Cumulus Global Named to Inc. 500 List of Fastest Growing Companies

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Westborough, MA, August 20, 2014 — Cumulus Global, the innovative cloud solutions provider to small and midsize businesses, local governments, and K-12 schools announced today that it has been named to the 2014 Inc. 500|5000, an exclusive ranking of the fastest growing private companies in America. Landing at #349 overall, Cumulus Global was honored for its unique ability to help small and mid-size organizations gain more value from cloud computing and hosted IT solutions, including Google Apps for Business, Education, and Government. As a Google Apps Premier SMB Reseller, Cumulus Global offers a wide range of communication, collaboration, productivity, security, and compliance solutions, that leverage the security, accessibility, and scalability of cloud computing.

“We are incredibly honored to be recognized as part of the Inc. 500|5000,” stated Allen Falcon, Cumulus Global CEO. “Our rapid and continuing growth would not be possible without the efforts and dedication of our team, the support of our industry partners, and the earned trust of our customers.”

From 2010 to 2013, Cumulus Global grew by 1,350%, with sales surpassing $7.5 million in 2013. During this time, Cumulus Global grew its range of cloud computing and hosted IT services, expanded from its Boston-area headquarters with an office in New York, and added K-12 Education and local governments to the markets it serves. Cumulus Global is ranked 38th among ”IT Services” firms nationally and is ranked 11th among “Top Companies in Massachusetts”.

“Our mission is to help the organizations we serve attain greater value from their information technology and services by leveraging the benefits of cloud computing and hosted services,” added Falcon. “Our growth reflects our commitment to this mission, to building customer value.”

The 2014 Inc. 500|5000 is ranked according to percentage growth from 2010 through 2013. To qualify, companies must be independent, privately-owned businesses based in the United States that started generating revenue prior to March 31, 2010 with revenues exceeding $2 million in 2013.

2014 Inc. 500|5000 winners will be honored at the 33rd annual Inc. 500|5000 Conference and Awards Ceremony on October 15-17 in Phoenix, AZ. To see the full list of winners, please visit http://www.inc.com/inc5000/list/2014.

Cumulus Global Named to CRN Next-Gen 250 for Third Consecutive Year

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Annual List Highlights Up-and-Coming Solution Providers Embracing New Technologies in Unique Ways

Westborough, MA, August 14, 2014 – Cumulus Global announced today it has been named to the 2014 CRN Next-Gen 250 list for the third consecutive year. The annual list honors up-and-coming technology solution providers who have adapted their businesses in unique ways to meet market demands for emerging technologies such as unified communications, managed services, virtualization, and cloud computing.  These solution providers, each in business for less than 15 years, have embraced pressing market challenges in ways that clearly distinguish them as today’s trailblazers and tomorrow’s leaders.

Cumulus Global continues to innovate and adapt as demand for pragmatic and results-driven cloud computing solutions among small and mid-size businesses, in K-12 education, and for local governments.  The company’s CumuluSuite package goes beyond email, calendar, and collaboration to provide SMBs and local governments with managed cloud file and print services.  Optional virtual desktop (VDI) services integrate legacy line of business and accounting applications.

“We are honored by the continued recognition by CRN,” stated Allen Falcon, Cumulus Global’s CEO. “This would not be possible without our customers, who share their business drivers and needs with us, providing direction that leads to innovation and creative solutions.”

Cumulus Global expanded services for K-12 schools and districts from Google Apps for Education deployments and Chromebooks to include a range of solutions.  Play for Education, tablets, data security and compliance, and professional development are all part of the Cumulus Global’s Solutions for Education.

“IT is undergoing a transformation today, with new technologies, new delivery models and new demands being placed upon the integrators tasked with architecting the technology solutions businesses need,” said Robert Faletra, CEO of The Channel Company, publisher of CRN.  “The CRN Next-Gen 250 recognizes the up-and-comers among the solution provider community who have found innovative ways to address these business challenges and recognizes them as the next generation of leaders in the IT channel.  We are pleased to be able to honor the organizations named in this prestigious list, and CRN editors will be following their progress in the years to come.”

