GSA Technology Council

“We are honored to be recognized among America’s fastest growing companies,” stated EDTS president and CEO, Charles Johnson. “This award and recognition personifies the dedication and hard work of our entire team, and celebrates the successful partnerships that we have with our clients.”

The 2010 Inc. 5000 list measures revenue growth from 2006 through 2009. To qualify, companies must be U.S. based and privately held, independent – not subsidiaries or divisions of other companies, and have had at least $100,000 in revenue in 2006, and $2 million in 2009.  The magazine surveys private America’s independent businesses to take a comprehensive look at a critical part of the economy.  The companies vary in what they do, including digital media companies, retailers, food and beverage companies, and software and telecommunications businesses.

“Even with a difficult economy overall, EDTS has continued to thrive and experience tremendous growth,” added Johnson. “We believe that our success is attributable to an unwavering commitment to excellence in providing clients with comprehensive information technology solutions, responsive and attentive service, and assisting them in growing their market share and profitability by lowering costs and empowering them to focus on what they do best.”

Founded in 1999, EDTS has grown to a staff of more than 25 professionals serving clients 24/7/365 across the Southeast from offices in Augusta, GA and Greenville, SC.  A full service technology consulting firm, EDTS specializes in networking, security and managed services support solutions for businesses.  The firm provides customers with experience, dedication, leading-edge technology and comprehensive solutions to help customers increase productivity and reduce cost associated with information technology.

“For more than 30 years, Inc.’s list has served as evidence of the significant accomplishments of enterprises such as EDTS. And, more than ever, this year’s list is a testament to the creativity, resilience, and tenacity of America’s top entrepreneurs,” states Jane Berentson, Editor of Inc. magazine.  Over 27 million businesses are registered in the United States and thus eligible for consideration; past honorees have included Microsoft, Timberland, Visa, Intuit, Oracle, and Zappos.com.

via www.EDTSoultions.com

Investment expected to create more than 80 new jobs

The South Carolina Department of Commerce and Greenville Area Development Corporation announced that SAATI Americas Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Italy’s SAATI Group S.p.A., will establish its new US Composites and Protection division operations and certain distribution operations in Greenville County. SAATI’s investment is expected to generate more than 80 new jobs within the next few years.

The company has purchased and plans to immediately begin renovations to a formerly vacant 260,000 square foot facility, located at 201 Fairview Street Ext. in Fountain Inn, which was formerly owned by Kemet Electronics. Renovations will include extensive facility modifications and installation of new production and R&D equipment.

“SAATI is a global advanced textiles and engineered materials company that develops and manufactures materials for printing, micro-filtration, light-weight protective armor and structural advanced composite applications, and exactly the type of organization we want to attract to Greenville County,” said Jo Hackl, chairperson of the Greenville Area Development Corporation. “This announcement strengthens our position as a destination of choice for advanced materials manufacturers, and we are pleased to welcome them to Greenville County.”

via www.saati.com

This Thursday, August 26, 2010, Upstate Women in Technology will be getting together to discuss, Women in Leadership: How to Get Ahead, Stay Ahead and the Technology Role in Leadership. Nancy Eichstadt, President of The Carolina Leadership Group, LLC, will be presenting highlights from her 12 week program on Leadership for Women.

We’ll be taking technology calls live at noon today on the ETVRadio stations in South Carolina. Whether it’s digital photography, the iPhone 4, using wireless technology, or how to find a good home for your old laptop, you can give us a call.

WEDNESDAY, August 18, 2010

A live call-in hour on the Internet and related technologies. Eric Rodgers hosts Phil Yanov, executive director of the GSA Technology Council and blogger at Thinkhammer. Listeners can call in via the tollfree number 888-539-8859 to ask questions about using the Internet, computers, new digital devices, and related topics.

The program is Your Day and it is carried across the ETV Radio Network. That’s 90.1 FM in the Upstate beginning at Noon. (or listen to the live web steam.)

