Who we are, in detail

How do you answer the question “So what do you do?”

Ah, the question that makes a person’s brain go record scratch and all you can get out is “Uhh..well, where do I start?” - because we all do so many things, right? When you own a business, do you simply say that you’re a business owner? What does your business do? Sometimes it feels like such a loaded question, one just doesn’t know where to begin.

For Dylan and I, we’ve spent our collective decades of experience in the IT industry answering that very question, and now, we’ve got it down to 5 words:

We solve business technology problems.

So what does that mean, exactly? There are many ways to solve problems in business, in fact, there are entire businesses created and devoted to solving business problems - and we’re one of them, but from a different approach.

You see, one of the biggest issues in the technology industry today is that many companies will sell a solution/app/widget with the claim “use this thing and you must have it because it will solve your problem”. Except, they don’t actually take the time to understand what your problem they’re claiming they can solve is. Thus, what we’ve ended up with is a lot of technology products, services, and companies out there existing to justify their own existence, and selling things to people that they don’t want. One of the results of that is that technology ends up creating more problems than it ever claimed to have solved, and hurting businesses as a whole.

Our approach is different - we’re not out here trying to sell you something you don’t want, because we think you should want it. We’re out here to solve problems, and line companies up with the right technology to solve them. The reality is, most business problems these days can be solved by technology - it’s just a matter of picking the right tool and having the right plan and process for the job.

That’s where we come in - we’re experts at working with companies to identify problems, meet them where they’re at, and come to them with solutions that are tailored to their business. Any  solution that we’d recommend we’d use ourselves (or already do). Further, our experience gives us the advantage of having seen nearly every kind of technical environment you can imagine. This gives us the unique toolkit required to find you the right solution. But how did we get here?

Dylan and I started our tech journeys in High School, under the tutelage of our Shopteacher-turned-SysAdmin , Lewy. In our small town, talent was at a premium, and our school sent him to learn everything about how to run a technology environment, and, inevitably, how to teach the next generation.

When the classes opened up, we signed up immediately (though a year apart, since Dylan was a grade ahead of me) - each undertaking approved Cisco Network Academy training (a college level set of courses) in High School. Of course, being a small school in a small town, this led to a sort of apprenticeship - we became his protege Systems Administrators.

We learned quickly, as problems came up and there were only so many of us and our group of friends became the sort of de-facto IT staff for the school. This entailed fixing every computer, software, and hardware problem in the school. Our on the job training had started, and we hadn’t even left high school yet. Lewy’s instruction gave us the foundation that allowed us to grow into the engineers we are today - we wouldn’t be here without his expertise, and his extreme patience with us hooligans.

After high school, Dylan and I both attended Alexandria Technical College, where we really sunk our teeth into Cisco Networking, Microsoft Systems Administration, project management, and larger scale IT environments and industry. It’s a solid school with incredible instructors, and very intelligent students. We forged bonds with friends there that still live on today - and many of those people have ended up in high level positions at Microsoft, Google, Cisco, just to name a few.

That’s where our paths temporarily diverged - Dylan moved south and I moved north - but we both continued our respective careers in our own ways. Dylan ended up at the Managed Services Provider that I would eventually find myself at, but I cut my teeth at Microsoft first as a vendor for CRM.

Eventually, though, Dylan convinced me to move to “the big city” and I left it all behind to work at this small Managed Services Provider that Dylan was at.

There, we spent the next several years providing IT services for every kind of client you can imagine. From the Mom and Pop shop to the Enterprise level, several thousand person company, we’d seen it all. I really mean that - we’d worked with over 100 different companies while at our first MSP (I’m probably under-exaggerating) - and we, with our impressive crack team of engineers, fixed everything you can think of. Dylan and I had different positions - he was (and absolutely still is) a gifted Network Engineer, and I started right at the bottom, at Tier 1 help desk support. This entailed fielding password resets and broken hard drives so that Dylan and the others could fix the bigger stuff and design infrastructure so no more problems could arise from the very interesting environments we found ourselves in.

Eventually, I worked my way up from that to being in the field, doing customer on-sites, becoming the de-facto account manager for our biggest client, and leading our helpdesk team as its manager. Meanwhile, Dylan built up an incredible network team that could architect  and solve anything, forging the engineers of tomorrow.

Additionally, I want to give praise to the rest of our team - we had great direct leadership, a couple of bosses we respect heavily to this day, and other engineers and technicians that we both learned a lot from. Honestly, the one thing we really miss from that job is the team. We wish them all very well (and they are all doing very well, many of them now industry leaders, because of course they were going to be).