A sampling of the Next-Gen 250 list will be featured in the August issue of CRN, the top news source for solution providers and the IT channel, and will be available online at both www.crn.com and through the CRN Tech News App for iPad and Windows 8.

About The Channel Company

The Channel Company is the channel community’s trusted authority for growth and innovation, with established brands including CRN, XChange Events, IPED, and SharedVue. For more than three decades, we have leveraged our proven and leading-edge platforms to deliver prescriptive sales and marketing solutions for the technology channel. The Channel Company provides Communication, Recruitment, Engagement, Enablement, Demand Generation and Intelligence services to drive technology partnerships. Learn more at www.thechannelcompany.com.

Google Classroom is Here

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Google Classroom
This week, Google begins rolling out Google Classroom free of charge to Google Apps for Education domains.  Google Classroom offers teachers a basic, easy-to-use, system for creating and collecting assignments through Google Apps (yes, it is paperless!).

Google Classroom has features, including:

  • Automatically make document copies for each student
  • Create folders in Drive for each assignment
  • Let students track due dates on an Assignments page
  • Let teachers track student work and progress
  • Enable real-time feedback and grades

The rollout is happening over the next few weeks, so Google Apps for Education users should go to classroom.google.com within their domain to see if the service is active.

Click Here to learn more about Classroom

7 Reasons Outlook Users Learn to Love Gmail

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One hesitation that business leaders have when deciding to move to Google Apps is how their staff will react.  People can feel attached to Outlook, as it is likely the work email client they have know for years.

While many employees already use Gmail personally, they may hesitate when it comes to work email.

Share these 7 Reasons why Outlook users learn to love Gmail and help your users make the transition.

  • Filters. Gmail has a thorough automatic spam filter. Employees can also set up individual filters that will opt out, unsubscribe from, and label superfluous messages, as well as organize emails that help individual productivity.  Unlike in Outlook, filters are not “local” to any system; they work regardless of the device used to access Gmail.
  • Instant IM. Google maintains the user’s most recent email recipients on a chat list, which is on the same screen as the inbox. With one click, Gmail users can start secure IM chats or initiate Google Hangouts.  Hangouts gives instant access to voice and video conferencing between individuals and with groups of up to 15 people.
  • Priority inbox. Gmail predicts which emails are most important based on what your employees have read in the past or have selected as important. Employees can also flag emails with a star as they go through them, which helps identify which messages are most urgent.
  • Labels. Instead of organizing emails into just one folder, labels allow employees to tag emails that fit into more than one category.  Labels work with Filters and Search, from any device.
  • Search.  Google is good at search.  Gmail leverages Google’s outstanding search functionality, allowing users to find emails with a quick keyword search.  While Outlook requires you remember where you saved your emails or use the clumsy advanced search window, Gmail searches across all Labels automatically, or refine your search to one or more labels.
     
  • Performance. Gmail doesn’t have the service hiccups that Outlook often has. Outgoing emails are sent quickly, incoming emails appear instantaneously, and inbox management requires no waiting.
     
  • Mobile. Employees can easily check Gmail when they’re on the go! Gmail has a dedicated mobile app that makes email messages easy to access on Android devices and iPhones.

 

Cumulus Global in the News – 3Q14

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Cumulus Global is active in the cloud solution provider channel and markets.  Allen Falcon, our CEO, has been quoted several times recently in the trade and industry press.

Google Expands Video Offerings To Business Customers
CRN, July 30, 2014
Our View:  Businesses, schools, and other organizations will benefit from Hangouts becoming a core Google Apps service, covered under the Terms of Service and the Service Level Agreement.  The expanded features make it easier to use Hangouts for video conferences and web meetings, and to interact with others outside your organization.

Google Rattles Cages Of Amazon, Microsoft With 2TB Free Cloud Storage Offer
CRN, July 9, 2014
Our View: Google continues to pressure the industry to make and keep cloud services affordable for small and mid-size businesses.

Cumulus Global: Born In The Cloud And Legacy-Free
IT Best of Breed, July 9, 2014
Our View: We appreciate the recognition as a leader in value-add cloud and hosted solutions for SMBs and K-12 Education

Partner Spotlight – Cumulus Global
Bettercloud, July 2, 2014
Our View: Thank you for a nice profile that helps organizations understand what makes us tick.

