Business Profile — Computer technology services have come a long way since the days when users called for help when something went wrong and paid technicians an hourly fee. Mike Limotta, owner of Limotta Internet Technologies, aptly refers to this type of service as the “break/fix model.”
The break/fix model evolved into cash retainers for on-call assistance, which morphed into monthly fees based upon services rendered.
Today, Internet technology (IT) invoices can include a laundry list of services that are mostly proactive, as opposed to those old-school fix-it strategies. “In a broad sense,” Limotta said, “our company strives to use technology to help a business or organization make or save money, and to make their operations more efficient and more productive.
“They pay us so they don’t have to worry about losing data,” he continues, “or about an interruption in their operations. And they know they’re doing all they can to use technology to lower the cost of operations.” Based in Solvang, Limotta IT serves clients as varied as prominent local wineries, Valley school districts, and local health care and hospitality businesses.
The company also maintains business relationships in Mexico, India and the United Kingdom. “We have historically serviced individuals only when they’re the principals of a business or non-profit,” Limotta explained, “as opposed to hanging our hat on residential home computer servicing.
“Since we incorporated in ’97,” he added, “we’ve had our hands in a bit of everything: web development, cabling, hardware and software investment.
We originally provided connectivity to businesses, and I bought an internet service provider in late ’99. “Over time, the technology changes,” he continued, “so we’ve become masters of a lot of different things. The trend over the last couple of years has been to managed services and virtualization.”
Limotta described managed services as an outsourcing of IT functions and said that businesses may choose to outsource all or a portion of their Internet technologies. All pay a flat, predictable monthly fee based upon the quantity and type of assets under management.
Limotta IT engineers evaluate an organization’s technology, including infrastructure and hardware, and perform a threat analysis to determine system vulnerabilities. Month after month, they keep servers, desktop computers, printers, network copiers, scanners, smartphones, PDAs and a variety of software running smoothly. All of Limotta IT engineers boast either a computer science degree or certification from Microsoft, VMware or other IT company.
They have what Limotta calls both “book and street smarts” and often an alphabet soup of acronyms after their names. An area into which Limotta IT has invested a good deal of time and money to capture a competitive edge is virtualization.
This process helps streamline business operations and removes the headache of maintaining a room full of hot, expensive, energy-guzzling equipment. “With the advent of virtualization,” Limotta explained, “we’re able to take the conventional physical environment of, say, four servers and twenty desktop computers, and consolidate it down to, for example, one physical server.
On top of that physical server are four unique, concurrently running virtual servers. “So, the organization still has a highly reliable resource,” he continued, “yet it requires less energy and maintenance. More importantly, because of virtualization, we can incorporate disaster recovery by making a secondary copy of their whole virtual server environment at a geographically separate location.”
Virtualization is possible because of a phenomenon called “cloud computing,” Internet-based computing that involves shared resources, software and information. “We’re helping businesses create private clouds,” Limotta said, “or access the public cloud through virtualization.
And we’re reducing the risk of the interruption of business at very little expense.” A self-described workaholic, Limotta relishes his role as a technology consultant. He graduated from California State College Northridge in the late 1980s, and then returned to complete a master’s degree in both international business and finance.
“My first love was finance, derivatives and trading,” he said, “and my second love was computing technology. After being in finance for about ten years, that segued into the IT arena.”
Around the time of the Northridge earthquake in 1994, Limotta and his wife, Sherri, boarded an Amtrak train and headed across the country in search of a friendly community in which to raise a family. When a job offer came through from a local investment management firm, they chose the Santa Ynez Valley.
With Sherri handling the books, the couple started Limotta IT in 1997 and opened their Solvang office in 2000. On Saturdays, Limotta sometimes brings his two sons with him to work, where they often tinker with discarded computers.
“The best part of my day,” Limotta admitted, “is having a client thank me for helping them save money or make money via information technology. We are not just technicians, we are not just certified engineers, we are truly IT management consultants. “Humility aside,” he laughed, “we feel we are the best for virtualization services, private and public cloud creation… all from little ole’ Solvang.”
INFORMATION: Limotta Internet Technologies is located at 320 Alisal Road, Ste. 101, Solvang. For information casll 693-0136 or visit limottit.com
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