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Saturday night my daughter and I met in Pentagon City – while I waited for her to arrive I watched a homeless man get off the train – he had just gotten out of the hospital, was on crutches and looked frazzled.  After a few minutes of watching him I asked him could I get himRead more

Here at ARG we are proud to have one of the best Cloud Advisors on our team heading into 2016. The cloud market is a daunting place for company’s looking to cloud their infrastructure, but luckily, we have the right person on our side that can now be on yours. To see what we’re talking about, here’s ARG Cloud Advisor Jim Begley’s take on the state of the cloud market at the end of 2015:

Decision making on Unified Communications (UC) at any and every level can be extremely difficult. 

As adoption of UC grows exponentially, comparing providers may be difficult due to the lack of a standardized definition of UC and the wide variety of offerings.  

Picture this: You’ve done the research, you’ve put in the time, you choose a data center for your business, and it all seems great. BUT, all of a sudden, weeks into your mission critical data being supported, the data center goes down. You never asked about uptime. It somehow got lost in the research and questions and the other projects you’ve been working on. Now, your business has lost tens of thousands of dollars. What now?

“Enterprise mobility” is a hot topic as we head into the final months of 2015. Increasingly mobile workforce emphasize the need for companies to enable and manage employee mobility in order to meet security and productivity demands. But what does this mean for you?

Companies who set out to mobilize their enterprises on their own tend to miss important security factors that could potentially put sensitive data in jeopardy. On top of that, they tend to overlook needs and requirements specific to their company which could lead the company’s inability to expand and improve with future add-ons.

At ARG we are often faced with the question, “What can YOU do for ME?” We pride ourselves in helping companies, big or small, get the most bang for their buck while investing in the best, unique technology solution for their business.

Tuesday September 22, 2015 | 7:30 – 10:00 AM | 7926 Jones Branch Drive, Suite 1150, McLean, VA

Breakfast will be served.

Don’t miss this opportunity to indulge in a global perspective of UC, and bulletproof your network with ARG.

The market for hosted voice is getting larger and more competitive by the second. As the market continues to evolve and new providers come to market, what is the impact on the company with the largest market share, Broadsoft, and how can ARG help you decide which platform is right for your business?

The consequences of down time for any company can send a negative ripple through their entire operation, regardless of duration. No company ever wants to face a network outage, but with providers offering solutions that nearly guarantee four hours of downtime a month, what other options are there?

It has been reported that more than two thirds of businesses were not going to make the upgrade deadline, which leaves their networks, servers, and possibly their entire IT infrastructures susceptible to bugs, cyber criminals, compliance issues, and more.  In 2013, Microsoft issued 37 “critical” updates to Windows Server 2003, and another 21 in 2014, suggesting it is still extremely vulnerable to bugs that have not yet been exposed. 

Now is the time to ask, “How are you protecting your business today, and what system does your business have in place to recover from a disaster, man-made or otherwise?”

So, we’re asking. Here at ARG, we have the time, tools, and know how to get your company backed up for life. There are too many examples of major businesses losing their ability to operate and all of their data being lost for your business to NOT be protected.

We’ve all heard our friends and counterparts in the industry say “if they’re going to move their company’s infrastructure into a third-party data center, then they will only consider a Tier IV data center.” Heaven forbid, someone would recommend a Tier II, or dare we say, a Tier I facility.  “Tier I” is almost a four-letter word.  But, why?

Video Conferencing has become one of the most talked about technologies of Unified Communications (UC) by both vendors and enterprises. As a result, many companies are looking for ways to integrate this collaboration technology into their already built out UC architectures. 

2015 is quickly becoming the year of the mobile worker. When enabling a mobile workforce, the user experience is key to the value add that mobility provides. “Always on” connectivity provides the mobile workforce balance and flexibility in their personal and work life. Subsequently, “always on” connectivity requires 24/7/365 mobile support for any issue that may arise. 

CIOReview touts itself as the navigator for enterprise solutions, so when they selected ARG as one of the Top 20 Unified Communications Providers of 2015, we were very proud.

The National Weather Service noted the possibility for severe thunderstorms today.