At tonight’s special edition of Tech After Five, the Knoxville Entrepreneurial Growth Group will be among the crowd. They’re visiting Greenville as part of their effort to learn from cities that are known for their vibrant entrepreneurial communities and to understand what helped create their success.

Don’t miss out! Registration closes at 2:30pm today.

The August 3, 2010 meeting of the SQL Servers Innovator’s Guild will present ’Visual Studio 2010 Database Projects: Top 7 features to make database development a breeze!’

In this session Rafael explains how you can use Visual Studio database projects  (aka data dude) to have better control over your database schema and reduce the risk and complexity related to the database development cycle. He will talk about the pros and cons he has experienced when using the tool in his  projects and will highlight improvements made since the last version. This is a demo packed session where you will learn about  schema versioning, testing, refactoring,  deployment and more.

Most the content of this session remains relevant to the previous version of the tool- VSDB 2008 GDR2 – and, no, you don’t need prior knowledge of Visual Studio to get the most out of this presentation!

Rafael Salas is a MCITP and MCTS with a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Engineering and a Masters in Information Technology . Currently, he is a Manager of Professional Services Consulting at Quaero, a CSG Solution where he provides technical  leadership and helps organizations improve performance through Customer Intelligence strategy and solutions.

Rafael is a Microsoft SQL Server MVP with more than 12 years of experience in data warehousing and business intelligence. He is a blog and article author, and is very active in SQL Server MSDN  forums. His specialties include Business Intelligence and data warehousing architecture, ETL, OLAP  and Dimensional Modeling. Rafael is a frequent speaker at community events such as  PASS SQL Saturdays, local users groups and code camps. You can find more about  Rafael on his blog:  www.rafael-salas.com

Please register here

6:00 – 6:30 Meal and Networking

6:30 – 6:40 Announcements

6:40 – 8:15 Rafael Salas: Visual Studio 2010 Database Projects: Top 7 features to make database development a breeze!

8:15 – 8:30 Closing remarks and give-a-ways

via SQL Server Innovators Guild

We’ll be taking technology calls live at noon today on the ETVRadio stations in South Carolina. Whether it’s digital photography, the iPhone 4, using wireless technology, or how to find a good home for your old laptop, you can give us a call.

WEDNESDAY, June 30, 2010

A live call-in hour on the Internet and related technologies. Eric Rodgers hosts Phil Yanov, executive director of the GSA Technology Council and blogger at Thinkhammer. Listeners can call in via the tollfree number 888-539-8859 to ask questions about using the Internet, computers, new digital devices, and related topics.

The program is Your Day and it is carried across the ETV Radio Network. That’s 90.1 FM in the Upstate beginning at Noon. (or listen to the live web steam.)

Verizon Wireless recently completed a comprehensive network upgrade that delivers expanded service in the Midlands of South Carolina. The result is 55 new cell towers into the already robust and industry-leading Verizon Wireless voice and data network in the Midlands. The addition of these new towers, a result of the Alltel purchase, means dramatically denser site coverage. For Verizon Wireless customers in Bethune, Bishopville, Blythewood, Camden, Cassatt, Cayce, Chapin, Columbia, Eastover, Gadsden, Gaston, Gilbert, Irmo, Leesville, Lexington, Little Mountain, Lugoff, Pelion, Sumter, West Columbia and Westville more cell towers mean a more expansive voice and data footprint, more coverage inside buildings, improved throughput speeds and stronger signals throughout the market.

“The best network continues to get better,” said Jerry Fountain, Verizon Wireless Carolinas Region President. “We are committed to continuing enhancements to our network so that our customers know they can depend on us every time they use their wireless devices. With the addition of these towers, we have achieved network enhancements in just one year that would have taken several years to complete through a typical build plan.”

