Celebrating 5 years delivering happy customers to happy cloud platforms

Celebrate good times, come on! Looks like we’ve hit a milestone here. SADA has had such a tremendous 2010, and really - a transformative last 5 years. Cloud computing has been making waves in the IT world and SADA is certainly riding the biggest waves.

In 2006, we were one of only 10 partners to join the Google Enterprise program in 2006. It all started with a random phone call from Google headquarters asking if we wanted to help bring people into the next generation of technology. And now, we are delivering businesses and organizations like Virgin America, the City of Los Angeles, Northwestern University, World Widlife Fund and more to Google Apps. Check out the Google Apps press release SADA issued in February 2007, as both the product and our partnership launched into the ecosystem - together, transforming IT as the world knows it forever.

In 2009, we dived headfirst into the Microsoft cloud. As a Microsoft partner for over a decade, it was an easy decision for us to get involved with the latest Microsoft business offering. With Office 365 rolling around in the coming months, it’s hard to imagine that we’ve already migrated over half a million mailboxes to BPOS (Business Productivity Office Suite) and Live@edu. With clients like LACCD, one of the country’s largest community college districts, PSOMAS Engineering and LRW, we anticipate a long and fruitful career providing Microsoft services and developing solutions like our award-winning Authentication Magic for Microsoft Online password sync tool.

As we look to the year ahead we are excited, pumped and hungry for the aggressive roadmap we have laid out before us. We are fortunate to be surrounded by the most open, channel-minded, and flexible organizations in the business that support our team and the unorthodox and clever ways that we deliver happy customers to happy cloud platforms!

Here's to another 5 years of the cloud!

SADA & Google Apps Success Story: Byrant School District

Large southern school district makes swift move to the cloud

Customer
The Bryant School District currently serves approximately 7,800 students in the city of Bryant, Arkansas and its surrounding communities. Bryant, AR is known as "a new town with a traditional all-American community" where "commercial retail has boomed." Bryant's population and community growth, low unemployment rates, and incredible community involvement recently earned the city a spot on CNN's Money Magazine Top 100 "Best Places to Live" in America. Bryant School District itself is comprised of ten individual schools: seven elementary schools, two middle schools, and 1 high schools where approximately 400-450 students graduate each year.

Partner
SADA Systems, Inc. (http://www.sadasystems.com) is a privately held information technology consulting, outsourcing, and development firm founded in 2000. SADA started as a Google partner for its search technology, and is proud to be one of the world's first 10 Google Apps partners, having participated in the Google Apps official launch campaign in February of 2007. SADA is highly experienced in Google Apps migration, implementation and deployment for the enterprise, education, non profit and government sector.

Challenge
Running a single sign-on environment in Google Apps prohibits users from being able to manage expiration of their Active Directory. With over 9000 email users, Bryant Schools was looking for a more efficient way to provision its users to Google Apps while retaining alignment between the new cloud platform and existing work flows.

Solutions
SADA Systems was engaged to develop a tool that allows a user to manage expiration of their passwords in a process that emulates related functionality of Active Directory. This tool enables SADA’s SSO solution to more closely reflect password-related account statuses and/or policies present in the current Active Directory.

In addition, SADA helped implement requests from Bryant Schools such as a custom branded SSO log-in page, password expiration notifications, easy change password links and automatic periodic user provisioning based on group membership.

Results
With the help of SADA’s custom user provisioning tools, Bryant Schools was able to migrate 9000 users to Google Apps in record time. Strong project management from both sides kept the migration and deployment on schedule. Tait Shrum, IT Director at Bryant School District says “[SADA’s] management team was great and their support team and programmers made this project a success... Thanks SADA!”

Bryant Schools was able to enhance their Google Apps experience with SADA’s Google Apps application such as the User Renamer for Google Apps and Authentication Magic for Google Apps (password sync solution). Shrum asked “how would we rename them when the time comes? How would we ease the strain on users by syncing passwords with our internal directory service?” As teachers get married, leave or retire, curriculum's and other important documents need to be preserved. The User Renamer allowed IT staff to quickly and easily change names so documents to be accessed with brand new user names. In contrast, Authentication Magic for Google Apps helped IT administrators manage user credentials, password changes and locks-outs by syncing Active Directory credentials to Google Apps.