Google Exec, Partners Criticize Microsoft Office 365 Price Hike
CRN, July 2, 2014
Our View: Microsoft is raising prices on its best customers days after two major outages. Overcharging for under-performance is not a key to success.

Cumulus Global CEO Named Strategic Cloud Advisor for NexGen Cloud Conference
Providence Journal, May 28, 2014
Our View: We are excited to be part of the NexGen Cloud Conference, helping further the cloud computing industry

MetroWest 10 To Watch 2014 – Allen Falcon, Cumulus Global 
Worcester Business Journal Online, May 19, 2014
Our View: We appreciate the recognition from our customers and peers.

Hangouts and Chromebox for Meetings Grow Up

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Based on customer and user feedback, Google announced today a set of major improvements for both Hangouts within Google Apps and Chromebox for Meetings.

Hangout Updates

  • Hangouts is now a core Google Apps for Business product, covered under the full Terms of Service that supports Gmail, Drive, Sites, and other core services.  This means that Hangouts are eligible for Google’s support, 99.9% uptime guarantee, and is ISO 270001, SSAE 16/ISAE 4302, and SOC-2 certified.
  • Google Apps account users can now include up to 15 full participants without creating a Google+ Profile.
  • New partners, like Blue Jeans, enable people on traditional video conferencing systems to join video meetings.

Chromebox for Meetings

  • You can now connect two displays to one Chromebox for Meetings device, so you can see your audience and your projected presentation/screen at the same time.
  • From the Google Apps Admin Console, IT admins can better manage meetings, including: remotely starting meetings, muting, and hanging up meetings.

You can learn more about these features on Google’s Official Enterprise Blog post.
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If you want to better understand how Hangouts and Chromebox for Meetings can help your business, please send us a note.
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5th of 5: Leadership and Google Apps in Your District

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Google EDU Globe At the NJ Google Apps for Education Summit this month, we had the opportunity to briefly present and discuss the role and impact of Google Apps in K-12 Education with administrators and leaders from several districts.  This post is the  5th of 5 on Leadership and Google Apps in Your District.

Google Apps is (also) for Business

Not surprisingly, schools looking at Google Apps for Education, Chromebooks, and Tablets with Play for Education focus intently on classroom computing.  In doing so, however, schools and districts often overlook that Google Apps works well for business … for administrative computing.  Some districts even elect to keep a separate email server for administrators while using Google Apps in the classroom. By size and scope, many school districts are comparable to the small and mid-size businesses we serve.  They also have many of the same needs, such as budgeting, human resources, team projects, and resource scheduling, just to name a few.

By adopting Google Apps as a business tool, district and school administrators can improve efficiency and effectiveness.  Here a just a few ideas of how administrators can use Google Apps:

  • Collaborative budget process with automatic roll-up from departments and/or facilities
  • File storage and sharing across departments and buildings
  • Individual, team, and project calendars
  • Intranet for HR with policies, procedures, and forms
  • Resource calendars to schedule use of conference rooms, speciality rooms, AV equipment, fields, vehicles, etc.
  • Public calendars for school and student events
  • Public web site with distributed content management
  • Video meetings, with screen/document, sharing for teams that span buildings or campuses
  • Survey and feedback forms
  • Interactive Wiki’s for proposing and obtaining feedback on curriculum changes
  • Accept and manage maintenance and facilities requests by email and/or web page, with shared inbox and dispatch for handling requests
  • Lesson planning library and collaborative, cross-team, lesson planning

While certainly not a comprehensive list, using Google Apps administratively offers many means to work more efficiently.  And, by adopting Google Apps for administrative computing, districts can further reduce their dependence and spending on servers, desktops, and other hardware.

