Posted on Mon, Apr 22, 2013 @ 08:45 AM
This past week, MCPc hosted its annual Sales Summit in Independence, Ohio, a sleepy suburb of Cleveland. This afforded our sales leadership the opportunity to come together with other MCPc arenas like human resources and marketing. Shortly after the glad tidings and smiling was handled, blows were thrown, land mines stepped on and full scale guerrilla warfare was the state of reality in an Embassy Suites conference room.
But I should back up. These sales warriors weren’t fighting one another -- they were trying to understand one another. If I had one major take-away after meeting with our lieutenants of commerce, it is that they are so invested, so personally fused to our company and its success, they will stop at nothing to ensure that they vet every issue and analyze every risk within an inch of its life. There was the occasional awkward silence between leaders, the regular gnashing of teeth. Partners were brought in to give presentations, we heard from Dell and VMware, CommVault and financial providers. My oh my, the discussion surrounding sales figures, product offerings, and consulting practices swirled.
We discussed things like injecting savings and discipline into product offerings to our customers. Our Director of Engineering, Dominic DelBalso, was relating how our new products were up-and-running in our offices, saying, “It’s easier for the sales team to talk about now that we’re using it.” The sentiment was echoed by many. Doug Jones, our Director of Public Sector echoed “there is no better substitute for individual experience.” The sales team clamored for more -- how can MCPc do more assessments, provide more solutions to customers. More speed. More savings...Just…more.
While it was all good talk, this is what you might expect from a sales summit. No, that talking wasn’t what I was impressed by –- I was impressed by the candor. Andy Shannon is a Regional VP of Sales up in Grand Rapids, known throughout the company as a guy who will tell it like it is. In his words, “I said I wasn’t going to say this. But I’m going to say this…” led into a discussion about the sales team’s training platform. That conversation led to a plan, and that plan will lead to positive change. Leaving the smoke behind and cutting to what is really on people’s minds –- that’s what we need more of, and that’s what we are aiming for.
We realize that articles like these can be seen as for our benefit, that while they add a voice to our corporate philosophy, they are taken with a grain of salt. Some might say that they are nothing but fluff, and inaccurately represent our motivations. Ultimately though, regardless of the lens through which statements like these are read, the soul of our corporate ethos is one of candor and honesty - evidenced by the scrappy, dogged commitment at this Sales Summit. These men and women spoke up for what was right – for our customers, for our partners, and for our employees, regardless of incongruity with policy or challenge to an outranking leader. I even overheard the phrase “Fairness is at stake here…” during an afternoon lunch session. The heart of this particular street-fighting sales summit was a one of candor and honesty; so, if people want to call that “fluff,” fine by me.
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Andy Jones is Senior Vice President of Sales. He has more than 15 years of IT industry experience, and is an expert on cloud, virtualization and managed services solutions. Connect with Andy on LinkedIn.
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Posted on Thu, Oct 25, 2012 @ 09:35 AM
I’m excited. The new James Bond movie, Skyfall, is coming out in two weeks and I can’t wait. If you’re excited about it too, we have some great news for you. MCPc has gotten together with Dell, Microsoft and Intel to make this your best James Bond experience ever. We know that’s a challenge because most of us have been enjoying JB for years, but read on and find out how we’re stepping up to make this premier something special. In additon to a private screening of the movie, we'll talk Windows 8, IE 10, SkyDrive and Dell's new Latitude tablet and Ultrabook.
Like most readers of this blog, I work in technology. I love the Bond girls. I love to hate the villains. But, truth be told, my favorite parts of the James Bond movies are the gadgets that Q outfits him with.
