Local Tri-county Non-Profit To Win Three Years of Free Private Cloud & IT Support With Communities’ Help
Nominations are being sought …
“2013 is upon us, charities are still experiencing tremendous financial strain due to reduced government grant and individual donor support during these challenging economic times, and this is one way we can give back to the communities that have helped our company to become successful,” CIO Solutions President Eric Egolf said. “We wish we could extend the free offer to every non-profit organization in the region, but unfortunately while we’re the Tri-County’s largest IT Management and Design Services company, we’re not that large. So we need to narrow our free service offer to one non-profit. Who better to determine which non-profit should win this free support than the communities who know them best?”
CIO Solutions’ free private cloud services will be a combination of the following – whatever is best suited for the winner: Hosted Exchange, Hosted Desktops, Dedicated Private Cloud Servers, and/or On-Premise IT Management.
“It’s a combination of services that we regularly provide to local businesses and non-profits at an average cost of up to $200,000 dollars over three years! So this offer is nothing to sneeze at,” Mr. Egolf explained. “Private Clouds back up and guard data better than current server technology. They cost less than most IT departments currently spend on hardware, software, server and computer maintenance. They use less energy, which saves on electric bills. They work faster. They’re more stable and reliable, providing more computer uptime. And they can be tailor-sized to fit almost any organization’s computing needs.
“We could easily choose a deserving non-profit that our staff personally likes or knows about, but that doesn’t seem fair as it limits the pool of possibilities. By having communities nominate and vote for their own favorites, we gain a deeper awareness of who might best deserve and benefit from this giveaway.”
CIO Solutions has set up an online nominating and voting process at www.ciosolutions.com/cloudgiveaway with Nominate, Vote and FAQs (most frequently asked questions) pages to support what is being called The CIO Solutions Tri-County Private Cloud Giveaway Contest. The nomination phase of the contest will end January 31, 2013.
When the nomination phase is finished, CIO Solutions will narrow the list to two non-profits from each county – Santa Barbara, Ventura and San Luis Obispo – and then ask communities to vote for one personal favorite. Voting will begin in early February and end February 28th.
“The list will be narrowed prior to voting based on the number of nominations per non-profit and using necessary, relevant IT criteria. Some non-profits might be too small to need this kind of help. Others may not have the necessary foundational technology to make it work. So we’ll need to vet the list of nominations before each community votes. However, the number of nominations per non-profit will definitely play a big role in the vetting process, so it’s important that everyone nominate an organization they like before they come back to the website to vote,” Mr. Egolf said.
When the voting is complete at the end of February, CIO Solutions will tally the votes and select a winner. The winner will be announced in March.
For more information, visit the website and/or call 805.692.6700. The company has also created a “test drive” page at www.testdrive.ciosolutions.com so that people can see what Private Clouds provide.