ARG is here to help you weather the storm. We’ve been in touch with our carriers to make sure resources have been lined up to respond as quickly as possible for restoration and repair.  ARG is here to assist you if troubles arise. We are here to answer your calls, open tickets, escalate with the carriers, and provide technical consulting and troubleshooting along the way.

News Flash: There is a technology that has a 96% purchase rate after clients tried the service. As unbelievable as that may sound, ARG knows it to be true. In 2015, most IT departments are still implementing one of the following problematic options:

ARG helps businesses in the DC metro area find, implement, and maintain technology solutions, but our reach extends much further across the U.S. and internationally. With that breadth of clientele comes immense responsibility for requests to help and handle a plethora of technology problems. Luckily, ARG’s Implementation Engineers (IE) are always at the ready to solve the issues at hand.

In ARG IE Matt West’s own words he describes how he moved forward with solving the problem while using a technology of his own to reduce customer impact:

When businesses make the decision to move to the cloud, one of the most frequently asked questions is, “Will we save money?” While the answer to that question varies depending upon the business itself, the benefits of moving to the cloud, especially in terms of communications and collaboration, outweigh the potential costs uptick they may face.

For Summer 2015 we have a FREE two week Trial available for Direct to Cloud DRaaS that will cover one server up to 500GB. If your business is unsure, this trial will showcase the protection and recoverability of DRaaS and the ease of administration for the service.

For clients that have requirements for a local recovery point, ARG also offers DRaaS in a Hybrid model that puts a recovery point on site for the business as well as offering the cloud recovery. 

Microsoft has made a big announcement: Microsoft Azure Stack. The new addition will be just one of the services Microsoft plans to add to the initial Azure program. Though it will not become available until 2016, techies all around the world are excited for its launch. But what exactly is Microsoft Azure Stack?

Working from home and connecting to an office is becoming a trend, a new fad or style if you will. We here at ARG think every person in a company should be empowered to connect with the office remotely. But how?

Video conferencing is not yet a part of everyday office life, but it should be.

Mobile Device Management (MDM) is becoming exponentially more important to organizations in the year 2015. Finding the best ways to protect and manage smartphones and tablets can be a daunting task, but with the increasing population of mobile employees, security is pivotal.

TechTarget’s Matthew Pascucci outlines six key questions that are necessary to ask when looking into MDM products in a recent article. He also emphasizes the importance of an established set of “organizationally specific criteria” prior to comparing and contrasting MDM solutions.

Traditional Public Switched Telephone Network (PTSN) services have provided the business world an outlet for successful communication for quite a while as a top tier technology solution. In 2015, Hosted VoIP is quickly becoming the most viable option for businesses, and exceeding expectations far past PTSN. Why?

Here at ARG we find it incredibly important to share our success stories with you. More importantly, our team looks for every opportunity to help our clients, and make sure they are extremely happy with their technology solutions.

Recently, Implementation Engineer Matt West brought his experience and knowledge to a turn-up with an ARG client and Zayo. Here’s what he had to say:

Whether you’re thinking of starting the colocation process, in the middle of it, or a bit flustered by what you’ve already found, ARG is here to help.  If you have any questions, comments, or concerns on colocation, please reach out to ARG’s resident Colocation Specialist, Justin Praske at jpraske@myarg.com.

Most people think that the way to avoid a long, boring, drawn out meeting is to use common sense. Have an agenda, give attendees a limited amount of speaking time, etc. But what if that’s not the solution at all?

This is off the table for now, but don’t hold your breath.  If these two don’t try again, it will be someone else.  Time Warner Cable is the parent company of Navisite, and that is an attractive entry for most cable companies into the world of cloud.

Desktop-as-a-Service (DaaS) and Virtual Desktop Infrastructures (VDI) are quickly becoming the “it” service of 2015. We here at ARG use VDI, and are strong proponents of integrating it into the workplace. Not sure why DaaS or VDI could help you? Well a recent survey on the State of the Desktop seems to have all the answers. So, here are some of the key findings we find most helpful when making this important decision.

Today is the day – the FCC vote concerning whether to keep Neustar as the contract holder for Local Number Portability (LNP) or award the contract to Telcordia Technologies, a subsidiary of Ericsson, is happening.

Why should you care about this?