The first 007 book, Casino Royale, came out in 1953, and the first movie, Dr. No, in 1962. In the beginning there wasn’t much technology. Bond did use a Geiger counter and a self-destructor bag in Dr. No, but the for the most part this movie relied on his inherent skill as a secret agent. However that didn’t last. By the second movie, From Russia with Love, Bond was starting to geek up. He carried a tape recorder built into a camera, a pager, a phone bug detector and a device to decipher encrypted Russian messages. His nemesis, Rosa Klebb, had a shoe dagger—a poison blade that would pop out of the front of her shoe and make getting kicked a particularly unpleasant experience. I don’t know if the shoe blade qualifies as high tech, but it should at least get an honorary mention.
Then, in Goldfinger, tech started to heat up. The Aston Martin DB5, alone had:
- revolving license plates
- spinner hubcaps that doubled as tire slashers
- passenger ejector seat
- rear bulletproof shield
- forward machine guns concealed behind the headlights
- rearward defenses including smoke and oil slick sprayers
Additionally there was Oddjob’s hat, lasers, homing devices, nerve gas canisters and more. The age of the high tech spy had arrived. It continued to grow through Thunderball, You Only Live Twice and Diamonds are Forever. Then Sean Connery bowed out and Roger Moore took over as 007. (We’re skipping the unfortunate George Lazenby era.) Now technology took over as the star. Radios in clothing brushes, flute communicators, a Rolex that uses electromagnetism to deflect bullets as well as turning into a saw, robots, a Cadillac that shoots poison darts and a claw arm that can cut through steel. Leave the hand-to-hand stuff to Chuck Norris. James Bond was the king of all geeks. We loved it. We didn’t need to go to the gym. A quick visit in the lab with Q would provide us with all the weapons we needed to wipe out our nefarious enemies. But then the movie makers got lazy. Instead of concentrating on good stories, they used gimmicks to advance the action. Bellydancing bullets? Ski pole guns? Exploding bolas? C’mon, really? And it got worse. The gadgets took over the movies. Now you didn’t even have to be a nerd anymore to conquer international evil. You just needed toys.
And so it continued for the next few films. There were some great gadgets. Who wouldn’t want a cell phone that zapped unauthorized users with 20,000 volts? Or the same phone doubling as a remote control for a BMW 750iL? (Are you listening, Verizon?) But there were also leg cast missiles and bagpipes that were really flamethrowers and machine guns.
Now in the Daniel Craig era technology has, thankfully, been brought under control and the balance is back. Technology is used only to advance the storyline, and it’s very cool technology. In the last movie, Quantum of Solace, I’m pretty sure there was an early release version of the Dell Ultrabook. Go back and look. It’s used in the scene where MI6 gathers information regarding possible suspects in an investigation and relays it back to Bond through his mobile phone. Is it running Windows 8? I can’t say for sure, but it is touchscreen, and we know 007 is usually ahead of the rest of us.
What can we expect from the new installment, Skyfall? It seems to me that after carrying fingerprint scanners, boomboxes, pagers, homing devices and more around with him for fifty years, Bond would be thrilled to have them all converged into one lightweight device. We all know how upset Q gets when Bond loses gear, so he’s going to feel much better if he’s carrying a laptop equipped with Intel vPro, which would allow Q to remotely encrypt sensitive data with a keystroke. And a Windows 8 touchscreen? Scores of Bond girls throughout the decades will testify that 007 is a touch kind of guy.
What do you think? What technology will we see in the new Bond movie? And how long will it take until we can get it for ourselves? Join us for our November 9 Skyfall event to find out. Just be sure to register soon, as space is limited. Like our Clash of the Titans event last year, we expect to fill each of the ten nationwide theaters to full capacity. Just for registering, you’ll get a $10 Amazon gift card when you arrive at the theater and will be eligible to win a Dell Latitude tablet with Windows 8 preinstalled that will be given away at each event. Bond, Dell Ultrabooks, Windows 8, Intel vPro—it doesn’t get any better than this. Well, maybe a little better. The popcorn will be shaken, not stirred.
