing our people to focus on staying healthy and knowing that they have the right coverage if they need it.

VACATION: Our employees take advantage of two weeks of paid vacation annually.

RETIREMENT: CTG makes regular corporate contributions to our employees’ retirement funds, helping you plan for the long term.

TRAINING: We realize that IT is a specialized industry, so we invest significantly in ensuring our people have the knowledge and training to do their job. As employees master product lines and services, they gain the opportunity to advance into roles with greater responsibility. Our people own their personal development by pursuing the tools and skills they need to grow with CTG.

TEAM BUILDING: About once a month, we bring all our employees together for a team-building activity. It might be attending a sporting event in Richmond or perhaps in Washington, D.C., or closing the office a little early for a company dinner. We work hard to deliver the high quality service we pledge to our clients, so we encourage our people to take time to have fun and collaborative outside our daily work.

ANNUAL HOLIDAY PARTY: In December, we host our employees – accompanied by their significant others – for a weekend celebration to reflect on the past year and build excitement for what’s to come. In 2015, we enjoyed three days in New York City.