DynaSis, Atlanta’s premier provider of IT services and support for small and medium businesses (SMBs), today announced that Dell has certified it as a Preferred Partner in the hardware company’s PartnerDirect program. Per Dell, companies that reach the coveted Preferred Partner status with Dell are recognized as experts in key Dell offerings. They also must complete specific competency requirements; DynaSis is certified for Dell’s requirements in Server Competency, Storage Competency, and Networking & Security Competency in both Networking and Security specializations.

“Dell is a leading provider of IT solutions and services, and DynaSis has enjoyed a long and fruitful relationship with the company,” said DynaSis President Dave Moorman. “Achieving Preferred Partner status is another milestone in our mission of providing world-class service and solution excellence to our customers.”

DynaSis certification to four competencies far exceeds the minimum for Preferred Partner certification (one competency). In order to receive recognition for these competencies, members of DynaSis’ technical staff were required to complete training and demonstrate proficiency in areas such as Dell PowerVault Storage, Dell Blade Server Administration & Configuration, Certified SonicWALL Security Administrator, and many more.

In addition to confirming DynaSis’ advanced expertise in key Dell solutions and services, Preferred Partner status also provides benefits DynaSis can leverage for its customers’ benefit. These include potential access to seed units for customer demonstrations and Partner Resource Desk access.

About Dell
Dell Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL) listens to customers and delivers innovative technology and services they trust and value. Uniquely enabled by its direct business model, Dell is a leading global systems and services company and No. 34 on the Fortune 500. For more information, visit www.dell.com, or to communicate directly with Dell via a variety of online channels, go to www.dell.com/conversations.

About DynaSis
DynaSis is a managed IT service provider for small and medium-sized businesses in Atlanta, Georgia. DynaSis specializes in offering on-premise and on-demand managed IT service plans, managed hosting and professional equipment installation. For more information about DynaSis’ services visit www.dynasis.com.

by Dave Moorman

For several years, I’ve been hearing from customers who liked the idea of cloud computing but were worried about the security, privacy or accessibility of their applications and data. Some had a hard time envisioning what the cloud is, or how it works. How can their data and programs be segregated from those of other businesses if they are on the same server? How can a solution used by so many companies offer better delivery speeds than a pipeline used by just one?

Interestingly, once company questions or objections regarding cloud computing are addressed (by us or others), we often get a phone call from an executive or decision maker saying, “We’re ready to go to the cloud.” With the reliability and security of cloud computing established and its promise explained, some companies are ready to embrace it like a new best friend. With objections resolved, they are ready to start reaping the benefits, pronto.

In reality, just because a company’s management is conceptually and psychologically “ready” for the cloud doesn’t mean the business is. As much as we support cloud computing and the dramatic advantage it can provide to most firms, not all business models transition well to it.

Don’t get me wrong—nearly all companies can benefit from some form of cloud computing, even if it’s just hosted email and disaster recovery. But to leverage the cloud to greatest benefit, companies need to draw a parallel between their business goals, challenges and opportunities and the technologies available in the cloud. They also need to explore their current IT state and determine their “readiness” for the move. Things such as are my applications compatible, do we have enough bandwidth or have i maximized my depreciation on our existing hardware not only can minimize cloud benefits, they can increase the risks of running your business there.

That’s where cloud assessment solutions come in. Whether it’s a purpose-built program implemented by an IT services firm like DynaSis or a brief, self-administered test from a cloud hardware or software provider, a preparedness assessment is an integral component of moving to the cloud. And, if the assessment results indicate your firm isn’t as ready as you thought, the insights you’ll gain can help you refine your plans and realign your goals.

by Dave Moorman

Unified Communication (UC)—the convergence and integration of communications technologies to optimize business processes—is a concept that has been making the rounds in technology circles since the mid-1990s. However, today’s UC is light years ahead of the original definition.

UC got its impetus during the transition of business telephone systems from landline-based PBX systems to VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol—phone calls over the Internet). The idea was that since email and instant messaging (IM) traveled over the Internet, those communications could be integrated with telephony. This would enable someone in a company to reach another staffer, either in real-time or at a later date, by whatever means—email, IM or voice—was most expedient given that person’s location and availability (this function is called presence). In reality, some of these solutions worked well; others barely worked.

