Force 3

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A Note from the CEO

Kicking Off 2015 at Force 3

Last week at Force 3, we started 2015 off with a bang at our annual Corporate Kickoff. This year, Force 3 employees, partners and friends gathered at Rams Head Center Stage at Maryland Live! Casino for the special event.

This was my first Corporate Kickoff as Force 3 CEO, and I was honored to be able to get up on that (tiny) stage to talk about all of the exciting things we have happening at Force 3 this year. Here are a few highlights:

Growth

I was thrilled to share with the Force 3 family that with 21% year-over-year growth in our core business, we are in our strongest position ever heading into 2015. We’ve also expanded our partnerships with manufacturers and grown our services business (by 26%, I might add). Thanks to our incredible team, these accomplishments further strengthen our ability to provide the best in network security to our customers and put us on track for continued success in the new year.

Vision

In 2015, you will get to know Force 3 as THE network security company. We will be known for our mission to provide infrastructure services to design, deploy, support and maintain our customers’ technology needs.

This doesn’t mean that we will stop providing customers with routers and switches. As Kevin Plank, founder of Under Armour has said, “Don’t forget to sell shirts and shoes.” Hardware re-sale will remain a core component of our business, but today, our federal government customers need more.

While overall federal spend is shrinking, security spend is increasing significantly. The US Federal Cybersecurity Forecast for 2015-2020 is a cumulative market valued at $65.5 billion—and for good reason. Just look back at some of the data breaches we saw in 2014—top corporations, the United States Postal Service, the State Department, even the White House. Now more than ever, securing our networks must be our top priority.

That is why Force 3 will be laser-focused on evolving our business to help government customers meet those changing needs. We will do this through updated offerings such as SupportPlus Service Desk and InsightPlus, a new solution offering which gives our customers the ability to view and share any data, from any system in customizable dashboards.

Also new this year, and unique to Force 3, is a special team of engineers and business development associates that we have assembled to focus on next-generation offerings in emerging technologies, including software-defined networking. We look forward to the opportunity this will create to engage in forward-thinking discussions with partners and customers on future trends and communicate what’s needed to prepare to securely implement these technologies.

Values

Force 3 is all about the customer. We always have been. In 2015, our commitment to customer success is stronger than ever with our new vision and through the new services we offer.

The most important part of this commitment to customer success comes from one place—the people at Force 3. Our employees are the true discriminator of our company, and we are dedicated to their success. As a strengths-based organization, we work to align employees’ responsibilities with what they do best. This not only makes for a happier workplace, but sets us all up for continued success. And with 346 new industry certifications in 2014, it’s clear that Force 3 employees are dedicated to building on their strengths, continuously improving their knowledge and skills in order to provide better service to our customers, which is what it is all about.

Building on our commitment to customers and employees, we are eager to expand the ways we give back and support our entire community. One way  we’ll be doing this (which I am very excited about and proud of), is working in conjunction with Children’s Cancer Foundation, – a special charity which Force 3 has supported for more nearly 20 years. Force 3 will be sponsoring groundbreaking research for Dr. Jeff Toretsky, a pediatric oncologist from Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center. With the help of the Force 3 fellowship, Dr. Toretsky and his team hopes to not only improve the survival rates for Ewing Sarcoma patients, but also create an entirely new class of cancer drugs. This is just one example of the culture of giving back that we have cultivated at Force 3 for many than 20 years and looking forward to building on in 2015.

Here’s to another great year at Force 3!

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The FCC Embraces Super Wi-Fi with E-Rate Program

Free Super Wi-Fi Available!

In what can only be explained as a landmark initiative, on July 11, 2014 the FCC released what it deems a modernization initiative for public schools and libraries who qualify for technology funding called E-Rate.

What is E-rate?

E-Rate is a government (FCC) sponsored program that ensures schools and libraries are able to afford telecommunication and internet services. Funding is set aside on a periodical basis to support schools and libraries in an effort to close the technology gap that exists in some geographical areas. This year (2015) the FCC is emphasizing supporting schools and libraries in advancing their wireless infrastructure.

The FCC is immediately increasing the current capital set aside for the E-rate funding (currently 2.4 billion dollars) by an additional two billion dollars, specifically for enhancing wireless solutions. They will also be adding an additional one billion dollars per year, for three years, in order to maintain and support the wireless directive.

Why Wireless?

Wireless technology is extremely accessible and flexible, providing internet access for an abundance of individuals, using varying ways to connect to the World Wide Web. There are an increasing amount of schools replacing traditional books with tablets, and in the commercial market mobile devices and tablets are consistently outselling PC’s. Combine these facts with the improvements to 802.11 radio technology, and the FCC is essentially investing in the future.

What is the future?