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Bill Cannon is a long-time member of the Institute of Electrical & Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and a sponsoring member of the 802.11 Standards Committee. He participated in IEEE’s deliberations of the formal definition of both cloud computing and its studies on the relationships between cloud computing and virtualization. He currently serves as a Partner Manager for Cisco and Dell. Connect with Bill on LinkedIn.
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Posted on Wed, Aug 29, 2012 @ 10:16 AM
Like so many other people I have come to rely very heavily on my GPS. In just a few short years we have progressed from unfolding a map and charting out every street and turn, or a little more recently looking it up on online and printing it out. This static snapshot of your trip was invaluable to getting to where you wanted to go. However, one missed exit, construction zone or traffic jam could really mess you up.
What sets a GPS apart is its ability to adapt to the situation as more details and information are provided. It can be a map update that includes construction zones or a real time traffic service. These will help shape the route. A GPS even makes automatic adjustments to the route based on your real time decisions. If you know to avoid a particular area because of a local event or that one route is more enjoyable to travel than the other, you make a few turns to get you on that route and the GPS will reconfigure its route accordingly.
I have found that good planning is paramount to hitting your goals. Having personally planned and executed on very large scale deployments of multiple technologies spread out over a very large number of locations, they have never gone as exactly as was planned in our first meeting. But, they were all very successful. This success is based upon adapting to new information learned along the way or being able to adapt to unforeseen business or technology changes. You often learn things along the way that will influence your next steps. Where are you going? How long do you want it to take? Do you want to take the scenic route or the most direct?
When working with a technology partner, you should select one that does not come in with a preprinted technology map that always follows the exact same path. Discuss where you want to go with technology. Why do you want to go there? What route do you want to travel and why? Does the partner have a complete picture of your technology needs and all of the supporting pieces? This all factors in to ensure you get to where you want to go. The end destination should not be simply a successful technology deployment. It should be a successful technology deployment that enables your business to achieve its goals.
A solid partner will discuss those goals with you. They will understand your customer base as well as your organization’s culture. This will shape not only the route you take but what your final destination will be. A plan will then be developed and the journey begun. Along the way, you may stay the course and hit your destination by following the original plan. Or, you may find that you learn things about the technology or your organization that you were not aware of. You may also come up on some bumps in the road, such as a market transition or an acquisition. In working with a true partner, you can jointly assess the situation and stay on the initial path. Or, leverage this information, make adjustments to you trip or select a modified destination altogether.
Work with your partner to get you where you want to go. Continue to work with them along the way. This partnership means two-way communication and leveraging each other’s knowledge and skills. It means having a solid plan in place prior to the start of the journey but having a willingness to assess new information as it becomes available to either validate your direction or modify it.
If you take a wrong turn, they will point you in the right direction. If you get lost, they will let you know where you are at and what you need to do to get back on the right path. If you decide to change your destination, they will let you know what you need to do to get to the new destination. It is ultimately your decision which route to take and how you get there. In making those decisions, it is always best to have a trusted advisor for the duration of your trip. Use your partner as a business technology GPS.
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Dominic Del Balso is Director of Engineering for MCPc. He oversees a national team of IT engineers and Solution Architects to deliver the right resources for each customer project. Connect with Dominic on LinkedIn.
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image credit: w00kie
Posted on Tue, Aug 21, 2012 @ 10:02 AM
It’s the hot topic right now. Many companies are striving to make their workplaces healthier in order to save on medical insurance costs and decrease sick time used by employees. By practicing wellness at work, we hope employees continue to practice wellness at home and achieve a healthier lifestyle. We at MCPc are working for a healthier workplace in more ways than one.
We love our food days!
We have to admit that the employees at MCPc love their food days. In fact, we receive the most participation of any fun day when free food is offered! Cookouts, soup and chili cook-offs, Super Bowl pot lucks, Cinco de Mayo and Mardis Gras are by far our favorites. This year, we also incorporated a few “healthier” options for our employees. We held a couple “Fruity Fridays” where we left bowls of fruit around the office and also in our Technology Center for everyone to enjoy. We were glad to see that employees loved the new healthier option. There will be more Fruity Fridays to come in the future!