To celebrate the expansion of the Verizon Wireless network, the following Verizon Wireless stores will host Network Appreciation Days June 25-27:
• Northeast Columbia – 10110 Two Notch Rd, Columbia, SC 29223
• Two Notch – 7007A Two Notch Rd, Columbia, SC 29223
• Columbiana – 173 Columbiana Cir, Columbia, SC 29212
• Lexington – 5596 Sunset Blvd, Lexington, SC 29072
• Sumter – 73 W Wesmark Blvd, Sumter, SC 29150

As customers continue to expand the way they use their devices, Verizon Wireless continues to stay ahead of their demand. “People are doing more with their phones these days,” said Fountain. “The skyrocketing popularity of applications, music and video downloads, web browsing, texting, emailing, calendar management and navigation tools utilizes a tremendous amount of wireless bandwidth. With this integration, combined with our annual capital investments over the past several years, we are ready for today’s traffic and the increases we anticipate tomorrow.”

In 2009 alone, Verizon Wireless invested nearly $87 million in South Carolina for improvements to their network, bringing the total investment in the state to $770 million since the company was formed in 2000. That investment, combined with the recent purchase and integration of the Alltel network assets, strategically positions Verizon Wireless’ network as the largest and most reliable for customers in the Columbia area, with seven times the 3G coverage of their closest competitor. “Our superior network is what makes it possible for customers to truly enjoy the features of their devices. Our focus on providing the best customer experience is largely driven by our network. We will continue investing to make the experience better every day,” said Fountain.

Beyond 3G: Verizon’s Investment in LTE

While recognizing the ongoing investment in its 3G network has been considerable throughout the state, Verizon Wireless is already looking beyond the most recent network expansion. Committed to continued improvements and advancements in wireless technology to ensure the best possible wireless experience for their customers, Verizon Wireless is already laying the groundwork to begin rolling out 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE) technology this year. LTE will offer significant benefits to Verizon Wireless customers, including:

• LTE will support faster download and upload rates enabling customers to run larger and more complex applications faster.
• LTE will operate in the 700 MHz spectrum, which provides better coverage and in-building penetration.
• Because of the increased data speeds and wider coverage, LTE will make mass deployment of machine-to-machine applications and devices possible.
• And, LTE is the global mobile communications standard chosen by a majority of the world’s leading carriers, which means greater opportunities for seamless roaming.
LTE is currently being tested in select markets and will be commercially available in select markets this year.

via: Verizon Wireless

Verizon Wireless, the company with the nation’s largest and most reliable wireless 3G network, and Motorola, Inc. (NYSE: MOT), a pioneer in the mobile industry, today unveiled DROID X by Motorola. DROID X does more with ultra high-speed Web browsing; a fast 1GHz processor; 3G Mobile HotSpot capabilities; loads of memory; intuitive social messaging; Adobe® Flash® Player 10.1 ready; and access to Android Market , which has more than 65,000 applications, along with a host of unique Verizon Wireless applications such as NFL Mobile, Skype mobile , V CAST Video, EA Need for Speed Shift and more.

“Nine months ago, we made a commitment to our customers to bring the openness of Android to the Verizon Wireless network,” said John Stratton, executive vice president and chief marketing officer for Verizon Wireless. “Since then, we have introduced the top-selling Android phone in the marketplace today – the DROID by Motorola. DROID X takes that commitment to another level with exclusive content, faster processing speeds, and, of course, the reliability of our network.”

Sanjay Jha, co-chief executive officer of Motorola and chief executive officer of Motorola Mobile Devices and Home business added, “Motorola designed DROID X to push the extreme limits of Android innovation, and enable you to do even more with your mobile device. We are breaking down barriers so that you can experience the Web the way it was meant to be and create, share and view content like never before, either in your hand or in your home. Enterprise users will also find DROID X appealing with features including push e-mail and live widgets for e-mail and calendar updates.”