In a separate initiative, the FCC made a March 31, 2014 announcement to increase availability of the 5GHz channels, to allow enhanced speeds for wireless devices.  This hypothetically supports the development of what is deemed Super Wi-Fi: Wi-Fi that can theoretically support upwards of 6900Mbps with 802.11ac Wave 2 technology. In order to put this in perspective: in 2003, the most innovative technologies supported a maximum of 54Mbps. Let’s expand that perspective and look at a timeline indicating how wireless technology has increased over the past few years.

Figure 1-Values in Mbps

We can seemingly predict where things are heading. The future appears to have ubiquitous Wi-Fi at unfathomable speeds, making Wi-Fi as business critical as hardwired Ethernet is today. Technology vendors such as Cisco are gearing up to leverage this enhanced capability with initiatives such as their Internet of Things campaign, which provides cutting edge access points to support existing 802.11ac speeds.These access points are also primed for what comes next – they have modular slots, making them amendable to support future advances in 802.11 technology. Metropolitan and Municipal Wi-Fi has become more prevalent, sparking Cisco to release an outdoor 802.11ac capable access point, with the capabilities to deliver wireless connectivity across several miles, through mesh architecture technology.

Given the inevitable trends in the industry and the need to align with these forthcoming advances, it is easy for the FCC to justify financing the educational infrastructure of the United States, through the E-rate program.

How do you prepare?

Call in the experts; the advances in wireless technology have amplified the complexity of deploying wireless solutions. Gone are the days of randomly placing a wireless router on a table in your office or mounting access points in a linear fashion, down the main hallway of your facility. As ideologies become more universal and Wi-Fi comes to the forefront of network infrastructure, additional engineering time must be placed on the following issues:

FCC Regulations regarding EIRP (effective isotropic radiated power)

FCC Regulations regarding Dynamic Frequency Selection

Best Practice High Density Design Standards

Spectrum Analysis and Optimization

Radio and Antenna Placement

Roaming Sticky Client Mitigation

Network Security and Integration – (ex. Splunk , Network Access Control, Active Directory )

This is just a small sample of the caveats that must be addressed during a new wireless implementation. In preexisting wireless deployments there are additional concerns as your neighbors, and in many cases entire municipalities, begin to infringe upon your wireless RF (radio frequency) atmosphere. This could cause instability and security vulnerabilities on a wireless network that previously operated flawlessly. This is why Force 3 treats wireless with the same TLC (tender loving care) as traditional network architectures. Force 3 will engineer a solution that not only secure and optimize wireless infrastructures, but also enhances the downstream wired devices ability to handle wireless traffic.

Force 3 has an outstanding wireless mobility practice that can help design, plan and install your wireless infrastructure. We also deploy Cloud Wireless Solutions which align really well with small to midsized facilities looking to leverage E-Rate funding. We have an overall solid background in deploying wireless technology in the educational, government, international, and commercial markets.

Ask us about our delivery methodology, then ask your self are you prepared for Super Wi-Fi?

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A Note From the CEO

A Note from the CEO - December 2014

Happy Holidays from Force 3

As we head into the final weeks of the year, I find myself reflecting back on all that has happened in 2014. It’s been a tremendous year for Force 3, with many successes and achievements. From a business perspective, we’ve had a very strong year and we are well-positioned for continued growth in 2015.

But when I look back at everything we accomplished this year, some of the work I am most proud of wasn’t done for our customers, but rather, for our community. Giving back is a very important part of our identity here at Force 3. It’s been embedded in our culture since the beginning, and as we’ve grown through the years, so has that culture of giving. And during this season of giving, it’s something to celebrate.

Earlier this month, we were honored to work with our partner, Cisco, to bring a Virtual Visit from Santa to the kids at Children’s National Health System in Washington, D.C. Using Cisco’s video collaboration technology, Santa was able to bring the joy and excitement of the holidays right to the children who have to be in the hospital over the holidays.

A new tradition that we started this year was the Angel Tree, in conjunction with the Salvation Army. We started out with 25 families, who were all adopted by Force 3 employees in no time. So many more wanted to help, though, so we asked the Salvation Army if there were any other families in need this Christmas. I’m proud to say that so far, we’ve adopted 45 families in our community. They will all receive food, clothing and gifts to celebrate the holiday.

We know many of our neighbors are in need not only during the holidays, but throughout the year. Every week, several Force 3 employees take time out of their workday to mentor students at our neighboring elementary school, Crofton Meadows. Many of these students come from a difficult home environment and benefit from spending time with an adult mentor. Through this mentorship program, Force 3 has also become involved with Pantry Packs, a program that provides food to children who depend on school-provided meals and might not otherwise have access to food over weekends or holidays.

The Children’s Cancer Foundation has been special to Force 3 for many years, and I was especially proud this year to raise $105,000 to support their mission of treating and curing childhood cancer through our inaugural Force 3 5K, 18th annual Force 3 Golf Classic and 2nd annual Crab Feast. We are eager to beat that figure in 2015 with the support of our friends, partners and community—we hope you’ll join us!