Today, the core concept is basically the same, but the way it is implemented has changed dramatically for the better. Companies now have UC systems that integrate voice, email, instant messaging and video very successfully. These location- and task-aware systems deliver communications based on a recipient’s location and designated method of delivery based on the situation and communication type. For example, assume the system knows the recipient is in a meeting, If a message is non-urgent; it will deliver it via email. Urgent issues generate a text message or desktop pop-up.

UC platforms incorporate video conferencing and other collaboration tools and, perhaps most importantly for productivity, business process integration. In other words, UC is no longer about finding a particular person. It can also be about finding any of several people who has knowledge of a particular issue, feature, product, etc.

The search can be database driven as well. For example, a customer calls into the company’s phone system and is identified by the integrated CRM (customer relations management) platform as a repeat purchaser of bulk widgets. If the customer’s representative isn’t available, the system could send that customer to email or voicemail—or it could refer him to another representative in the bulk widgets department, based on the likelihood that the customer is low on widgets; his total billing with the company over the last year, or any other criteria the firm establishes.

From connecting company personnel with subject matter experts to finding a last-minute presenter for a Webinar, UC can be an incredible driver of business productivity. To learn more about UC and what it can do for your firm, please give us a call.

All property management firms, no matter their size, play the game of "connect the technology dots" between the corporate office and remote locations. More than a decade ago, multi-family apartment management company HMI Property Solutions, Inc., won that game with help from the ITility by DynaSis Solution' "anytime, anywhere," remote access technology. Today, ITility by DynaSis has become more valuable than ever, and company management says they cannot imagine operating without it.

"At the time we began working with DynaSis, we had property management software running at eight remote locations," says HMI Enterprises, Inc. President Hugh M. "Don" Inman, Jr. "The software worked fine in its own silo, but the team in our corporate office didn’t have access to the data except through printed reports. DynaSis developed a solution that brought the data into the office so the corporate team could access it. This streamlined our ability to operate."

Far-Reaching Benefits
What began as a solution to centralize isolated data has grown into a fully hosted solution that also enables HMI employees to work from other locations, as well. Today, DynaSis manages and maintains all of HMI's applications, including the original property management software. DynaSis handles all software updates and license renewals, as well as monitoring and maintenance of any solution-related hardware located at the HMI office. For this service, HMI pays a preset monthly fee, per user.

Employees at all HMI-managed or owned properties access data and applications via a secure, dedicated interface, not only at the corporate or remote offices but at any location, any time they choose. This enables work-shifting, letting employees access email, applications and other data outside of office hours and locations to facilitate performance of their jobs.

"ITility by DynaSis gives us the ability to work with our employees and their schedules," says Inman. "One employee in our corporate office works from home on Fridays due to childcare-related issues. If I can’t get into the office, I can just pop onto my home computer and not have to lose a day of work. It affords us incredible flexibility."

Superior Performance
Inman says ITility by DynaSis not only expand HMI's functional footprint; they also make company operations—and his work day—more productive. "I can measure the success of our relationship by how infrequently I have to speak with them," Inman says. "It’s seamless. We are heavily reliant on the system being up and available and that has never been an issue. They provide all of the support and the virus scanning and backups—everything. It’s great because I don’t have to worry about it."

Inman also reports that adding and removing users is a breeze. "In our industry, there is a fair amount of turnover among workers at the site level. When a new employee comes on board, one call sets that person up, and if he or she has any familiarity with computers, the solution is straightforward and simple. We don’t have to worry about that user not being ready to go as soon as they hit the ground."

Ready to Work, Now and in the Future
"Because of our remote locations, If we had to bring applications and data hosting and management back in-house today, it would be a train wreck," Inman says. "We don’t have the technical expertise or scale to have an internal IT department. I don't need to know what DynaSis is doing, and that is the beauty of it."

