01 — Run
Make the everyday infrastructure boring
Networks, Wi-Fi, email, Microsoft 365, endpoints, backups, printing, and the documentation that keeps one problem from becoming five.
IT consulting · North Dakota
Straight answers for the technology your business runs on.
I help North Dakota businesses make sound IT decisions — networks, email, security, backups, vendors, and what AI actually means for a business your size — with every engagement scoped and priced before it starts.
Based in Valley City, North Dakota — working with businesses across Eastern North Dakota, on-site and remote.
Experience and perspective
- 30 years Across infrastructure, operations, and security
- CISSP Security depth when the consequences are high
- Valley City, ND North Dakota based; on-site and remote
- Independent An experienced perspective in the client's corner
The problem, plainly
Most small businesses don't have an IT problem. They have an IT-advice problem.
The person who set up your network sold you the network. The MSP's recommendation may come with a contract attached. Too often, there is no one in your corner whose only interest is telling you plainly what you need — and what you don't.
You do not need another sales pitch. You need one experienced person who can look across the whole environment, explain what matters, and put the work in a sensible order.
What I cover
Run it. Protect it. Make the next decision with your eyes open.
02 — Protect
Fit security to the business
MFA, phishing resistance, backups that actually restore, cyber-insurance readiness, and a plain account of the risks worth paying attention to.
03 — Grow
Put senior judgment behind the next move
Vendor evaluation, IT budgets, practical AI policy and adoption, and an experienced second set of eyes when the decision is bigger than your team.
These are not separate stacks. The network affects the backup, the account affects the breach, and the vendor decision affects all of it.
How engagements work
A clear path from uncertainty to the next decision.
Start with the situation
A working call to understand the decision, the risk, and what is getting in the way.
Bound the work
A written scope, price, deliverable, and clear line around what is — and is not — included.
Do the useful work
A health check, a scoped project, specialist work, or ongoing advice sized to the actual problem.
Leave with the next move
Plain findings, priorities, and ownership so the next decision is easier to make.
For regulated organizations
Holding regulated data? That work goes deeper — and it's where I specialize.
Encryption, key management, HSMs, private and on-premises AI, and assessments mapped to obligations such as CMMC, HIPAA, and GLBA. The specialist work remains a full part of the practice; it simply is not the only front door.
What I do
Start with the size of problem you actually have.
IT & Security Health Check
A fixed-fee look across the whole environment, followed by a prioritized plan: what matters now, what can wait, and what you can stop paying for.
Scoped Project Work
The unglamorous essentials: network and Wi-Fi work, Microsoft 365, backups, MFA, new locations, and vendor or ISP evaluation — each bounded before it begins.
Ongoing IT & Security Advisory
Your IT person without hiring an IT person — practical judgment for vendor decisions, budgets, security questions, and problems that are bigger than the team.
Specialist Engagements
Private AI readiness, encryption and key management, HSM guidance, post-quantum planning, and deeper assessments for organizations with regulated data.
Inspect the work
See the judgment before you buy the engagement.
Two illustrative samples show how the work turns uncertainty into priorities, ownership, and a next move — at both ends of the practice.
Both are illustrative composites: no client data, invented logo, or implied endorsement.
Small-business sample
IT & Security Health Check
A plain-language snapshot of the findings, priorities, ownership, and work that can safely wait.
See the Health Check sampleSpecialist sample
Private AI Readiness Assessment
Use-case triage, reference architecture, data-protection findings, and a phased roadmap.
See the private-AI samplePractical field notes
Start with the question already on your desk.
Plain-language guides for evaluating providers, testing recovery, and setting a usable AI boundary — written to help you make the next decision even if we never work together.
Small-business IT · Vendor decisions
Do you need an MSP, or just someone in your corner?
A plain-language guide for small businesses deciding between a managed service provider, internal help, project work, and an independent IT advisor.
Reviewed
Read the guideSmall-business IT · Backup & recovery
Your backup says it succeeded. Can it actually restore?
A practical small-business guide to testing backup restores, defining recovery expectations, recording evidence, and finding gaps before an emergency.
Reviewed
Read the guideSmall-business IT · Practical AI
A practical AI-use policy for a small business
A practical guide to writing a short AI-use policy for a small business, covering approved tools, sensitive data, human review, accountability, records, and exceptions.
Reviewed
Read the guideWho this is for
North Dakota businesses that need sound IT judgment, not another layer of sales.
Businesses with roughly 5 to 250 people and no senior IT leader on staff: ag retailers and co-ops, professional offices, clinics, community banks and credit unions, local government, construction and trades firms, churches, and nonprofits.
Regulated organizations are welcome here too. If you need someone who can handle the everyday stack and go deep when data protection or compliance demands it, we should talk.
Why me
Breadth across the stack. Depth where the consequences are highest.
Thirty years across networks, systems, security, applications, physical infrastructure, and enterprise data protection. That range matters because real problems usually hide in the seams between them.
The depth is there when you need it: a CISSP, a career protecting sensitive data, and specialization in encryption, key management, and hardware security modules.
And unlike most people advising on private AI, I run the stack myself: real language models on local hardware, no data leaving the premises. When I tell you it can be done, it's because I've done it.
If the honest answer is that you need less than you feared, that's the answer you'll get.