Given that so many of our customers are based in the federal space, we have a deep understanding of service. Our mindset is always to help customers achieve their mission, and that same thought process flows through to our community. We take pride in the fact that we can provide some help to those in need and look forward to continuing this work in 2015 and beyond. If you would like to help, please visit the Force 3 Foundation Paypal page here.

Happy New Year from all of us at Force 3!

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Wireless Deployments: The Cost Question?

Wireless Deployments: The Cost Question? by Ramon Thomas

Radio Frequency engineers have a peculiar dilemma when it comes to standing up new deployments at facilities that are looking to implement Wi-Fi services. A frequent dilemma centers on the customer’s request for a pricing quote prior to securing professional services for installation of a wireless network.

Radio Frequency Engineers however, think in terms of stability and functionality, not price. So typically our response to the question of “How much will this cost?” is simply, “It depends.” This is also generally the response that causes sales personnel to begin dry heaving and management to seriously consider the sanity of said engineer.

Let’s take a quick look at “It Depends.”

Wireless solutions are developed on methodologies that are particular to the environment in which the solution is getting deployed. The number of access points and antennas in an IEEE 802.11 solution is the primary driver of cost. Amongst a myriad of factors, the following are some high level attributes that radio frequency engineers look for in order to determine the amount of access points required for a given project.

The amount of clients connecting to the Wi-Fi (Client Density)

Access Point Mounting Location (Height, Angle, Aesthetic Requirements)

Radio Frequency Environment – Spectrum Analysis (Co-Channel, Interference, Interferer Duty Cycles, Presence of Radar)

Client Roaming Requirements and Mobility (Desktop, Laptop, iPad)

Anticipated Client Traffic (Data, Voice, Video)

Cost Concerns

Did you catch that last bullet? Many engineers will scoff at the fact that cost actually does come into play when scoping a wireless deployment. The unfortunate truth is that cost is a factor. Although cost is considered, it should not be the only factor; and from an engineering viewpoint, we treat all aspects of the overall delivery with the appropriate due diligence. Cost should never be the primary cause driving the technical approach of a wireless solution as this may doom a deployment to have sub optimal operation over its lifetime.

It is true however, that in recent years, many of the wireless industry’s top vendors have adjusted their go-to-market product strategy to account for the proverbial “cost” elephant in the room. Cisco has been leading the charge with presenting multiple series of access points that are not only meeting the customer site’s physical environmental requirements, but also are customized for varying radio frequency environments. This gives the RF engineer a toolset that can in fact limit the cost of a deployment while maintaining the validity of the technical design.

IEEE 802.11ac has arrived and wireless modernization is on the public forefront. Evidence of this points to the fact that New York City is debating an initiative that will replace pay phone terminals with wireless hubs. Wireless is becoming the new “it” technology and many manufacturers are pushing the development of personalized solutions. Cisco has recently released the Aironet 1700 series access point as well as the Aironet 2700 Series access points to compliment the industry-leading advanced Aironet 3700 series access points. These indoor access points cater to different deployment demographics. The features of each access point are tuned specifically to address the details of a solution which we mentioned above, with the added benefit of each model having variable cost. Access points can also be deployed in varying ways, having multiple models in one deployment. This allows an RF engineer to be flexible with the overall design. The chart below references some key features of each access point:

“How do we determine which access points to use?”

Naturally, this is the follow up question. The only true answer is a wireless survey. If you are unfamiliar with a wireless survey check out this article in InformationWeek. A survey is how we would really determine the answer to the “How much will this cost?” challenge. Yet, a survey does in fact require a financial commitment.

Cisco has doubled down on the cost conundrum by introducing a radio frequency planner tool which is currently in beta version. The tool gives engineers the ability to analyze a customer environment and directly associate the create design with the Cisco Commerce Workspace which presents predictive pricing.

Force 3 engineers have previewed the planning tool and our initial reaction is very optimistic. The feature set of the Cisco RF planner is not currently synonymous with industry leading RF planning tools such as Air Magnet and Ekahau. It is also true that other vendors have similar planning offerings, but the integration with Cisco Commerce Workspace and the inevitable Prime Infrastructure combination, Cisco may be able to create an end to end continuum from presales, to design, through deployment that is unmatched by its competitors.

We believe that with the addition of the RF planning tool and the robust access point portfolio Cisco has begun the process of answering “How much will this cost?” dilemma in a really effective manner. Stay tuned for a follow up blog post comparing the RF planning capabilities of Airmagnet, Ekahau, Aruba, and Cisco RF Planner.

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Force 3 Helps Spread Holiday Cheer at Children's National Health System

Force 3 at Children’s National Health System

When we take our own children to sit on Santa’s lap and tell him their Christmas wishes each winter, it’s easy to forget about the many children who are unable to make this kind of trip. But this year, many young patients in hospitals across North America have gotten to chat with Santa via online video calls through Cisco’s “Santa Connection Program.” Last Monday, Cisco and Force 3 helped bring Santa to young patients at Children’s National Health System in Washington D.C. with the help of Cisco’s video collaboration technologies.  sing iPads and video monitors with web-enabled cameras, Santa visited children in the hospital playroom and by the bedsides of those patients weren’t quite well enough to leave their rooms.

