I.T. Link: Techno Savvy
by Michelle Troutman

I.T. Link literally keeps small businesses connected, installing and updating their data networks so their computers can "talk" to each other more effectively.

"We try to provide the most cost-effective solution for them," says President and owner Dan Doucette.

He opened an office in downtown Waterville earlier in 2011, after being in business for 12 years. In 2001, Doucette graduated from Andover College in Portland with an Associate degree in Computer Science. He worked for plumbing and heating distribution company Redlon & Johnson as a systems administrator for 10 years, later being promoted to manager/director of I.T. (Information Technology). On the side, he began doing I.T. work for other businesses.

For the most part, since then, he has been in business for himself. He is a Microsoft Certified Professional, and is working toward a Microsoft Certified System Administrator (MCSA) for Windows 2008 server certification.

The rest of I.T. Link consists of Stew Goss and Doucette's father, Bob. Goss also does computer networking, and Web design and programming. Bob handles the personal computer support side of the business, doing virus removal and repairs. Dan plans to hire another consultant sometime over the next year, and to grow their customer base.

Doucette finds the most challenging aspect of their work is "Trying to stay on top of the customer; a lot of the time we have to follow up, and get questions answered that weren't answered." He enjoys installing new technology, setting it up and testing it in a development environment.

I.T. Link's largest client is Tri-State Industrial Solutions in Pennsylvania; "I pretty much do work for them every day," says Doucette. He also travels to their location a few times a year.

Doucette's work for them has involved moving their old computer system to a newer, Windows-based software package, and installing a site-to-site Virtual Private Network (VPN), so their computers can communicate with all of their branch offices.

I.T. Link has also done work for Maine businesses. They recently redesigned Barrels Community Market's Web site. For Crown of Maine Organic Cooperative, one of Barrels' food distributors, I.T. Link installed a server to centralize their computer system and set-up a network using devices known as "thin clients," which are essentially computers connected to a central network server.

"When they need to replace a thin client, it's not going to be as hard as replacing a PC. They'll just plug in a new one. They'll also save money on energy."

Doucette looks ahead to future growth, through expansion into disaster recovery, a way to restore information quickly in case of a catastrophic event, such as a fire or a flood.

I.T. Link has done disaster recovery for Pine Tree Food Equipment, which services kitchen devices for chain grocery stores and restaurants. They copied the information on their server to an off-site location.

"It's sad, but most people don't pay much attention to that," says Doucette. "We've actually gone to the extent of setting up a disaster recovery location, like the owner's house; we're replicating their server to the off-site location, so if the building burns down, they'll have an up-to-date copy of their live environment, give or take a few minutes."

Another one of their focuses is on virtualization. "We want to help any small business that's interested in taking advantage of virtualization; if they have multiple servers, we can consolidate that and put it onto one server, cutting their energy costs, increasing performance," says Doucette. "Any server that we install for people, we'll set up as a virtual host. That way, in the future, they can add more machines to it."

"Hopefully, we'll be able to communicate with smaller businesses to try to turn them on to some of these newer technologies that we're implementing."

I.T. Link at 189 Main St. is open Monday through Friday, 7:30am to 4:30pm: 1-888-669-5654. www.itlinkmaine.com.

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