Friday, May 29, 2020

Harford County Expands Public Wi-Fi To Parking Lots Of Five County Buildings



By JAMES WHITLOW
THE AEGIS |
MAY 27, 2020 | 8:05 PM

Harford County will expand Wi-Fi connectivity to the parking lots of five county buildings, county executive Barry Glassman announced.

Wi-Fi access points were installed at the Agricultural Center in Street, Churchville Recreational Center’s Level Building, Fallston Activity Center, McFaul Activities Center in Bel Air, and the Havre de Grace Senior Center. The access points will not have passwords, but users of the service must agree to terms and conditions before logging onto the internet. County buildings are still “generally closed to the public" in view of the coronavirus pandemic, according to the Tuesday news release.

Read more about this project here.

Thursday, May 28, 2020

Delaware State University Auditorium Audio and Video Major Upgrade By HCGi


HCGi recently completed a major audio and video upgrade to better serve students and teachers.

We installed 165 new Boundary Microphones, 4 High Definition 75-inch Display TVs, updated the audio system including 20 ceiling-mounted speakers, added assisted listening devices, wireless connections and an Ultra Short Throw Large Projector in front of the auditorium.

See more about HCGi at HCGi.com

Tuesday, May 26, 2020

HCGi Performs Wi-Fi Upgrades At Several Locations



HCGi just completed Wi-Fi upgrades at Harford County Senior Activity Centers and other locations

Havre de Grace
Fallston
Belair- McFaul Center
Churchville
Abingdon  Water and Sewage
Agricultural Center

At the larger locations we installed 2 Cisco Meraki Wi-Fi Access Points with larger antennas for better coverage.

The Access Points were installed on the outside of each building.

The larger building had 2 Access Points.

We completed the install and upgrade in less than a week and Friday we added some larger antennas for better coverage in the rain.

Here is the Hardware

MERAKI  MR84-HW CISCO MERAKI MR84 CLOUD WRLS MANAGED AP
MERAKI  MR74-HW CISCO MERAKI MR74 CLOUD MANAGEDWRLS AP
MERAKI  LIC-ENT-1YR CISCO MERAKI 1YR ENTERPRISE SVCS LICS AND SUP
MERAKI  MA-ANT-20 CISCO MERAKI DUAL BAND OMNI ACCS ANTENNAS

Saturday, May 23, 2020

HCGi Success Stories - Education



EDUCATION SOLUTIONS CASE STUDY

Key PGCPS Quick Facts
• 125,136 students
• 207 schools
• 9,197 teachers
• 23,785 employees in total
• $1.795 billion annual budget


The Challenge
Lower IT costs, improve remote management Prince George’s County Public Schools (PGCPS) is one of the nation’s 25 largest school districts, with 208 schools and centers, more than 125,000 students and over 22,000 employees. The school system is responsible for administering PARCC testing (Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers) in each of its schools. The school system previously used a mix of iPads and laptops of various brands. Management of these various devices became complex. Establishing consistent configurations across the school system became difficult, inefficient, and costly.

PGCPS sought a solution that would provide maximum efficiency in the IT department without excessive hardware costs. Further, the school system wanted the capability to fully manage configuration settings on every device from one location. PGCPS was an early adopter of Google Apps, so the IT team and the students were already familiar with Google’s platform.

HCGi Solution
HCGi began a pilot project at Oxon Hill High School in the fall of 2013. It deployed a limited number of Samsung Chromebooks and the Google Chrome Console Management solution. The management console allows the PGCPS IT department to remotely manage every device in any location. This includes installing or removing apps, blacklisting websites, and configuring user roles, access and security.

HCGi provided a Google Certified Training Instructor to PGCPS to help implement this solution in the school system. HCGi also provides ongoing training and support to the PGCPS team responsible for managing and deploying the equipment across the system. PGCPS has three technology distribution centers.

Every newly acquired Chromebook is shipped to one of these centers for asset tagging and enrollment into the Chrome Management Console. HCGi performed a “White Glove” enrollment service for the initial 2000 unit Chromebook deployment. In addition to providing guidance in hardware selection, HCGi managed the configuration team to perform all service functions as well as administrative console and network configurations. HCGi validated device policies with a sample school or class.