Thanks to Cisco Jabber software, the patients at Children’s National Health System were able to chat with Santa and tell him about their Christmas lists. Some of our team members even got to stand in as Santa’s elves while Santa’s real staff was hard at work in the North Pole! One of these elves was Cindy Monroe, a Force 3 Account Manager. As she said, “For the children and staff at Children’s National, it was such a special day. Santa visited almost 200 children via Cisco’s video collaboration technology. The children’s faces lit up when they saw Santa and they were equally appreciative of the blankets and gifts donated by Toys for Tots. When we visited the emergency room at the end of the day, the energy in the room went from quiet to lively in a matter of minutes as the kids crowded around the monitor to see Santa. We’re so proud to be a part of Santa Connection because it brings such joy to these kids.”

After our day at Children’s National Health System, we were happy to know that these brave children got to experience a bit of holiday magic. It was great to see the kids reassured that Santa will find them no matter where they are, even if they have to be in the hospital during this special time of year.

Force 3′s Jim Bird, Cindy Monroe and Marty Calambro worked with Cisco to virtually bring Santa to nearly 200 children at Children’s  National Health System.

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Q&A with Milton Lin: NetApp's Insight Conference (2014)

Milton Lin, from NetApp’s Annual Insight Conference in Las Vegas:

Force 3’s Milton Lin recently traveled to Las Vegas, Nevada to attend NetApp’s annual Insight Conference. Here, system engineers, professional services consultants, channel partners, and NetApp customers gathered to learn about transformative IT practices.

While in Vegas, Milton not only attended the conference—he also earned his NCDA Certification.  The NetApp Certified Data Administrator certification is awarded to individuals who show masterful skills in performing in-depth support, administrative functions, and performance management for NetApp running the Data ONTAP® operating system in NFS and Windows® (CIFS) multiprotocol environments.  Congratulations, Milton!

Now that he’s back at work, we sat down with Milton to discuss his experience at Insight 2014.  Milton shares the hot topics of this year’s conference as well as his newfound appreciation for NetApp storage systems.

What was the overall experience at NetApp Insight like this year? There were a few changes to the conference this year that really enhanced my experience. There was a much larger turnout than in past years and this was also the first time that customers were invited to attend. There were less repeating sessions than in the past, so I was able to attend more sessions. Overall, the sessions were very engaging.

What were the hot topics everyone was talking about? NetApp made a big announcement about the launch of a new cloud-based version of their ONTAP operating system, so everyone was definitely talking about this exciting news. The new offering can be offered for as low as $5 per hour and will allow more vendors to use the cloud.

NetApp’s strong leadership in flash storage was also a big theme.  Right now, NetApp has the number one storage OS and they have advancements coming down the line, and may be as much as two times faster on certain operations.

What was the most important thing that you learned? Interestingly, I learned a lot from sitting next to a NetApp engineer on the plane. From talking with this engineer, I got a new perspective on what NetApp can do for its customers from a technical perspective.

At the conference itself, I’d have to say the most important things I learned was that NetApp is very committed to building upon their storage systems. They know they will have to make themselves relevant to the cloud and they are going to make a strong effort to do that. I’m excited to see what the future holds.

What was the most exciting thing that happened at the event? I was very excited to be able to earn my NCDA certification during the conference.  It was great to be able to take the test at the conference because the information is so fresh in your mind. I absolutely think taking the test at the conference helped me succeed in earning the certification.

What are you most looking forward to bringing back to your work at Force 3? I’m most excited to bring back a fresh excitement about NetApp’s technology. Attending the conference was such an eye-opening experience since I got to learn about everything that is done behind the scenes. I know that this new knowledge will help me better serve the needs of our customers. I would love to attend again in the future and look forward to seeing how some of the new technologies and developments I learned about will be integrated.

Thanks Milton!

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A Note from the CEO

A Note from the CEO – November 2014

This month, we’ve been focusing on some exciting announcements about the direction of our business as we move into 2015.

After 20+ years of business, Force 3 has become well-known as a trusted IT solutions provider and value-added reseller. Over the course of those years, we’ve witnessed some big changes in our industry and tremendous advancements in technology. But one thing that hasn’t changed is the increasing need for secure solutions.

To continue to deliver for the ever-changing needs of our customers, Force 3 has developed a unique ability to securely design, deploy, support and maintain our clients’ networks. Now, we are taking steps to build on those abilities in all that we do—incorporating that focus on security into everything from our corporate vision, to our key differentiators and thought leadership.

Vision:  Force 3 is THE network security company.

This doesn’t just mean security in the traditional, siloed approach. To me, this means that everything that Force 3 does starts and ends with a security frame of mind. We are the company to securely implement technology—including collaboration, compute, and wireless.