 

Security Breach? There are Apps for That

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security-checkHere’s a Story …

Emily tells Dan about a cool app on her iPhone that helps her stay organized when she is out of the office.  Dan looks it up and downloads it to his Android phone.  The App is cheap and has great reviews.  When Dan installs the app, he gets a screen about permissions with only a few items listed.  He scans the list.  Dan is not a techie and the list seems reasonable; he clicks “Allow” and the installation finishes.  Dan uses the app and is happy.  Over the next few weeks, Dan has trouble finding docs he saved in Google Drive.  Some were uploaded Word and PDF files, while others were created in Google Docs and Sheets. Asking IT for help, they find some documents in the trash, others appear gone for ever.

Here’s the Lesson …

When Dan installed his cool new app, he granted the app full access to the content of his Google Drive account and to other content in Google Apps.  The app had a bug (we do not want to assume malice) that set all of Dan’s files to public on a periodic basis.

Third party applications, including mobile apps, create a security and privacy risk for your Google Apps environment.

Here’s the Offer …

Partnering with CloudLock, we will conduct a Google Apps Security Health Check for your Google Apps for Business or Government Domain.  Normally costing $1,000 to $5,000 (or more!), through September 30, 2014, we will perform the check for $300 (or less!).

Please click here for more information or to request your Google Apps Security Health Check.
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4th of 5: Leadership and Google Apps in Your District

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Google EDU Globe
At the NJ Google Apps for Education Summit this month, we had the opportunity to briefly present and discuss the role and impact of Google Apps in K-12 Education with administrators and leaders from several districts.  This post is the  4th of 5 on Leadership and Google Apps in Your District.

Build Skills with Expectations and Milestones

Within any organization, some people enjoy change … pushing the envelope and are comfortable with technology. Some are comfortable with change and/or technology if others show them the way. Some are uncomfortable with change and/or technology, or lack the confidence to adapt and move forward.  These differences are common, natural, and expected human behavior.

In an educational setting, however, these personal differences can lead to radically different educational experiences and opportunities for students.

Working with hundreds of schools and districts across North America, we often see how professional development covering Google Apps, Chrome devices, tablets, and the myriad of apps and content available within the ecosystem are readily pursued and absorbed by those most comfortable with technology, change, and emerging methods for facilitating learning.  And, while it is exciting to see the enthusiasm and creativity, it is also clear that the many educators will “wait, see, and follow”, and others will simply avoid the opportunity.

If schools want the technology, flexible online content, apps, resources, games, and teaching methods to have a meaningful impact, they must be put to use across the system and not just within select classrooms.

The ability to use devices, apps, content, and related methods in the classroom must become a core skill on par subject matter knowledge and other key teaching and facilitation skills. 

Without these skills, disparities will increase and technology programs — particularly 1:1 programs — will fail to obtain their educational objectives.  To avoid these pitfalls, we recommend that faculty and administrators work cooperatively to:

  • Define a baseline skill set for teachers covering in-class technology use and integration, along with time frames by which all staff should be at these skill levels.
  • Create a program for obtaining baseline skill sets with methods to match faculty member’s learning style (classroom/workshop, self-paced, etc.).
  • Identify, secure, and commit funding and time to enable completion of the program.
  • Create a process for experimentation, measuring results, and and identifying best practices.
  • Create a means to share best-practices and to provide cross-training among faculty and staff. Include a process to encourage or require adoption of best practices across the school by grade level and/or subject.
  • Provide teachers with budgets for purchasing or renting tools, apps, and/or content in line with curricula standards and lesson plans.
  • Define professional development standards and expectations that relate specifically to use of technology, apps, content, and related methods in the classroom, along with time frames by which all staff should be integrating these capabilities in their lesson plans, curricula, and classroom activities.
  • As with basic skills training, create a professional development program that provides the time, money, and other resources necessary for faculty and staff to succeed.
  • Actively track best practices and emerging standards related to technology in the classroom.  Evaluate, experiment, and adopt as appropriate.

Adding skills related to technology and related content and methods to expectations for teacher qualifications and performance is no easy task.  For many districts, this effort may become a contractual issue as well as a professional development program.  Regardless, of the effort, ensuring that all teachers have the skills, resources, and confidence to leverage the new generation of technology-enabled resources is critical to successful educational outcomes.

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If you are interested in a professional development assessment covering Google Apps, Chromebooks, and/or Play for Education tablets, please contact us.