Exercise can be fun!
Now on to the subject of exercise … some love it and some force themselves to do it because they know it’s good for them. At MCPc, we have many opportunities to get exercise even though most of us sit at a computer the majority of the day. In the corporate headquarters in Cleveland, we have a workout facility on-site that is free to all employees. You’ll see many employees taking time before and after work or during their lunch hour to squeeze in a quick workout. To make exercise more fun, we had a Walking Challenge where employees wore pedometers at work for one week and recorded their steps taken during the day. The “top walker” was awarded a $100 gift certificate. To celebrate the 2012 Summer Olympics, MCPc hosted its first Office Olympics where employees competed in various events such as the Pedometer Foot Sprint, Olympic Ring Relay Race and Rowing (with chairs!) to name a few. We kept employees moving as they rotated through each one-minute timed activity to achieve the most points to win the gold!
MCPcers competing in the Office Olympics crowd favorite: chair rowing
Exercise can be charitable!
If sweating it out in a workout facility in front of your co-workers isn’t for you, there are also opportunities to join a charity walk or charity bike ride. This year, we have even included employees from our outer offices. Team leaders in Pittsburgh, Cincinnati and Cleveland participated in breast cancer walks/runs, bike rides for cancer, MS (TeamMCPc was proud to have one of the biggest showings in Pedal to the Point 2012), United Way and diabetes. Not only are employees getting to know their co-workers outside of work doing something healthy, but they are also donating their time and raising money for some very worthy causes! Check out the TeamMCPc website and our press release for more information on how we are raising over $100,000 this year with over 100 riders for those causes.
By promoting and practicing wellness at work, MCPc is taking another step in the right direction toward becoming the best workplace possible.
Stay healthy!
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Nannette Smelko is the Benefits Administrator at MCPc. She administers and maintains all lines of the company benefits programs from medical insurance to Cobra enrollment. She also serves as liaison between benefit vendors and employees, advises employees on eligibility and coverage, and provides issue resolution when needed. Connect with Nannette on LinkedIn.
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Posted on Mon, Aug 06, 2012 @ 10:40 AM
Members of TeamMCPc, MCPc's charity cycling team, joined about 500 other cyclists to bike 328 miles over 4 days in the American Cancer Society's Pan Ohio Hope Ride in late July 2012. The event raises money for the ACS's Hope Lodges, which offer cancer patients and their caregivers a free, temporary place to stay when their best hope for effective treatment may be in another city. I and the rest of the MCPcTV team -- Evan Galloway and Kate Dedinsky -- traveled with the cyclists to document the entire ride.
Day 1 – In the Sun, the Wind and the Rain
Imagine traveling across a state. What mode of transportation would you use? Would you travel by your own strength, or would you have something assisting you, say a vehicle with an engine? Now, consider that 501 cyclists chose to make a 328-mile journey using only a bike and a strong sense of determination to make a difference for cancer patients. Day 1 of the ride was a formidable 76-mile leg starting from the Hope Lodge in Cleveland.
Day 2 – The Century
The warm-up hill before the dreaded Jackson hill
Day 2 was the most challenging stretch of the ride -- 100 miles. A tall order, but in the words of Jim Bond, cancer survivor: "Hills are hard, but cancer is harder."
Day 3 – Who Are You Riding For?
On day 3 I witnessed something that really drove the message of the event home. I am calling it the symphony of voices. All 501 cyclists mounted the Ohio Statehouse stairs and in unison spoke those five simple words: Who Are You Riding For? The sound that was produces was so awesome that the buildings around us seemed to chant it back in the echo.
Day 4 – A Golden Hue
Team C.R.U.S.H. is interviewed before the start of the last day of the ride.
As the sun rose on the start of the start of the 4th and final day, the cyclists were preparing for the second longest leg of the ride. 90 miles separated them from the finishing line and they were determined to make those final miles memorable.