Differentiators

To make this vision a reality requires a different approach than many others in our space. While there are many things that set Force 3 apart, first and foremost are our people. Their skills and expertise are the most important and valuable part of what we do. As a strength-based organization, we try to take advantage of our individual skill sets to build a stronger team. And that’s something that others can not replicate.

In addition to our team, Force 3’s service capabilities set us apart. We currently offer our customers maintenance support services, and we will continue to grow our service desk capabilities to include an expanded offering around security event management and optimization services.

Thought Leadership

To further differentiate ourselves and establish the vision of Force 3 as THE network security company, we’re excited to expand our technology offerings. In addition to security, borderless networks, wireless, collaboration and data center—things we have been doing for a long time—we’ll be heavily focused on software-defined networking and other next-generation solutions as we move into 2015, and we’ll be driving security into all of these technology areas.

As we head into the holiday season, it’s been a great time to both reflect and plan ahead for the future. I look forward to navigating Force 3 in new directions, and I am grateful for the support of our team of employees, customers and partners as we move towards that vision of Force 3 as THE Network Security Company.

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Force 3's Andrew Jeon and Ryan Wolfe Earn CNSE Certification

Force 3 is proud to announce that our engineers Andrew Jeon and Ryan Wolfe have passed the Certified Network Security Engineer (CNSE) exam.  The CNSE is the highest certification available from our partner, Palo Alto Networks.  Bravo, gentlemen!

The CNSE exam is a formal, third party-proctored certification that tests an individual’s engineering level knowledge.  It is taken by customers, value-added resellers, pre-sales engineers, system integrators, and support staff looking to demonstrate their deep understanding of Palo Alto Networks technologies. To pass the exam, individuals must demonstrate the ability to install, configure, and implement the most recent release of Palo Alto Networks products.

At Force 3, we are dedicated to establishing ourselves as experts so that our customers can be confident in our skills and ability to help them achieve their business goals.  We are constantly searching for opportunities that will allow our team members to expand their skill sets and adapt to today’s ever-changing technologies.  In order to meet our customers’ needs, we know we must continue to innovate and educate ourselves.  When we have team members achieve impressive certifications like the CNSE, we feel confident that we are doing just that.

The CNSE certification was the perfect chance for Andrew and Ryan to prove their expert knowledge, and we are thrilled to announce this tremendous accomplishment.  After spending countless hours preparing and studying, we hope they are celebrating, too!

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Scary Stuff: Cyber Crime

By Greg Kushto, Director, Security Practice

Today we are not only celebrating Halloween, but also the last day of National Cybersecurity Awareness Month! This week, the focus is on Cyber Crime and Law Enforcement.

As we continue to see higher and higher levels of cyber crimes, it is more important than ever for consumers to become educated on how to protect themselves. One of the most effective ways to protect yourself is simply by asking questions.

To protect yourself against cyber crime, here are few questions you can ask of the people and businesses you deal with:

1.) What happens to my information after I share it with you?

2.) Where will my information be stored?

3.) How will my information be used?

4.) Will my information be resold to anyone else?

5.) What have you done in the past to secure personal information?

6.) What are my rights if something bad happens?

Reputable individuals and businesses should be able to answer these questions, and they should take them seriously.

Ideally, they would have documentation about their information security policy readily available to share with you. If they do not have that, be sure to drill down into their answers to your questions—ask how they will protect your information and if a cyber crime does occur, how will they deal with it?

The trick is to treat (Halloween reference intended) the money you spend online the same as you would a $100 bill. If you had one in your pocket, you would be conscious of that fact—you’d be aware of where it is and probably thinking about how you might spend it. Unfortunately, when you’re talking about virtual currency, that mindset tends to fade away. It’s critical to treat the virtual transactions you make the same as you would a physical purchase. You wouldn’t hand that $100 bill, or private personal information, over to someone you didn’t know and trust. Asking a couple of key questions can help make sure you’re dealing with a reputable person or organization.

Stay safe this Halloween, and online!

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Talent Connect 2014 Q&A

The Force 3 recruiting team traveled to San Francisco last week to attend Talent Connect, an annual recruiting conference hosted by LinkedIn. Here, the team heard from recruiting rock stars like Laszlo Bock, Senior Vice President of People Operations at Google.

Our inspired team members, Joanne Johnson and Susie Landgren returned this week and shared with us what they learned, the things that surprised them, and how they will share this fresh knowledge at Force 3.

Q: What was the overall experience at LinkedIn Talent Connect like?

A: In a word, dynamic.  It’s amazing to be surrounded by like-minded people who share the same passion to embrace the new, innovative trends in recruiting.  LinkedIn is an incredibly powerful tool that is truly invaluable, particularly within the technology sector.

Q: What were the top 3 topics everyone was talking about?

A: 1.) Every single employee should consider themselves a recruiter for their respective company.  Many professionals at Talent Connect referred to them as Brand or Talent Ambassadors.  It just goes to show how each individual’s personal and professional network is wildly powerful, especially in our niche market with engineering talent being especially unique.

