CMA Blog

A highly functional IT department is one that is free of the daily struggle to maintain a vast network of individually supported systems, which suffer from bugs, inopportune immediate patch needs and unexpected (and often incomprehensive) down time. By shaking off the shackles of reactive problem solving, your IT department can be free to contribute their expertise and innovation to:

Baton Rouge, LA – June 17, 2014 – CMA Technology Solutions this month celebrates 30 years of providing leading-edge IT solutions to organizations across the Gulf Coast in the construction, financial, health care, education, gaming and public sector industry. CMA installed the IBM FlashSystem V840 in May for a banking customer in Arkansas – one of the first installations of its kind in the U.S. The
FlashSystem V840, a new IBMenterprise performance solution, combines flash storage technology and software virtualization in one, integrated solution that improves storage capability and accelerates critical business applications.

“Spinning disks will become obsolete as solid state storage devices, like the V840 FlashSystem, become more desirable – they’re faster, more cost-efficient and have more storage capacity while decreasing power consumption,” said Dave Renoud, Executive Vice President of Technical Services at CMA. “In an industry that’s always evolving and progressing, we monitor emerging technologies so we can give our customers reliable solutions instead of just temporary fads.”

While technology is always evolving, one fact remains constant: that technology can make or break the longevity of your business.

Consultant and business partner: two generic terms that sound good, but depending on how they’re defined and practiced, have the potential to be great. The problem is that too many companies consider themselves to be great consultants and business partners. But, what makes them so great?

Most companies sell consumer goods and services, while very few companies sell information technology services. Ironically, the distribution of consumer products is facilitated by IT services, or the delivery of high-value information to end users. In other words, the success of your business ultimately depends on the accessibility and delivery of critical data: the true purpose of IT in your company.

In the era of increasing demand for high uptime, low-cost solutions, there has been a shift away from traditional clustering and replication models. These models have traditionally been very expensive and complicated, requiring multiple Storage Area Networks (SANs) enabled with replication and duplicate sets of compute resources. In this context, Windows Server 2012 introduces a new feature to Microsoft’s Hyper-V offering, which includes the replication of Virtual Machines (VMs) between servers called Hyper-V Replica.

This is useful for environments where uptime is important, in areas that are vulnerable to disaster, such as the Gulf South during hurricane season. Using Hyper-V Replica, an organization can activate VMs, providing business-critical services in a geographically safe location for continued use. Coupled with thorough planning and appropriate network solutions, the flexibility of Hyper-V allows businesses to continue their services in the case that a primary location is incapacitated or in danger.

IBM Legacy Systems Protected by Seamless Cloud-Based Application and Data Backup

If you’re like most people, you have trouble remembering simple, everyday details. What did you eat for lunch last Monday? You’re probably scratching your head. Even important dates can easily be forgotten, for example, the pile of bills you receive in the mail each month. It’s surprising you remember to pay them on time when they’re all due on different days, right? You probably want to avoid having your electricity shut off because you forgot when the bill was due. Fortunately, you can designate one day out of the month to knock out those bills to avoid this scenario. Similarly, when the server your organization relies on to conduct day-to-day business fails, there’s nothing worse than realizing your support contract expired because you forgot to renew it. That’s why contract management is invaluable to businesses.

With everything that’s virtual gaining popularity, desktop virtualization is no different. Citrix has created a revolutionary way to manage and deliver virtual desktops to any device, anytime and anywhere by utilizing their HDX technology for high-definition performance. With XenDesktop 7, the platform has been redesigned for easy user management, faster deployment and convenient support management. Let’s take a look at a few of the ways that Citrix has made their product better, yet again.

Mobilize Windows