SADA holds 6 of the world's first Certified Google Apps Deployment Specialists

SADA Systems today announced its Google Partner Certification status. SADA Systems is proud to have 6 of the world’s first Google Apps Certified Deployment Specialist out of the initial 100 beta testers for Google’s newly minted Partner Certification Program. Partners, individuals and Googlers all took part in the exclusive beta testing period.

Amongst the 6 SADA engineers who received the certification, 1 became the world’s FIRST Google Apps Certified Deployment Specialist. With a 100% pass rate for the team, SADA is expecting to grow its certified team in the coming months.

The Google Apps Deployment Specialist Certification covers key Google Apps fundamentals such as overall understanding of the product, networking/email fundamentals, directory service fundamentals, technical architecture of Google Apps, security, configurations and troubleshooting basics.

The Google Apps Deployment Specialist Certification ensures that SADA’s team of Google Apps deployment engineers has the required knowledge and skills necessary to execute the hands-on configuration, deployment, and migration of a > 500 seat Google Apps deployment. With over hundreds of Google Apps projects under our belt and over 2 million mailboxes migrated to the cloud, this certification will certainly help reiterate SADA's position as a leader in Google Apps services.

Google’s certification of SADA’s Google Apps deployment team adds to the company’s impressive list of recent accomplishments. In addition to the Google Apps Deployment Specialist Certification, SADA hold several Google Apps for Education Certified Trainer and Qualified Individual certifications.

“We are happy to have one of the largest teams of certified Google Apps Deployment Specialists in the world.” says SADA Systems CEO, Tony Safoian. “Google has increased the requirements of its partners to become certified which is a good thing for the industry. The Google certification of SADA gives confidence to our current customers and organizations interested in moving to the cloud that we deliver the highest level of service possible.”

About Google Partner SADA Systems, inc.
SADA Systems, Inc. (http://www.sadasystems.com) is a privately held information technology consulting, outsourcing, and development firm founded in 2000. SADA started as a Google partner for its search technology, and is proud to be one of the world's first 10 Google Apps partners, having participated in the Google Apps official launch campaign in February of 2007. SADA is highly experienced in Google Apps migration, implementation and deployment for the enterprise, education, non profit and government sector.

SADA & Google Apps Success Story: SSO for Acadiana Technical College

Customer
Acadiana Technical College (ATC) is comprised of seven separate campuses: Acadian, TH Harris, Teche Area, Lafayette, Charles B. Coreil, Evangeline and Gulf Area. ATC is a complex mix of challenging academics, hands-on career programs and unique opportunities that allow students to pursue interests both on and off campus. The college offers on-campus and online instruction of multiple vocational and technical courses . ATC focuses on delivering instructional programs which provide skilled employees for business and industry that contribute to the overall economic development and workforce needs of Louisiana.

Challenge
The college had previously been operating under one umbrella domain, but wanted to slowly transition to having Google Apps set up for each separate college domain. This required migrating email, contact and calendar data from the college’s old domain to seven separate new domains. Each migration required a custom SSO page with password sync capabilities similar to what was previously available.

Louisiana state dictates that educational institutions such as Acadiana Technical College must provide secure log-ins for faculty and staff. Acadiana Technical College required an SSO capable, custom log-in page that displayed the university’s logo and connected faculty and staff to the university’s other portals.

Solution
Acadiana Technical College had already been an existing SADA Systems hosted single sign-on customer. As a trusted vendor, the college network engaged SADA to deliver single-sign on capabilities for the Acadiana campuses. During the process, SADA focused on:
Deploying a hosted, custom-designed SSO page for new email which allowed users to log into Google Apps with the same credentials as the LDAP server.
Simplifying user management for administrators so all users can be fully managed from the existing LDAP based data system
Ensuring a secure and full encrypted communication channel between SADA’s hosted system and Acadiana’s servers.


Result
With only minimal help required from Acadiana’s IT resources, SADA was able to provide the entire solution from discovery to design, testing, and full deployment. Now, when someone attempts to access any Google Apps related links, they are directed to the custom log-in page with Acadiana’s logo and seal. Nothing is visible to the public without authentication.

SADA’s custom Google Apps password sync solution allows faculty and staff to use their mobile devices and IMAP/POP-based access with the same password they already use. With the rising increase of iPhone, Android, BlackBerry and other smart phone usage, the ability to sign in to school email via mobile devices has become invaluable to ATC faculty and staff.