DROID X gives customers a 4.3-inch high-resolution screen for viewing the latest movies and video from BLOCKBUSTER On Demand® presented by V CAST Video, the newest addition to the Verizon Wireless V CAST application, which also includes access to favorite TV shows. The DROID X video capabilities let customers capture spontaneous fun, combining a dual-flash, 8-megapixel camera, HD camcorder, as well as DLNA and HDMI connectivity to download, stream and share personal HD content.

DROID X customers will also receive Android 2.2 and Adobe Flash Player 10.1 with an over-the-air update in the latter half of the summer. With the update, the Flash Player will allow mobile users to experience hundreds of sites with rich applications and content inside the browser, including games, animations, rich Internet applications (RIAs), data presentations and visualizations, ecommerce, music, video, audio and more.

“It has been an exciting time for Android momentum and global consumer adoption since the announcement of DROID by Motorola nine months ago,” said Andy Rubin, vice president of engineering for Google. “There are 160,000 new Android-powered devices activated daily and Android Market has grown to over 65,000 applications. Plus later this summer, Verizon Wireless and Motorola will update all the DROID by Motorola phones to the latest 2.2 software. For customers, this means great new features and improved browser performance. For developers, this will provide new tools such as cloud-to-device messaging and enhanced enterprise functionality.”

“We are excited about full Flash support coming to the DROID X and other devices from Motorola,” said Shantanu Narayen, president and chief executive officer of Adobe. “Flash Player 10.1, which is one of Adobe’s most anticipated releases ever, has been redesigned from the ground up to deliver the kind of highly engaging experiences that consumers now expect from their mobile devices.”

Once updated to Android 2.2, business customers will find DROID X offers the features that turn the device into a workhorse with support for both Exchange and Gmail for business. Corporate users can enjoy push delivery of e-mail; live widgets that stream messages to the home screen; filter widgets to differentiate work and home e-mail; corporate directory and Global look-up along with a unified calendar for Enterprise and sync with Google Calendar . Security protocols allow remote password control and wipe via Exchange server.

Pricing and Availability
DROID X by Motorola will be available at www.verizonwireless.com and in Verizon Wireless Communications Stores beginning July 15 for $199.99 after a $100 mail-in rebate with a new two-year customer agreement. Customers will receive the mail-in rebate in the form of a debit card; upon receipt, customers may use the card as cash anywhere debit cards are accepted. In addition to subscribing to a Nationwide Talk plan or a Nationwide Talk & Text plan, customers will also need to subscribe to an Email and Web for Smartphone plan. Nationwide Talk plans begin at $39.99 monthly access. Email and Web for Smartphone plans start at $29.99 for unlimited monthly access.

Customers can add the optional 3G Mobile Hotspot service to their DROID X for $20 per month. The 3G Mobile Hotspot allows customers to turn the phone into a wireless modem for up to five compatible Wi-Fi devices. In addition, current Verizon Wireless customers who have contracts ending by December 31, 2010, can upgrade to any smartphone, including DROID X, without penalty.

For more information on DROID X by Motorola, go to http://phones.verizonwireless.com/droid/x/. For information about Verizon Wireless products and services, visit a Verizon Wireless Communications Store, call 1-800-2 JOIN IN or go to www.verizonwireless.com.

via: Verizon Wireless

Verizon Wireless announced today it has selected CETECOM as a laboratory to test devices for operation on the nationwide 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE) network that Verizon Wireless is building on the Upper 700 MHz C-Block spectrum. CETECOM will validate that the devices meet the minimal performance and conformance specifications necessary to operate on the Verizon Wireless LTE network.

Any organization considering offering devices on the upcoming Verizon Wireless LTE network will be able to work with CETECOM engineers. Additional details on when a device can be submitted for approval will be available at a later date.

Today’s announcement marks the first time the companies have worked together for device testing.

To learn more about CETECOM LTE testing services and test solutions, visit www.cetecom.com. Visit www.verizonwireless.com/lte for more information about Verizon Wireless’ 4G LTE wireless network.

via: Verizon Wireless