While most of our fellow CXtec-ers were enjoying the beautiful Central New York spring weather (aka April snow storm), some of us were able to make the trip to sunny Tampa, Florida for a customer event. We spent the afternoon at the Tampa Bay Times Forum, where we held half-day educational sessions on IT topics including “Stretching Your Budget and IT Asset Disposition” and “The Value in Exceeding the Standards for TIA-942 Optical Cabling Infrastructure.”

Afterward, we held a networking reception where we watched the Tampa Bay Lightning play the Florida Panthers from the North Party Suite. After an intense game resulting in overtime and a final shootout, we feel that everyone walked away winning (despite the Lightning loss). We were happy to be able to spend some time with our customers and discuss some of the IT topics and issues they are dealing with on a daily basis.

Some photos from the event can be found below.

CXtec Vice President, Frank Kobuszewski, presenting on Stretching Your Budget & IT Asset Disposition

View of the ice from the North Party Suite

Thank you to all who came out to join us!

This week we had the opportunity to leave our snowy home in Syracuse, NY and head down to Atlanta, GA to meet with some of our customers for some learning and fun. We held afternoon educational sessions on a number of topics, including “Stretching Your Budget and IT Asset Disposition,” “The Value in Exceeding the Standards for TIA-942 Optical Cabling Infrastructure,” and “The Brocade Difference.”

After our afternoon of learning, we headed to the Heineken Lounge in Philips Arena, where we watched the Atlanta Hawks vs. Toronto Raptors NBA game! It was great hearing from our customers about the IT and data center issues and trends they are experiencing in their organizations. The Hawks were also able to come out with a nail-biting 93-92 win over the Raptors!

Some photos from our event are included below. Thank you to all our customers who braved the weather (tornado warnings!) to join us on Wednesday.

View of the court from the Heineken Lounge

The CXtec Team

Our data center infrastructure architects, Dave and Rick, with the Atlanta Hawks cheerleaders

 Be sure teep in touch with us to see if CXtec is coming to a city near you soon!

This week we had a customer event at Dallas Cowboys stadium where we held three educational sessions and then went on tours of the stadium – something not many get to experience! No matter which NFL team we cheer for, we all learned a lot and had a fun time doing it.

The first session of the day focused on potential strategies for making the most of your IT budget, including using pre-owned equipment when it makes sense for your business. In this session, we also learned various options for responsible IT asset disposition and e-waste management.

Next, we heard best practices for data center cabling infrastructure, equipment and cabling design to future-proof the high-speed data center at speeds of up to 100 Gigabit Ethernet and beyond – all while increasing efficiency, reliability and performance.

CABLExpress Senior Data Center Infrastructure Architect, Rick Dallmann, discussing the value of exceeding the standards for TIA-942 optical cabling infrastructure.

Lastly, our friends at Brocade discussed how to build dynamic, manageable networks through non-stop networking, application optimization and investment protection.

Some of the CXtec team and our customers at the stadium

We all had a great time. After all, what could be a better combination than IT and football?

Another successful NY Tech Summit has come and gone! We’d like to thank our fellow sponsors, speakers and attendees for making it such a great event. We had a great time at our booth with our “Hoop it up!” basketball game and equal2new challenge.

Couldn’t make it this year? Here’s what you missed:

• Keynote speaker Scott McKain, international business leader and author, spoke to the audience about delivering effective customer service in the IT field.
• More than 25 vendors exhibited on the trade show floor to talk about data center, networking and voice solutions and conduct product demonstrations.
• Attendees went to course sessions on Cloud and Virtualization; Data Center and Network Infrastructure; Unified Communications, Collaboration and Video; and Security, Compliance and Business Continuance.
• Industry experts in the healthcare, manufacturing, financial services and education verticals hosted extended round tables to discuss the issues affecting IT pros working in those fields.

Plus, we can’t deny that Turning Stone Resort & Casino amenities were great – any event where the cocktail hour includes a raw bar can’t be beat! We hope you’ll join us next year at NY Tech Summit – mark your calendar for June 20 – 21, 2013!

Our friends at CABLExpress are holding a contest where you could win a pizza party for your team!

You’ve put effort, time and energy into your data center infrastructure. Sometimes you may have wanted to tear your hair out trying to meet industry standards and make use of every inch of valuable space.

Now is your time to enjoy the fruits of your labor! All you have to do is send CABLExpress a picture of your cabling infrastructure to receive a “Layer One Hero” AND be entered to win a pizza party for your team!

Visit http://www.cablexpress.com/land/do-you-respect-layer-one/ to learn more!