DynaSis is currently helping HMI expand its use of technology to better communicate with tenants and the public at large. The ITility by DynaSis solution is providing the hosted access platform for other solutions that will invite tenants to send maintenance requests to leasing offices and pay rent online, and enable prospects to view apartment pricing for various floor plans in real time.

"We have been very pleased with the ITility by DynaSis solution, and we would highly recommend them," says Inman. In fact, he says he has already given other companies good reports regarding the firm. "I am in a position to give DynaSis a very positive reference," he notes.

"I’m in the business of running a business, not of being an IT expert," Inman concludes. "With DynaSis, this is one of the aspects of running a business that I don’t have to worry about. And, if I did have something to worry about, I would know who to call."

by Dave Moorman

The recent devastation wrought by "Superstorm Sandy" has reminded us all that no one is invulnerable to disaster. New York City saw an unprecedented (nearly 14-foot) storm surge, and businesses from North Carolina to Connecticut found themselves with sand and water pushed into their buildings—and power to their businesses disrupted.

It doesn't take a disaster of this magnitude to suspend business operations, and groups such as the Institute for Business   Safety (IBHS; ibhs.org) are making news daily with pronouncements about the detrimental impact of even minor disasters. So great is the concern that the federal government, working through the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has expanded considerable effort (and tax dollars) developing powerful tutorials and tools to help companies engineer disaster recovery and business resiliency plans.

Yet, even though most firms have some form of business continuity/disaster recovery (BC/DR) plan in place, statistics show the majority aren't sure how to implement it and/or don’t run test scenarios. A majority also have not taken advantage of the benefits that cloud computing and virtualization offer for BC/DR.

A complete BC/DR plan incorporates many elements, starting with a business impact analysis and followed by policy/goal statements, recovery strategies, and development of not only a BC/DR plan, but also a program for maintaining and testing the plan on a regular basis. (The FEMA tutorials mentioned above are an excellent start along this journey. The IBHS has some great templates as well.)

As FEMA points out and DynaSis has long maintained, an IT recovery plan and program is an integral component of any business continuity and disaster recovery plan (BC/DR). Although it may take months, or even years, for businesses to develop an enterprise-wide BC/DR plan that addresses operations at every level, BC/DR programs for the technology side have become easier, more affordable and more self-sustaining than ever before.

Cloud-connected backup hardware, preloaded with management, testing and recovery software, makes it effortless for companies to protect their technology assets and access them on-premise or remotely. For many firms, data archives are the single most important business asset—and the foundation of the BC/DR plan.

If you’d like to learn more about the newest technologies in data backup and recovery, as well as end-to-end programs that can have you and your employees and colleagues up and running in minutes, call DynaSis for a no-obligation, no-pressure consultation.

Two years ago, automotive, commercial and industrial lubricant supplier Halco Industries found a perfect IT support solution with DynaSis and Digital Veins, DynaSis’s proactive, 24/7/365 monitoring,  maintenance and support solution. This year, when Halco increased its office and conference space during a remodeling project, the firm called in DynaSis for help expanding its wireless network. The result has been increased productivity and satisfaction for on-site employees, outside salesmen and vendors, all at minimal cost.

A Growing Concern
In the two years since DynaSis came on board, Halco had grown its operation to 48 employees, and its reliance on the Internet had grown along with it. When the company’s lease expired, rather than moving to a larger building, Halco negotiated with the landlord to remodel the warehouse and use part of it for new offices and a second conference room. However, the firm’s current wireless network didn’t reach to those locations, so a reconfiguration was in order.

According to Halco Accounting Manager JoAnn Carney, the timing couldn’t have been better. “The existing wireless network already wasn’t getting it for us,” says Carney. “We have a lot of people on wireless, and we were always experiencing dropped signals.”

Carney called in a DynaSis IT Services team to explore the situation, and they recommended adding two SonicPoint wired access points, connecting to the SonicWall firewall device that DynaSis had installed earlier. The new access points would create a new network with greater range that would service both Halco employees and guests, with the two streams of traffic segregated to protect Halco’s servers.