2.) The evolving tools available through LinkedIn.  The developers on LinkedIn constantly roll out new, innovative tools to further leverage our recruiting capabilities.  For example, they are preparing to roll out a new data visualization tool that will help our team gather even more data about the local candidate market.

3.) The importance of hiring for quality and never, ever compromising that.  During his keynote speech, Jeff Weiner, LinkedIn’s CEO, made it clear how recruiting is the most important operating priority in any organization.  So, everything you do surrounds the quality of the talent pool.  Lou Adler, CEO of The Adler Group, also explained the importance of understanding your scarcity market to raise the bar for talent.  This means developing a focused strategy to pursue passive candidates.

Q: What was the most important thing that you learned about technology recruiting?

A: The agility that is necessary to continue being successful.  The technology industry is, of course, constantly evolving and with it, a recruiting department must adjust as well.  It makes it that much more crucial to stay abreast of current recruiting trends so we are never, ever complacent and continue to have an edge in this competitive market.

Q: What was your favorite session that you attended?

A: Laszlo Bock, the Senior Vice President of People Operations at Google, delivered a keynote speech titled “The Best Recruiter at Google.” He discussed the recruiting team’s structured, scientific method-like selection process and how they attract the best talent, especially in tandem with Google’s managers and leaders.  So his entire presentation hinged on the fact that their best recruiter isn’t necessarily a member of the recruiting team but is Alan Eustance, their Senior Vice President of Engineering and Research.  Laszlo explained that Alan has brought hundreds of people into the organization by showing how that respective job could create true meaning in their lives.

Q: What was the most surprising thing you heard at the event?

A: I was astounded by the number of recruiting professionals that worked for start-up technology companies located all over the country.  It speaks to the value and overall health of our industry.

Q: What are you most looking forward to bringing back to your work at Force 3?

A: We have a standout leadership and management team that does an amazing job partnering with our recruiting team to make talent identification a top priority.  So we are eager to share all of the knowledge we soaked up to even better engage with them.

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A Note from the CEO

A Note From the CEO- October 2014

As a government contractor, September is always a whirlwind month for Force 3. October is often a time to breathe and reflect on the past year.

Past Performance

2014 has been a phenomenal year for Force 3. We have seen a lot of hard work and effort pay off. In many of our core business practices, we hit record highs and blew right past the original budgets and forecasts. Those numbers are hugely important as an indicator of how well we are implementing our strategic plan.

Strategic Plan

During the fourth quarter, we will dive deep into the planning process for next year and beyond. This week, we held off-site meetings with our leadership team and directors to put the finishing touches on our strategy.

With this fresh in our minds, we will also focus on preparing the strategic plan to share with the entire team at our annual Corporate Kickoff in January. As part of the overarching vision for Force 3 to become the network security company, this plan will include continued investment in key differentiators, including our maintenance and service desk, to include unique services.

We’ll also be working to further develop thought leadership and innovation in next-generation technology. This will help position Force 3 to take advantage of opportunities made possible by new software-defined technologies.

Communication

Communicating this plan and these goals will be key to our ability to achieve them. Throughout Q4, we will also come together as teams to make sure that everyone has a clear vision of the future at Force 3 and their role in it, and how to share that with customers, partners and peers.

I’m proud of what we’ve accomplished together this year. With the remaining few months in 2014, I look forward to the opportunity to lay out our plans for even more success in 2015.

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Cybersecurity for Small & Medium-Sized Businesses and Entrepreneurs

Did you know that October is National Cyber Security Awareness Month?

Sponsored by the Department of Homeland Security in cooperation with the National Cyber Security Alliance and the Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center, this week we are paying special attention to Cybersecurity for Small and Medium-Sized Businesses and Entrepreneurs.

We’ve seen the biggest of corporations fall prey to cyber criminals time and time again. Target, Home Depot…the list of sophisticated businesses with plenty of resources who have experienced significant cybersecurity breaches goes on.

So how can the nation’s small businesses, with significantly fewer resources, manage to protect themselves from a similar fate?

Especially for small business owners and entrepreneurs, who are busy running their business, cybersecurity can be a huge challenge.

Greg Kushto, Force 3’s Director, Security Practice, says that implementing a vulnerability management system and a next-generation firewall are two of the easiest things that small businesses can do to protect their organization, customers and employees.

You don’t have to be a technology geek or security expert to implement these solutions, either. Vulnerability management systems will help you automatically update your equipment with necessary patches. Considering that computers that are not up to date on needed patches is one of the major ways that bad things happen, this type of solution is a no-brainer for small businesses.

You might also consider an all-in-one solution that includes a next-generation firewall to protect the edge of your network. Either way, the combination of the two is the easiest way to offer your business strong cybersecurity protection without investing a lot of time or resources.

Celebrate Cybersecurity Awareness Month by taking a close look at your small business—what can you do to better protect your company’s most important data?