“We have been using them for several years for our Google hosted Single Sign-On Services they have done a great jobs, so when we changed our college email SADA Systems was our choice.” praises Dale Thibodeaux.

About Google Apps Partner SADA Systems
SADA Systems, Inc. (http://www.sadasystems.com) is a privately held information technology consulting, outsourcing, and development firm founded in 2000. SADA started as a Google partner for its search technology, and is proud to be one of the world's first 10 Google Apps partners, having participated in the Google Apps official launch campaign in February of 2007. SADA is highly experienced in Google Apps migration, implementation and deployment for the enterprise, education, non profit and government sector.

SADA Systems to speak at Cloud Intelligence Technology Conference 2011

SADA is proud to sponsor the Cloud Intelligence Technology Conference. We are happy to team up with the good folks at QuickStart Intelligence to share our knowledge of the cloud computing space with Southern California companies who are looking into SaaS, IaaS, PaaS solutions to increase business productivity and work efficiency. Our very own Director of IT Services, Niv Dolgin, will be leading the discussion on the best time for companies to migrate to the cloud. The easy answer obviously is "NOW," but Niv will evaluate different scenarios leveraging experience with our past cloud migration projects (focusing on our BPOS and Live@edu experience and our outlook on Office 365) to paint a complete picture of the cloud platform migration and deployment process.

Interested in joining the discussion? The Cloud Intelligence Technology Conference will take place:

When: March 15, 2011

Where: Anaheim Convention Center

800 West Katella Avenie

Anaheim, CA

We hope to see you there!

SADA Systems speaking at Tradewatch 2011

SADA Systems is proud to have been invited to speak at the upcoming Tradewatch 2011 conference on February 17 at the Westin Long Beach Hotel this year. Tradewatch is presented by The Los Angeles Customs Brokers & Freight Forwarders Association and The Foreign Trade Association and focuses on highlighting those in trade industries.

Our very own Derek Lin, Sr. Project Manager at SADA, will be speaking at the panel 'Using Old Tools and Developing New Ones to Increase Your International Sales.' The panel will run from from 9:30 a.m. – 10:45 a.m. and will cover technology, the cloud and the sales process. This discussion will be sure to spark some lively debate.

If you are interested in seeing our guys speaks, please consider attending Tradewatch 2011. For more information regarding the conference and registration, please visit the Tradewatch 2011 official webpage.

SADA Systems and SecureAuth team up for a webinar about the cloud

Join Niv Dolgin, Director of IT Services at SADA, and Garret Grajek, Co-founder and CTO of SecureAuth Corporation, in a moderated, interactive discussion that covers both business and technology concerns. This joint webinar "The Cloud 2011 – Is There a Storm Brewing?", the first in a series of 4, will debut Thursday, February 24, 2011 10:00 AM to 10:30 AM PST. Register now for a chance to address:


Business Concerns

• Who’s moving to the cloud? Who isn’t, and why?
• How to determine the business value of moving applications to the cloud.
• How to determine which applications are a good fit for the cloud; which aren’t.
• Can we be in compliance with regulations and pass audits?

Technology Concerns

• Can we maintain control of access privileges for cloud applications?
• Do cloud applications increase the risk of attack on passwords?
• Does my staff have to manage even more passwords?
• How do we successfully roll out a cloud application within our company?

We hope to see you there!

SADA & Microsoft BPOS Proof of Concept Case Study: Den-Mat Holdings, LLC

Customer
Den-Mat is the leader in consumer and professional dental products. Launched in 1974, Den-Mat has been advancing the aesthetic dentistry career landscape by creating innovative breakthroughs in the science of cosmetic dentistry serving both patients and professionals alike. Den-Mat employs approximately 450 people around the United States and is headquartered in Santa Maria, California. The company owns or has exclusive licenses covering more than 100 patents.

Partner
SADA Systems, Inc. (www.sadasystems.com) is a privately held information technology consulting, outsourcing, and development firm founded in 2000. SADA is not only one ofMicrosoft's first Online Services partners, specializing in the Business Productivity Online Services (now Office 365) suite and migration and deployment services, but proud to be one (1) of only nine (9) Elite Cloud Accelerate Partners in the country. SADA has been a Microsoft Gold Partner since 2003 and has experience migrating over 2 million mailboxes to the cloud. SADA Systems is a Microsoft cloud services leader and has built a significant part of its business around the implementation of cloud computing solutions all around the world.