The new network not only expanded coverage into the new offices and conference space; it also resolved the firm’s wireless overload problem. “They put one access point around a corner and another in the conference room. Since they put those in, we haven’t been dropping anything,” says Carney. “Everybody who works here could now get on the network at once, including the outside salesmen with their iPads, and we wouldn’t have any problems. That doesn’t happen often, but when it does, we would have a mass uproar if people could not connect.”

Untethered and Free to Work
During the same project, DynaSis installed a wireless projector—the Dell 4320—to make it easier for visiting salesmen and vendors to stream presentations from their mobile computers. Suspended from the ceiling, the projector supports both Wi-Fi and cabled connections. It also has a high lumen output, so it resolves an excess ambient light problem in the new conference room.

“We have 10 outside salesmen with iPads or laptops, and they don’t have a proper office,” says Carney. “A few of them come in every day for a couple of hours, getting mail; printing things. They use the conference room as their office, and also to make presentations. Plus, we have vendors who want to make presentations.

“With the new wireless projector and network, it’s easier for our salesmen and vendors to give presentations. Last week, the sales manager had a two-day hurrah, and there were eight people in and out of the office for two days straight, giving presentations. Everything worked perfectly.”

Equally importantly, Carney notes, is the support for mobile devices they have gained with the new wireless network. “We all have smartphones. I am around this building, all over the place, and I love that I now have freedom to move throughout the building. My office is at the end of the hall, and in the old days, the wireless would drop frequently because of the location.

“Now, I get email anywhere I go. I could use the phone’s 3G wireless, but this is so much faster. As soon as I cross the threshold in the morning, I hear a beep-beep reminding me to log in and retrieve my email over the wireless network.”

Problem Solved
Carney says they’ve only had one problem with the new network—right after the installation—and DynaSis came out to fix it promptly. “The wireless didn’t seem to be any better, but when we’d talk to them, it would be working,” she says. “I told them, ‘trust me, something is wrong with it. You just have to come out.’ They came right away, they spent many hours here figuring out what was wrong and they fixed it.”

Carney says those are two of the things she loves about working with DynaSis—they trust her when she says something is wrong, and they work on problems until they’re resolved. “Our last company was notorious – they would close a ticket and say we were fine when we weren’t,” says Carney.

“DynaSis is very good,” Carney concludes. “We don’t have an IT person here, and I don’t speak the language. They have to talk to me like I am a 3-year old.” She also praises DynaSis’s user-driven support system. “Every employee can contact DynaSis from their workstation and open their own ticket. People aren’t calling me and telling me they have a problem. They just open a ticket and the DynaSis support folks take care of it.”

When Classic Collision IT Managers Scott Britt and Johnny Ward, along with shop manager Shannon Blevins, looked for help reducing network outages and handling day-to-day IT duties, their search led them to DynaSis. Working together, DynaSis and Classic Collision formulated a more ambitious plan: to move Classic Collision’s entire day-to-day operations to the cloud. Now, Britt reports, the new technology framework is helping the collision center “do everything right the first time” for its customers.

A Step-by-Step Process
Prior to signing with DynaSis, Britt and Ward had been charged with managing the IT needs for Classic Collision’s nine collision centers. However, providing support and assistance for so many different locations was a struggle. “We did everything—from training people to use our management system to repairing PCs,” says Britt. “With nine locations all over metro Atlanta, it was hard to get to everybody.”

In particular, Britt reports, keeping tabs on licensing requirements for software was difficult, and unnecessary network outages hampered efforts to provide the excellent customer service for which Classic Collision is renowned. After Classic Collision hired DynaSis to provide IT support, DynaSis's VP of Managed IT Services, Chas Arnold presented Classic Collision with its ITility by DynaSis Cloud solution, which dovetailed perfectly with Britt’s own plans. “We like to have the latest and greatest technology, and I had already envisioned that the cloud was where we wanted to go,” says Britt. “Once we got DynaSis in for the day-to-day IT issues, we were able to set up a meeting with our boss, Brandon Bishop.”

With the project approved, Classic Collision and DynaSis immediately began working to implement the complete program, which would include moving all of Classic Collision’s operations to the cloud, hosted at DynaSis’s best-practices data center. DynaSis would also provide 24/7/365 monitoring and maintenance, including software updates. Each Classic Collision location would have a single server to generate IP addresses and help connect the desktop PCs in the office to the cloud environment.