Early testing revealed that LCD screens from the leading low-cost manufacturer were prone to breaking easily in a K12 education environment. HCGi quickly provided alternative Chromebooks by other manufacturers. A semi-rugged Lenovo model was selected and over 4000 units have been deployed, with no hardware issues reported.

HCGi’s longstanding partnership with a wide range of manufacturers, promises greater flexibility for Prince George’s County Public Schools. Further, the installation and activation of their Remote Management software give the IT department authorization and full control of every device district-wide. HCGi has delivered this powerful technology, allowing full implementation with the district’s IT team and ensuring the smooth deployment of the Chromebooks.

Results
PGCPS enjoys dependable and affordable hardware, with superior hands-on client support by HCGi. The Google Chrome Management Console has given PGCPS the ease of maintaining an online curriculum, monitoring device use and securing student data for all Chromebooks from one central location. This has proven to maximize efficiency in both labor expenses and speeding up the process of getting Chromebooks into the hands of students.

Monday, May 18, 2020

ThinkPad X1 Fold Product Tour


World-famous ThinkPad engineering meets the world’s first PC with a foldable display. This is the ThinkPad X1 Fold. Learn more at http:www.lenovo.com

Lenovo is one of the companies that we work with at HCGi to provide the best in IT services. See more at HCGi.com

Friday, May 15, 2020

Introducing PowerStore


PowerStore is data-centric, intelligent, and adaptable, providing unmatched flexibility for today’s infrastructure.

At HCGi, we choose the best companies to partner with to provide the best in our IT services. See more at HCGi.com

Tuesday, May 12, 2020

FlashBlade™ File Storage Replication


Pure Storage is one of the companies and product lines that we partner with in order to serve our customers with the best solutions possible for the IT needs. See more HCGi.com

Saturday, May 9, 2020

The Future Of Energy Storage Beyond Lithium Ion


Over the past decade, prices for solar panels and wind farms have reached all-time lows. However, the price for lithium-ion batteries, the leading energy storage technology, has remained too high. So researchers are exploring other alternatives, including flow batteries, thermal batteries, and gravity-based systems. CORRECTION (March 14, 2020): At 12:53 we incorrectly identify the size of the energy storage market. Overall, the energy storage market is predicted to attract $620 billion dollars in investments by 2040.

Wednesday, May 6, 2020

ThinkPad TrackPoint Keyboard II Product Tour


The ThinkPad TrackPoint Keyboard II translates the iconic ThinkPad typing experience into a compact, standalone device. It has the same dish-shaped ergonomic keys for comfort, as well as an integrated TrackPoint for easy mouse-free navigation. It comes with Bluetooth 5.0 and wireless 2.4GHz connectivity, you can pair up with a Windows and Android device at the same time. Learn more at http://www.lenovo.com

Sunday, May 3, 2020

Cloud Computing Solutions From HCGi



Security for business-critical and proprietary data, physical access to servers running in your virtualized infrastructure, the ability to pass regulatory compliance audits, and many other types of data security, backup, and disaster recovery are all legitimate concerns of CIOs who are new to cloud computing.

Fortunately, HCGI understands all these concerns and we are aligned with the leading vendors in the industry to offer you the most cost-effective, flexible, and intelligent choice as you venture into this evolving area of IT. Whether you are moving to a cloud or building a private cloud, we can assist you. We can help you select the right solution and provide an “on-ramp” to transition your organization.

Benefits of Cloud Computing

As more IT professionals become educated about cloud computing, they realize the benefits it offers to their organization. Cloud makes it possible for you to:


  • Scale rapidly – up or down
  • Deploy services only when and where they’re needed
  • Create efficiencies and cost savings by paying as you go for only the services used
  • Control server sprawl
  • Decrease IT management costs via virtualization
  • Increase revenue by deploying software and products more quickly
  • Increase agility by initiating and provisioning IT resources more simply and quickly
  • Lower your total cost of ownership
  • Reduce costs for IT hardware, software, and services
  • Reduce data center energy costs
  • Improve the availability and scalability of your storage needs
  • Improve disaster recovery and data backup
  • Enable faster time to market of products/services
  • Allow IT staff to focus on strategic solutions for your core business

With more than 20 years of experience in all aspects of technology, HCGI is fully equipped to help your organization decide which of the many cloud offerings available from our vendor partners is right for your specific needs. Go to https://hcgi.com