The Finish
The last wave of riders cross the finish line at Yeatman's Cove in Cincinnati.
There were tears and celebration as the riders crossed the finish line into Yeatman's Cove, and it was a wonderful sight to behold. The cyclists were exhausted, but the knowledge of what they just accomplished and what all of this meant to cancer sufferers likely carried them through to the end.
TeamMCPc
TeamMCPc, minus a few cyclists, enjoy the Kickoff Dinner the day before the start of the ride.
The 6th annual Pan Ohio Hope Ride, as of this writing, has raised $744,448.94, and that number keeps increasing. TeamMCPc fielded 15 cyclists and raised $33,242.66. TeamMCPc is dedicated to raising money and awareness for this and many other causes. Go to TeamMCPc.com to learn more about their mission and how you can contribute.
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Jason Dell is MCPc's in-house photographer and a team member of MCPcTV, the home of our digital studio productions. Connect with Jason on LinkedIn.
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Posted on Fri, Jun 29, 2012 @ 08:37 AM
As a Recruitment Coordinator, onboarding makes up a significant portion of my responsibilities. Many of us have experienced in our careers an onboarding that’s rushed, disorganized and more disorienting than orienting. We try to do things a bit different at MCPc.
Effective onboarding is essential to MCPc, a company that believes in the importance of smoothly transitioning in a new employee. For this reason, MCPc tries to make the process structured, unrushed and clear for the associate.
An onboarding schedule is typically stretched over several days. It starts with an email to the new hire before their first day that provides their orientation schedule. The schedule is titled and includes the orientation leaders name, title, phone number, timeframe scheduled and what the leader will be covering. The number of sessions conducted will vary based on a person’s role in our organization. We offer a chance to meet some of the people they will be working with face-to face, give them an office tour, set up lunch with their manager and make sure they have some free time to just plain get comfortable.
We see several benefits to this ordered, steady approach:
- There is an opportunity to soak in the corporate culture.
- Stretching out onboarding allows a new associate to absorb all the information they are given without getting overwhelmed.
- It allows them down time to relax, organize their thoughts and prepare for other sessions they need to attend.
- It also allows them an opportunity to voice concerns, ask questions and ask colleagues about anything from benefits to discovering our partners to learning more about other departments.
New hires generally have a lot of basic questions: how to get into the building, who to ask for, what to bring, etc. The email I send out contains all of this information and more.
Recently, a new section called ‘Corporate FAQ’s’ has been added to our orientation book. This gives our new associates a chance to know where to go to lunch (There’s so many walkable options near our downtown Cleveland HQ!), how to use our office services, what the emergency procedures are and so on without having to do extensive research.
Done right, an onboarding process gives a new hire confidence in a new setting and a comprehensive picture of the company. And from the organization’s perspective, a comfortable, confident employee should translate into ROI.
ROI with any new hire is critical. Obviously, the sooner an employee becomes a positive contributor to the goals of the organization, the better. I sincerely think we do everything we can to position our new hires for success through our onboarding process. This approach not only allows us to be a company invested in its employees, but demonstrates that we want to engage them fully from the first day forward.
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Morgan Zuiderveld is Recruitment Coordinator at MCPc. She is part of the human resources department and is in charge of onboarding talent for our Cleveland headquarters and regional offices across the country. Connect with Morgan on LinkedIn.
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image credit: Robert S. Donovan
Posted on Fri, May 18, 2012 @ 01:18 PM
Last week, San Francisco was abuzz for Citrix Synergy 2012. The agenda was packed, as 6,500+ in attendance—including your MCPc team—were ready for the announcements, keynotes, breakout sessions, game-changers and more.
There were certainly more conference announcements than I could list within this blog post (my personal notes are more than 10 pages), but I’ll do my best to focus on the highlights and include links and resources to the details.