Making the Move
To prepare for the move to the cloud, DynaSis informed Classic Collision that they would need to upgrade its outdated desktop PCs and then began transitioning the company’s software, as well. DynaSis provided Classic Collision with hosted Microsoft Office and the Microsoft Exchange email client, two products frequently used in cloud environments.

However, a bigger challenge was transitioning several specialized programs used by Classic Collision, including ProfitNet™, a collision shop management system, as well as estimating packages Audatex and CCCOne. “We had one nagging issue with one of the estimating packages, and DynaSis went above and beyond to figure it out,” says Britt. “As far as we know, none of the products had ever been run in a cloud environment before, and DynaSis was able to make them work.”

A Mobile Future
With Classic Collision’s cloud-based operations in full swing, the company began focusing on its new mobility benefits. “With ITility by DynaSis, we immediately saw the benefits on the mobility side,” says Britt. “Mobility gave our estimators freedom to work from home, instead of having to come in over the weekend to complete estimates.”

Now, Classic Collision looks forward to its next improvement—putting iPads in the hands of those estimators. “Once the estimators have iPads, they will be able to do estimates in the field,” Britt says. “We work with a lot of dealerships, and the estimators used to have to go out to a car, look at it, and then come back to the shop and do the estimate. Now, they’ll be able to go to the vehicle, do the estimate, and print or email it, right there.”

Bottom-Line Benefits
Overall, Britt says, working with DynaSis and their cloud solution has given him and Ward more confidence in their system’s stability and reliability. They also like the security of knowing the Classic Collision network is being monitored and updates are being done. “DynaSis is very efficient,” says Britt. “If the first tech cannot finish out an issue, they stay with it until they resolve the problem.” On a professional level, the new solution has proved a benefit for both Britt and Ward, as well. “We now have the ability to focus on things such as improving processes,” Britt says.

If there’s one takeaway from the project that Britt would offer to other customers, it’s to ensure they share with DynaSis every possible detail about their business. “During the initial implementation, DynaSis employee's went above and beyond to learn how we do business and make sure everything interacted well with the Citrix cloud environment,” Britt concludes.

Alpharetta, Georgia – August 30, 2012 – DynaSis, Atlanta’s premier provider of IT services and support for small and medium businesses (SMBs), today announced it will be providing turn-key IT services and support for Conway Data, Inc. a global data, media and communications services provider. DynaSis will be providing its 24/7/365 Digital Veins IT service, website hosting with backup/failover support, and infrastructure upgrades for the international powerhouse.

“DynaSis provided the best overall solution for us,” said Gary Nickerson, Digital Team Leader for Conway Data. “We wanted a vendor that could be a one-stop shop, and the team at DynaSis bent over backwards to provide the information we needed. We looked at 10 different vendors, and they were by far the strongest candidate.”

Conway Data’s search for a new IT service provider was propelled by the desire to update aging network hardware and other infrastructure elements and transition its six websites from in-house servers to a more reliable, fully protected cloud solution. At the same time, Conway wanted to replace its inefficient tape backup solution with a more functional alternative and achieve round-the-clock support for its desktops and servers, both physical and virtual. “24/7/365 support was very important for us, especially for our servers,” said Nickerson, “Many of the vendors we evaluated were not set up to do that.”

After installing Digital Veins and creating full image backups for Conway Data with its Boomerang backup service, DynaSis will transition Conway Data’s website to being hosted in the cloud at DynaSis’ world-class data centers with redundant backup and failover support. DynaSis will also assist with key infrastructure upgrades and work with Conway Data to help it isolate data that should be archived for long-term storage.

“Conway Data is like many progressive organizations—they have advanced business systems, but don’t have a partner that can ensure their IT solutions operate at the same level of sophistication,” said Ried Thiel, DynaSis’ Chief Information Officer. “We look forward to being that partner to Conway Data, helping them better leverage the benefits of technology while reaping maximum ROI.”