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The Dreamforce Experience: From Force 3's Erin Boensch

Last week, Force 3’s Director of Information Technology, Erin Boensch, attended Dreamforce, the world’s largest software and cloud computing event. Hosted by Salesforce.com, the event was held in San Francisco and attended by such big names as Hillary Clinton and Al Gore.

With her focus on the ERP side of things, Erin spent much of her time at the Financial Force events. On Wednesday, she was a featured speaker at the panel discussion “Putting the Customer at the Center of Your Business Applications Strategy—even ERP.”

When she got back to the Force 3 office, we caught up with her to hear about the experience.

Q: This was your first Dreamforce experience. What did you think?

A: I thought it was great! The opportunity to meet with other users, hear about their experiences, learn from their challenges and successes and get ideas from them on how to make things better was irreplaceable.

I also enjoyed learning about the HR side of Financial Force. Their module for human capital management was new to me, as was their rebate management tool. I can see a lot of potential for incorporating these types of technologies into Force 3’s current systems to continue to improve our processes. There are a lot of exciting things happening that I think we will be able to take advantage of and pass along to our customers.

I also really enjoyed the opportunity to meet directly with the team at Financial Force and share feedback. I was able to let them know some of the challenges we had run into with our implementation and they had a lot of suggestions. It was a very positive meeting and we look forward to having them come visit us at Force 3 soon!

Q: How did your panel discussion go?

A: It went really well. We had a great crowd who was highly engaged.  I was excited to be able to provide really tactical evidence of how Force 3 was able to make improvements by utilizing the Financial Force system. During the Q&A session following the panel, the audience was very curious about exactly how were able to do a complete overhaul of our system in 7 months. They wanted to know how we got it to work, how long it took to implement, and how we overcame the challenge of user adoption.

Q: Speaking of, how did you overcome that challenge?

A: User adoption is always a challenge with a new system. People don’t like change. But in this case, it was truly about the users experiencing the benefits of the system. Having everything about a contact’s record in one place solved so many other challenges for us that people were quick to get on board. The fact that we were able to pull it off really speaks to how flexible the system is.

Q: What’s next?

A: With everything I learned at Dreamforce, I’m even more excited to take on Phase 2 of our ERP implementation. We’ve gotten over the hurdle, and now I look forward to making things better, refining things and leveraging the overall flexibility of the system. It’s a bright future!

Thanks Erin!

[force32015-blog]

Force 3 Names Steve Scribner as New CFO

Force 3, delivering the best in federal security, collaboration, next-generation networking, and support solutions, today announced Steve Scribner as their new Chief Financial Officer.

Scribner joined Force 3 in 2012 as Vice President of Accounting and Finance with more than 13 years of experience overseeing the finance, accounting and tax functions of high technology and software companies. Having led multiple organizations from the start-up phase through acquisitions, capital raises, initial public offerings and strategic sales, Scribner has built a reputation for helping businesses to build shareholder value.

Most recently, Scribner served as the Vice President and Chief Financial Officer for Cummins-Wagner, an industrial engineering firm based in Annapolis Junction. During his brief tenure there, he led the company through an acquisition while rebuilding the finance team.

When the opportunity to return to Force 3 presented itself, “it was one I couldn’t pass up,” said Scribner. “Force 3 is a great company, and I’m encouraged to have the opportunity to work with and for our CEO, Mike Greaney, again. We have forged a very strong relationship. I look forward to contributing to the execution of the strategic plan we’ve developed to take Force 3 to the next level.”

“We’re thrilled to have Steve rejoin Force 3 as Chief Financial Officer,” said Greaney. “His unique experience and expertise in the technology industry will be invaluable to our business. We look forward to working together to position Force 3 for continued success.”

In his new role as CFO, Scribner is responsible for the company’s overall financial strategy, including all accounting operations and internal and external reporting.

About Force 3 Force 3 is the network security company. For over two decades, Force 3 has securely delivered and supported Security, Collaboration, Wireless, Virtualization, Next Generation Networking and IT Support solutions for Federal agencies. With headquarters in Crofton, Md. and offices in Herndon, Va., Force 3 has a relentless focus on customer success through innovation, unique solutions and highly trained, passionate people. Our dedication and commitment has earned the highest accolades from customers and partners, including Cisco, Citrix, EMC and VMware. For more information, please visit http://www.force3.com.

See the full article on PRweb here: http://www.prweb.com/releases/2014/10/prweb12266219.htm

[force32015-blog]

Force 3 at LinkedIn Talent Connect this Week

Talent Acquisition Specialist Susie Landgren and Director of Recruiting Joanne Johnson arrive at Talent Connect in San Francisco.

This week, Force 3’s talent acquisition team is excited to attend LinkedIn’s Talent Connect conference in San Francisco!

Hosted by LinkedIn, the premier business-oriented social networking service, Talent Connect is one of the largest annual conferences led by and designed for talent acquisition leaders and their teams.