The Mobile Workforce & Cloud Services
From one product to an entire suite of innovative business technology, Citrix has grown its diverse portfolio aimed at two areas of focus:
“Citrix is one of the few independent software vendors that offers competitive products
in cloud computing, mobility, virtualization, networking and security, and social collaboration.”
- Gartner, from a Citrix presentation at Synergy
Trends highlighted by Al Monserrat, Citrix’s SVP of Sales and Services, as the driving force behind the company’s focus include:
- Consumerization, forcing more IT changes in the next 10 years than any other trend
- Workforce demand for BYOD
- Transition from the PC era to the cloud era
(Sorry about the quality -- this is from my iPhone. From Group VP and GM, Cloud Platforms Group at Citrix Systems, Sameer Dholakia's keynote. So what IS cloud? For us, of course, it's anyplace workspace.)
Achieving Mobile IT
There’s a “life splice” happening, and it’s the reinvention of work-life balance. We’ve seen it first-hand with MCPc customers, as the mobile workforce is the driving force behind our new anyplace workspace™ mentality.
Executives and employees continue to demand the ability to work from any place, on any device, with full access to needed data and applications—while IT managers require the management and control to facilitate a mobile workforce securely.
New Citrix technologies highlighted at the conference that make this possible include the following:
- GoToMeeting with HDFaces is now available as a free iPad application.
- GoToAssist is now free for iPad and Android for remote support and IT management.
- Podio acquisition—the workflow management system for collaboration, including tasks, discussions, activities, data, social, apps, and more.
- ShareFile StorageZones that allow executives to choose where data is store (in the cloud or on premise) for optimized performance and compliance.
Many more were introduced or mentioned at the show. What others are you looking forward to using, or have you tried and already have feedback? We’re interested to hear your thoughts in the comments below.
From the PC Era to the Cloud Era
Just as organizations and executives expect to connect wirelessly over any device, mobility also requires the cloud and virtualized IT infrastructure, processes and data. A few Citrix announcements on the cloud front include:
- Project Avalon connects XenApp and XenDesktop. Wired (@wired) reports that Project Avalon “enables enterprises to transform some of their most important workloads, Windows desktop and Windows applications, to run on cloud infrastructure.”
- CloudGateway 2—the updated version enables enterprise mobility with attention to application management.
- Citrix Cloud Platform—the first commercially supported cloud orchestration system based on Apache CloudStack.
For more on how your business can grow, innovate and improve with the cloud, check out Citrix’s 2012 Innovation Award Finalists (VIDEO). It includes the stories of three different organizations (insurance, technology and education) that have each changed their businesses with Citrix cloud services and technology.
Your Thoughts?
What are the highlights from Citrix Synergy that you found to be of most value, and how are these technologies delivering your anyplace workspace?
Please share your comments or any questions from the conference in the comments below.
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Jed Ayres, Senior Vice President, Partner Management & Marketing, is responsible for driving MCPc's relationships with industry partners as well as the overall go-to-market strategy of the organization. He has more than 17 years of IT industry experience. Connect with Jed on LinkedIn.
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Posted on Wed, Mar 21, 2012 @ 02:26 PM
If you’re a regular MCPc blog reader, you already know that our team gets “geeked” by mobile, collaborative technologies that prove impactful on organizational IT ecosystems and business bottom lines.
That’s why we’re very excited to announce the launch of the anyplace workspace.
What Is the Anyplace Workspace?
The idea of the anyplace workspace is just what it sounds like. Our mission is to help clients create environments that enable employees to work anywhere, anytime, from any device, while maintaining security and management oversight. The concept is grounded in five core pillars of the IT environment: devices, desktops, network, data and support. It leverages technology from all major vendors, and aims to provide a validated framework for the cloud while still being highly customizable to the unique needs of individual organizations.
Why Now?
Just take a look at some of these statistics on the growing mobile workforce:
- 60% of the workforce feels they don’t need to be in the office to feel productive.
- 32% of employees rely on more than one device on any given workday.