About Conway Data, Inc.
Founded by noted aeronautical engineer and economic development leader McKinley Conway in 1954, Conway Data serves as a vital link around the world between Corporate Facility Planners, Area Developers and Service Providers. Among its accomplishments, Conway Data helped found and currently manages the Industrial Asset Management Council (IAMC). The company also publishes Site Selection, an award-winning magazine with a 50+% share of its market: corporate real estate strategy and area economic development. For more information, contact Gary Nickerson at gary.nickerson@conway.com or visit www.siteselection.com.

About DynaSis
DynaSis is a managed IT service provider for small and medium-sized businesses in Atlanta, Georgia. DynaSis specializes in offering on-premise and on-demand managed IT service plans, managed hosting and professional equipment installation. For more information about DynaSis’ services visit www.dynasis.com.

Although Microsoft recognizes thousands of partners across their channel worldwide, only 30,000 (just 5%) of those partners have attained a high enough degree of proficiency to distinguish themselves with a Microsoft competency.

DynaSis is proud of our long-standing relationship with Microsoft and our distinguished status in numerous programs throughout our more than a decade-long relationship.

Recently Microsoft updated their partner program again with the introduction of market-driven as opposed to product focused programs. Because of the investments we have already made in our business, attaining both the Midmarket and Small Business Solution Provider competencies came naturally to DynaSis.

Historically Microsoft and its partners have focused the majority of their efforts on the enterprise space. These new market-driven programs come in recognition of what we at DynaSis already know – that the expanding midmarket business segment represents a significant growth opportunity for our economy but that midmarket businesses have unique IT needs and infrastructure requirements that differentiate them from their large enterprise neighbors.

One area of differentiation is the cloud. More and more midmarket companies are recognizing the strategic value that cloud solutions can provide to their businesses. Microsoft reinvented its certification program to support this shift and to recognize only those partners, like DynaSis, with skills aligned to the latest technology innovations.

We’re proud of our accomplishments and hope that they’ll help reinforce your confidence in our organization.

DynaSis’ deep understanding of midmarket business processes, infrastructure needs, and future growth coupled with our expertise on the most current Microsoft desktop, business-management, and server technologies, make us uniquely qualified to help address the challenges of your midmarket organization.

Alpharetta, Georgia – May 8, 2012 – DynaSis, Atlanta’s premier provider of IT services and support for small and medium businesses (SMBs), today announced its new Zero-Impact Network Assessment Service. Using powerful, automated tools running on the network, DynaSis maps corporate networks and their devices and identifies points of weakness or misconfiguration in only a few hours, with no impact on network or system performance.

“Network Assessments are an essential step in resolving congestion, detecting violations such as rogue access points and identifying problems with configuration, security and other weaknesses,” said Ried Thiel, Director of CIO Services for DynaSis. “Yet, many companies—especially SMBs—either don’t understand the importance of Network Assessments or are hesitant to do them because of the days of disruption some methods cause in the past. Our automated solution runs via a DynaSis laptop connection to the network, and all operations take place in the background with no network degradation. Users don’t even know the assessment is being conducted.”

DynaSis’ Network Assessment service is fully secure, does not harvest or transmit sensitive data, and leaves no traces on the network. After completion, DynaSis analyzes the assessment results and develops a comprehensive report identifying network issues and weak spots, with recommendations for necessary upgrades and, if requested, suggestions for improvements or expansions. Report highlights include:

• Network “Risk Report”: A summary of the overall risk score, with easy-to-follow charts identifying problem areas and conflicts
• Best-Practices Deviation Report: Pressure-point issues that warrant investigation
• Inventory of network devices (routers, printers, PCs, servers and more), including rogue devices operating without the company’s knowledge
• Network access weaknesses such as outdated permissions or insecure passwords
• Inventory of installed applications, servers, and other software and hardware with recommendations for best-practices configuration and management

“Over time, as network configurations change, or users and devices are added or deleted, problems slip into the network undetected,” says Thiel. “Many companies unwittingly have network issues that create persistent network degradation or even expose business assets to assault. A Network Assessment is the first step in correcting these and other problems.”