At Force 3, we firmly believe that our team and our people are our most important assets. We’re always working to strengthen our team and its members, which is why we’re so excited to attend Talent Connect this week.

We are especially looking forward to learning from experts about new, fresh trends, such as mobile recruitment, reporting and metrics, and continuing to grow Force 3’s talent brand.

Keep up with us at the event on social media with the hashtag #intalent and check back on the blog later this week for more on our experience!

[force32015-blog]

A Note From the CEO

A Note from the CEO

September 19, 2014

Busy Season is an Understatement

September at Force 3 is a busy, exciting time. The energy in our offices right now is high. As the federal government’s fiscal year comes to a close on September 30, we are in top gear, working to meet the needs of our federal customers.

Because of the government’s acquisition cycle, there is a tremendous amount of business that must be transacted this month. This month is the culmination of a lot of work over the course of the past fiscal year, and in some cases, our team is working on deals that may have started last year, or even a few government fiscal years past.

For Force 3, that means all hands on deck. As CEO, I’m excited to see everyone working together, across departments, really ramped up about helping our customers achieve their mission.

From the technology side, it is also exciting to see growth in federal spending on security, an area in which we have also been placing a strong focus, as well as a strong uptick in collaboration. We are also seeing growth in the area of technology services and are thrilled to be in a position to meet the needs of customers with our SupportPlus offerings.

Work Hard, Play Hard

Of course, with so much business being transacted this month, it can also be a stressful time. Our team is working long hours, interacting with customers, manufacturers and each other.

To keep everyone motivated, we like to get competitive. During the month of September, we have internal competitions tied to performance goals and metrics, but also to our charitable work, including a huge Pantry Pack contest that helps to feed hungry children in our community.

With everyone working hard and closely together, there is a real buzz around busy season that our team looks forward to. During the last week of September, we all gather together for meals, whether it’s bringing dinner in from a favorite local restaurant or cooking out in the parking lot. Not to mention the espresso bar in the lunch room or the fridge full of Red Bull—those usually help keep people energized, too.

September 30th is inevitably a very busy day, and we’ll work all day and into the evening, right alongside our customers. When the work in done, we’ll come together as a team for a celebration of all we’ve accomplished together. There’s dinner, a party, and even a talent show before we get back to work and begin planning for next year.

For Force 3 and other organizations that serve the federal government, September is a kind of bellwether for the performance year you’re going to have. This month is really a milestone for determining our performance for the year. When we have a really strong September, we know that we’ve had a great year because we played a very important part in helping our government customers achieve their mission. And that is the best part.

[force32015-blog]

Q&A: Kyle Shackett Attends VMworld 2014

Q&A: Kyle Shackett Attends VMworld 2014

Last month, Force 3′s Solution Architect, Kyle Shackett, packed up and headed out to San Francisco for VMworld 2014; the industry’s largest global conference for virtualization and cloud computing.

We caught up with him upon his return to get his take on the big event.

Q: How did you prepare for VMworld?

A: This was my first VMworld experience. About a month ago, I attended a technology advisory board for VMware partners, going in and looking at their portfolio. About a week later, VMware’s Horizon 6 Suite was released. So I was really excited to learn more detailed and in-depth information about the end user technology. I also knew I wanted to learn more about new technology like EVO:RAIL. As I was choosing the classes, courses and breakouts to attend at VMworld, I focused on the ones that would offer me insight on those topics.

Q: What were the hot topics everyone was talking about at VMworld? What were people most excited about?

A: There was a lot of discussion and excitement around VSAN, or Virtual SAN, VMware’s software-defined storage solution designed for vSphere environments. What is so exciting about the new VSAN is that it enables storage clustering for customers without buying an expensive storage array.

The other thing that people were really excited about was VMware NSX, the network virtualization and security platform for software-defined data centers.

Q: What is the most interesting thing that you personally experienced at VMworld?

A: A lot of industry conferences are more about marketing the technology, and letting the world know what is coming out. VMworld is very technical, with the hands-on labs and certification training sessions that are available. It is great for engineers like myself who want to go there and learn—that is exactly what I wanted to do and what I feel like I got out of it. The only issue is that there is so much training and not enough time to take advantage of it all!

Q: What is the biggest or most important thing that you learned at VMworld 2014?

A: All of the details about the Horizon 6; the new things that are out now with the View suite. It was also great to learn about the AirWatch security application for mobile devices, and to dive deeper into how Workspace performs in VDI environments.

Q: What were you most looking forward to bringing back to Force 3 and their customers?

A: I think that VSAN is one of the things that could really benefit our customers, especially smaller businesses or organizations with tighter budgets. They might have the requirement for virtualization and virtual desktops, but often when customers ask for that, they end up not being able to do it because of the cost of the storage. VSAN might enable some smaller, unique environments to take advantage of virtualization without the huge storage expense. I’ll be really interested to see the interest in and adoption of VSAN and EVO:RAIL as we move forward.

Thanks, Kyle!