- Web-based email usage has fallen 6%, while mobile email rose 36%.
- Mobile users access smartphones for information management, web conferencing, office suites and more.
Clearly, the consumerization of IT has dramatically changed the way employees interact with, access and store company information and data. Outdated environments simply can’t handle the influx—or the risks—this shift presents.
How Is It Different?
With the anyplace workspace approach, we can help organizations build IT environments around the way modern workforces want to operate.
More importantly, by focusing in on specific business goals, and the possibilities enabled by modern technology, we hone in on how employees could operate if given the proper tools, and set out to achieve this IT utopia.
A well-designed and managed anyplace workspace will drive previously unheard-of levels of flexibility, mobility, productivity, efficiency, innovation and support.
Who’s On Board?
After talking about our ideas for the anyplace workspace with contacts at leading technology manufacturers, we found an outpour of support through sponsorships. Thus, the architecture behind an anyplace workspace ecosystem is truly the best available, from vendors, including: VMware, NetApp, Cisco, Citrix, Eaton, HP, Apple and more.
The anyplace workspace is a commitment from MCPc that captures the heart of what we do for our customers. It’s an approach dedicated to helping organizations gain real business benefits driven by an innovative, holistic approach to IT.
Connect & Share Your Story
What would your ideal anyplace workspace look like? What challenges have you had along the way toward implementing it for your organization? Leave your thoughts and questions in the comments below.
To learn more about the anyplace workspace, visit anyplaceworkspace.com, or contact us today to speak with an anyplace workspace architect.
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Jed Ayres, Senior Vice President, Partner Management & Marketing, is responsible for driving MCPc's relationships with industry partners as well as the overall go-to-market strategy of the organization. He has more than 17 years of IT industry experience. Connect with Jed on LinkedIn.
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Posted on Fri, Aug 19, 2011 @ 08:06 AM
On Aug. 1, Businessweek named Cleveland the No. 1 city in the United States for technology job growth, citing that IT jobs in the city grew 107 percent in the past year.*
In addition, according to the first-quarter 2011 survey of its 900 member companies, the Northeast Ohio Software Association (NEOSA) found that 68 percent of Cleveland’s IT firms expect to increase staff in the upcoming year. Brad Nellis (@NEOSA_Nellis), executive director of the NEOSA, said that the number of Cleveland IT companies currently seeking new employees is at a five-year high.
For our own part, MCPc hired 56 technical associates in 2010 and already 47 so far in 2011, with expectations to bring several more on board before year's end.
Of course, job growth wouldn’t be happening without boosts in business. After a few years of belt-tightening brought on by the economic recession, some other promising figures from the NEOSA Q1 2011 survey include:
At MCPc, we’re excited to be a part of such a booming tech community, and can’t wait until we officially move into the heart of it all next month at our new, downtown Cleveland headquarters.
But It’s Not Only Cleveland…
In addition to the top-ten tech city countdown, Businessweek’s Rachael King (@sfwriter) reported on the growth in demand for talented IT professionals across the country. In fact, according to King’s article, the unemployment rate for tech professionals dropped 2 percent in January, from 5.3 to 3.3 percent, compared to a national unemployment rate of 9.1 percent in July.
Looking for a Technology Career in Cleveland?
Check out some of our previous blog posts for details on what we look for at MCPc, and general tips on landing (and keeping) a job in IT:
Or, for more on tech job growth in Cleveland, see Olivera Perkins’ July story for The Plain Dealer, Help Wanted: Cleveland’s High Tech Employers are Hiring.
Your Thoughts?
Are you as excited about Cleveland’s growth as we are, still skeptical of its staying power, or fearful of “brain drain”? Share your thoughts on the Cleveland technology community and its impact on the local economy in the comments below.
* Top cities for technology growth were determined by Dice.com, a technology-career website that tracks annual growth in job listings across the country.
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Beth Stec is VP of Corporate Communications and Human Resources at MCPc, and is responsible for the development and management of personnel programs and policies. Connect with Beth on LinkedIn.