However, all things must come to an end - and that end came from an acquisition. Our division was sold to another Managed Services Provider. Along with that went all of us, the engineers. The new company was and still is a great company - I really enjoyed working with them during the acquisition. Both Dylan and I were critical in helping to manage the acquisition as we transitioned clients and environments from our old company’s systems and methods to our new company. However I believe it was at this time that we both felt our time in the MSP space was coming to an end. During that time though, we resumed similar roles at our new company, and worked with hundreds of clients in many different but critical industries. Eventually however, it was time - and after a year or so, we left the new MSP within a couple months of each other, and took strikingly different paths.

Dylan went on to work at a very large healthcare provider, and I decided to backpack in Italy, and start my journey in business. Over time, I created and built a couple of small companies, and experienced my own victories and defeats in the world of small business, while Dylan went on to join one of our old clients we’d had from our MSP days that had outgrown the MSP space as their senior engineer in charge of architecture and security.

As time went on, as the pandemic struck and many things in our personal lives changed, we took a hard look at what we were doing separately, what we had done, and what we wanted to do in the future. We talked about what we liked in and about IT, what we didn’t like, what we were good at and what we weren’t, and finally, the state of technology in business today. After a lot of discussions (and one or two beers) we came to the conclusion that one of the biggest things missing in business tech are people who can help businesses understand technology today and where it’s going, and how it can help solve the business problems they have right now while still looking forward. Further, between the two of us, we realized that we’re in a really unique position to be of service to those businesses. Looking at our expertise, though we both have a bevy of different technology experience, Dylan went deeper into the network and security realm and I dove deeper into the business process and management side, culminating in a combination of expertise that is uniquely suited to holistically solving business technology problems.

Thus, we started Vespasian Technology LLC with a mission to go out there and help businesses with technology - finding them the right solutions for the right problems and planning for the future. One of the biggest things we learned from our MSP days is how often trying to shoehorn a baked solution into a problem just didn’t work - each company and each environment is different, and there are many ways to approach an issue. Just because one system works for one company, does not mean it’s the right fit for another, even if they are the same kind of company and the same kind of model.

As we say on our home page: Everything we do is based on the philosophy that technology should be helping you build your business, not be a cause for headache. We've worked with over 300 companies and technical environments over several decades to provide solutions using technology with an approach that is:"

• Adaptable

• Transparent

• Efficient/Cost Effective

• Clear and Concise

• Manageable

But what does that mean, exactly? Let’s break it down:

   Adaptable:

We’ve seen nearly everything, and we’re not married to any solution. We’re willing to work with whatever you have, and to find the solution to solve your problem. We’re not here to sell you something you don’t want - we’re here to help you solve your business problem first, by using the right tech to do it.

  Transparent:

In order to really and truly understand and solve your problem, we have to be completely transparent every step of the way. This means that we’re honest and clear about what solutions actually matter, what things cost, what our services are and are not, and the best approach to solving your problem. That might take the form of recommending a complete environment overhaul, it might mean a simple process change, or it might mean telling you that we’re just not the people for the job, but helping you find the people that are.

  Efficient/Cost Effective

One of the biggest things that we have harped on in the past and continue to do so to this day is process, process, and process. If you don’t have a system in place to do a thing, then the thing just doesn’t get done well. No matter what the situation is. As a result, we’ve got processes baked into nearly everything we do - we’ve just wired ourselves that way. This makes us not only efficient in our engineering, but it also helps you save money so you’re not wildly spending on services you don’t need. This will also save you time, and we all know time is money.

  Clear and Concise

We know your time is valuable, so we won’t waste it. Let’s get to the point, understand your problem and solve it, so you can do what you want to be doing.

  Manageable

Whatever we implement for you will be built with your budget in mind as well as “who’s going to run this day to day, week to week?”.  We don’t sell products, we build solutions with our customers and their needs in mind. 

That’s us - that’s Vespasian Technology. We’re out here to build technology solutions that last beyond us - that solve your immediate problems and the problems of tomorrow, so you can do what you want to do instead of having that technology headache. We can’t wait to work with you!

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Phew - that was a lot! If you’ve made it this far, thanks for reading. It means the world to us and we’re excited to help you with technology. 

We’re grateful for everything we’ve learned that’s enabled us to get here today, and we also want to extend a heartfelt thanks to everyone we’ve worked with over the years. We wouldn’t be half the engineers and businessmen without you.

Hope you’re all well, and are having a great day.

Thank you!

Dylan and Travis