Groupware Technology
Accelerating Data Center Innovation and Growth

Game-changing advances in how businesses consume data center resources, dramatic increases in network demands and the sheer number of solutions in the rapidly-changing market all make selecting the right solution quite tricky for CIOs. And as Cisco continues to grow its portfolio of data center offerings like Unified Computing System, Cisco Nexus and Application Centric Infrastructure (ACI), Groupware Technology is pushing the boundaries of data center innovation.

Groupware has established a mutually beneficial partnership with Cisco over the past decade and has been doubling down on its investment in Cisco over the past few years. They became an Authorized Technology Provider for ACI this year and has now set its sights on Gold Partnership. “It is a badge of honor to be a Cisco Certified Internetwork Expert (CCIE) and we have several CCIEs on staff. This helps us create trust within the community that we have the technical capabilities to support and architect Cisco solutions,” comments Mike Thompson, President and CEO, Groupware. In tandem with Cisco, Groupware is also investing heavily in expanding its Cisco-based offerings. “We noticed the synergies between our accomplishments and Cisco’s products,” adds Thompson. Groupware has developed its own turnkey private cloud solution called LIGHTHOUSE built on Cisco technology. Built for automation and rapid deployment, their scalable Microsoft Cloud Platform environment based on the FlexPod reference architecture delivers a secure, self-service platform for rapid resource provisioning.

“Our internal labs are our strongest value proposition and our biggest differentiator,” remarks Thompson. The firm vets out latest technologies and performs evaluations in its labs to ensure that a product functions as it is supposed to in an end-user’s environment and delivers expected results. Testing of products is just the tip of the iceberg—Groupware leverages its labs for a variety of things.“Best-of-breed technologies are actively running in our lab enabling us to post Proof of Concepts (PoC) and evaluate them,” states Thompson.

As a part of their integration services—Rack and Roll—Groupware incorporates specific technologies in a preconfigured rack built to the customer’s specifications which can then be rolled right into the data center. “Companies just have to plug it in and they are all set,” he adds. “Our labs allow us to deliver superior value to our customers by performing testing on their behalf.” From basic integration to customized rack solutions and asset management, Groupware’s team has the experience and knowledge to build the infrastructure specific to customer’s requirements.

Our labs are our strongest value proposition and our biggest differentiator

On numerous occasions, Groupware has helped customers make the right decision concerning their data center strategy. When a customer looking to perform a campus refresh reached out to Groupware, Thompson’s team stress-tested new technologies in their PoC/lab environment and replicated the infrastructure as closely as possible. “We validated if the design architecture that we put together leveraging Cisco technology would support the demands of the customer’s data center,” explains Thompson. This dramatically reduced the IT team’s risk and enabled them to make a conscious decision to move forward with Cisco’s solution based on the design validation and real-life workload performance.

At the end of the day, Groupware places extensive focus on customer satisfaction. “Customers define our value. It is our job as an organization to ensure that we are providing relevant solutions to our customers,” states Thompson. For the future, Thompson has expansion plans in the pipeline—they are on the verge of moving into a larger headquarters facility to accommodate growth. With double the capacity of their lab facilities and strategic investments in integration and cloud solutions, Groupware is primed to continue impacting the overall customer experience by building on the Cisco technology stack.