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Image credit: The Cleveland Kid
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Posted on Wed, Jun 15, 2011 @ 12:59 PM
Last month higher education IT professionals came to MCPc’s new headquarters (which will officially open this summer) to discuss desktop virtualization in higher education. Participants heard about the latest technologies from VMware and Wyse, among others, and how they fit into a custom and strategic IT solution. OARnet participated to explain how Ohio schools, agencies and governing bodies could leverage the exclusive VMware pricing.
As higher education IT professionals make technology and ecosystem upgrades — switching servers, desktops and applications to virtual alternatives — several common challenges are emerging. Some mentioned at the event included:
- Windows 7 migrations
- End-user demands — technology freedom vs. IT control
- Virtual desktop management
- Doing more with less, and proving the value of upgrades to superiors
Windows 7 Migration
Upgrading your university’s operating system is a complex undertaking. Properly evaluating the change and its associated costs, effort and impact are critical to moving forward successfully. Helpful resources for Windows 7 migrations include:
From a strategic standpoint, Windows 7 upgrades can set the stage for longer-term, strategic plans to improve operational efficiency and simplify IT management, and work particularly well with desktop virtualization.
Managing End-User Demands, Balancing
Freedom with IT Control
College campuses are a hot spot for hackers. Why? With a pool of data — from finance to medical — on top-grade computer systems owned by digital natives, universities are attractive targets.
Some advice in balancing end-user freedom and accessibility with IT control:
- Follow the Data: New devices are constantly connecting to university networks. Shifting focus from controlling these devices to controlling and classifying the data that flows within the university network can help IT assess risk.
- Authenticate and Encrypt: Two-factor authentication (TFA) is more difficult to compromise than traditional, single-factor methods. And, encrypting data that’s in transit and in storage can protect it from network hackers.
- Establish Firewall Zones: Not everyone in the university network needs open access. By implementing firewall zones you can limit and better manage sensitive information.
Virtual Desktop Management
With the ability to improve data security, enforce policy and compliance, provide 24-hour access (on-campus and off), and centralize and simplify update management, virtual desktop management is a necessary component to maintain control in virtualized ecosystems.
If you’re still unclear on the benefits of desktop virtualization in higher ed, and how it can improve desktop management, see this recent example of a comprehensive, hosted desktop virtualization at Menlo College in Silicon Valley. For Menlo College, VDI will “give students greater access to lab applications, reduce the operational costs of desktop management, minimize the capital expenses needed for PC refresh, and reduce the college's carbon footprint.”
Doing More with Less, and Proving IT’s Value
In many cases, virtualization has a great return on investment (ROI) in higher education. However, with universities slashing budgets nationwide, colleges are cutting programs, increasing tuition and fees, increasing layoffs, and even closing.
Therefore, to invest in any technology upgrades, you’ll need to prove their need and value. To do so, before a complete rollout, set clear goals for virtual designs. Start with an assessment to analyze what you have, complete a proof of concept, then design, pilot and implement tests to see what will work, and what results (successes and hiccups) to expect.
In addition, doing your homework beforehand is crucial. Analyst studies, like this Forrester Study on VDI Cost Analysis ROI and Total Economic Impact, have found desktop virtualization’s ROI to be 170 percent. Another suggestion is to research other universities who have completed similar projects to assess virtualization impact and lessons learned.
As a reseller with the VMware Academic Specialization certification, MCPc can aslo be a valuable resource for planning a VDI project in the education sector.
What do you think?
Did you attend our May virtualization event? What did you think of it, and what additional questions or points of discussion do you have?
If you were not in attendance and have a virtualization technology or specific product question, post it here and we’ll address it promptly.
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Andy Jones is Senior Vice President of Sales. He has more than 15 years of IT industry experience, and is an expert on cloud, virtualization and managed services solutions. Connect with Andy on LinkedIn.
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