Business needs
While Den-Mat is widely recognized as a global cosmetic dentistry leader, their network infrastructure was not adequate for facilitating collaboration amongst its 450 nationwide office staff. Established in 1974 in a highly specialized field, many of Den-Mat’s employees were veteran Microsoft Office users with set methodologies. Den-Mat required that their solution be easy to use, have a high user adoption rate and aligned with existing work flows for a seamless but upgraded user experience.

Solution

In an effort to increase collaboration and productivity, Den-Mat reached out to SADA Systems to test out Microsoft Online (BPOS). In order to avoid a heavy change management process, SADA Systems was engaged to deliver a Proof of Concept (PoC) that focused supporting a more agile communication system while still providing full functionality and feedback of the suite. SADA systems worked to:

• Demonstrate how Microsoft Livemeeting and Office Communications Online can streamline communication processes and increase productivity while reduce the sales cycle.
• Train and consult administrators to facilitate transition to Microsoft Online (BPOS) and familiarize them with new administration consoles.
• Simplify existing workflows avoid unnecessary work (such as directory synchronization and data replication) with custom SADA Microsoft Online applications.

SADA’s Microsoft Online (BPOS) PoC includes:

• Comprehensive infrastructure assessment
• Set up BPOS accounts
• Blueprint of mail migration
• Heavy technical documentation and guidance of process to help streamline full BPOS deployment
• 1-on-1 admin consultation
• Validation and acceptance--SADA will work with your company’s POC stakeholders to collect their feedback, assess any compatibility concerns and discuss next steps.

Results
During Den-Mat’s Microsoft Online pilot, SADA was able to effectively enhance security and boost productivity. Den-Mat was able to enjoy a greater level of collaboration through the use of LiveMeeting. Thorough demonstrations of LiveMeeting’s video conferencing capabilities lead by SADA’s technical team in addition to web console and platform integration, the organization was able to embrace the new technology quickly.

AD Sync (Dir Sync) helped the company conserve IT resources. This tool synchronizes data in the on-premise Active Directory and sends it to the cloud. With this tool, Den-Mat was able to avoid the need to replicate data creating a seamless feel to the BPOS Suite.

Many of Den-Mat’s infrastructure processes were streamlined during the BPOS PoC. SADA assisted Den-Mat’s IT department with the criteria for fully evaluating a BPOS platform. Den-Mat was able to properly evaluate how BPOS complied with their needs.

Jonathan Green, Vice President of Information Technologies at DenMat, explains that “SADA was one of the BEST companies I have had the pleasure of working with. Their communication, understanding, delivery and follow up have been second to none.” He looks forward to working with SADA again post-PoC. Green goes on to say that “While we ultimately needed to stay on premise for our BPOS needs, SADA’s work made the cloud environment easy to understand, integrate with and ultimately gave us a clear view of our needs.”

Interested in learning more about BPOS, Office 365 or other Microsoft Cloud products and services? Email mssales@sadasystems.com.

Tony Tortorice joins the SADA Systems Advisory Board

SADA is proud to have Tony Tortorice, the former CIO for the State of Washington, LA Unified School District, LA Community College District and Partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers, serving as an advisor on SADA's Advisory Board starting February of 2011.

Tortorice worked as the CIO of large government organizations 2001 to 2010, serving as senior IT executive for the State of Washington and member of the Governor’s Cabinet responsible for statewide IT strategy, policy and standards development working with state agency directors and their CIOs. Prior to the State of Washington, Tortorice headed the IT department at two of California's largest educational institutions the Los Angeles Unified School District and the Los Angeles Community College District. Prior to his work as a CIO, Tortorice was a partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers, where he led an IT audit and security practice for higher education clients.

“We are extremely pleased to have Tony Tortorice join our Advisory Board. His extensive experience and expertise leading IT in large organizations will provide invaluable perspective as we continue to grow. He knows the buying side having been a CIO, and he knows the delivery side, having been a partner at PwC - he brings forth the perfect perspective SADA can learn a lot from” said CEO Tony Safoian.

“I’m happy to be joining forces with the SADA Systems team, particularly given all that they have accomplished in cloud computing services to date and the ambitious roadmap ahead.” said Tortorice.

Here's to the future!