Tech
Rojoli Provides Cloud and Managed IT Services with Strong Local Commitment
From his desk in the Rojoli Services, Inc. offices at the Curiosity Lab, Rojoli CEO Gentry Ganote can watch construction progress on more buildings to house self-driving cars.
To anyone familiar with Peachtree Corners and Technology Park — the city’s sprawling 500-acre center for engineering and technology companies — the sight of an autonomous shuttle going down the road still sparks interest.
Along with Tech Park’s 5G infrastructure and numerous prototypes for smart city devices, the shuttle is a symbol of the area’s commitment to innovation and advancements in high-tech.
High-tech can improve people’s lives and continue pushing the limits of what was previously thought possible.
And while Rojoli’s work may not be as visible to someone walking down the street, it’s no less impactful or important. A large number of small businesses in Peachtree Corners and beyond rely on it for cloud and IT services.
From burgeoning tech to established provider
In 2008, cloud computing was just beginning to take off. Amazon had only launched its cloud computing division, Amazon Web Services (AWS), two years earlier. Microsoft followed close behind in October 2008 with the launch of Azure.
Now, multibillion-dollar companies are responsible for the IT infrastructure powering large swathes of the internet.
Many industry experts were unsure if the services that companies like AWS and Azure sold — known as Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) in tech-speak — would catch on in the mainstream. But to Ganote, this emerging market seemed like a good opportunity.
Ganote worked as the chief information officer (CIO) at the PGA Tour Superstore before getting into cloud computing.
During his time there, he and his team began implementing some infrastructure virtualization — one of the main technologies that makes cloud computing possible.
“I really felt that [cloud computing] was going to be big and take off. I had some colleagues that were in the IT field looking to host stuff, and I just thought that it was an opportunity,” Ganote said. “I ended up starting with a couple of customers and started the hosting company in 2008. I was just one man for a year, year and a half.”
Over the next two years, Ganote steadily grew the business, going on to merge in 2010 with another local small business founded by Stan and Brad Allen.
Stan and Brad had some customers in need of IaaS and managed services, a type of outsourcing where a company hires a vendor like Rojoli to manage and monitor its IT network.
With the merger, Rojoli became a managed IT service provider (MSP) and cloud hosting company. The company took on bigger clients while continuing to serve the small business communities of Metro Atlanta and the state of Georgia.
In 2019, the company merged again. This time with a fellow Peachtree Corners-based company called Cloud AG, founded in 2013 by David Huseonica.
Today, Rojoli offers several services, from its original cloud hosting service to managed IT services to data backup and recovery as well as Microsoft 365 and Exchange implementation.
The company operates data centers in New York and Georgia, providing cloud and IT services to national companies in addition to many small businesses in the Peach State.
Local roots run deep
Rojoli originally started in downtown Norcross before moving to Technology Park’s Curiosity Lab around 2015, but the company has deep ties to the area. Ganote himself went to Norcross High School before earning his bachelor’s in computer science from the University of Georgia.
While a student at UGA, he got his first job as a software developer for a company based in Technology Park. Now, nearly 40 years later, Ganote is still happy to call Peachtree Corners home — both for him, his family and the business.
“I’ve had an affinity for this location,” he said. “I grew up here, I went to Norcross High School. So for me, it’s personal… I’ve been here for a long time, and I really appreciate the vibe and the whole area.”
For Rojoli, it’s especially important to be part of the Technology Park business community. Local real estate developer Paul Duke initially envisioned Peachtree Corners and Technology Park in the late 1960s as a close-knit community where people could live, work and play.
He also pictured it as a place to host technology companies to employ new engineering, technology and business graduates from Georgia Tech and UGA.
GE and Scientific Atlanta (now part of Cisco Systems) were some of the first businesses in the office park. It’s only grown since then and includes a number of technology companies, not to mention one of the country’s only roadways for autonomous vehicles.
There is also Curiosity Labs, a business accelerator for companies developing smart city technology. Tech Park has a rich history of technological innovation, and Ganote says it continues to change today.
“It’s got a good atmosphere,” he said. “There’s always something going on.”
Aside from participation in a culture of progress and innovation, being in the area also helps Rojoli provide excellent service to its customers.
Ganote described Rojoli’s cloud hosting business as “high-touch boutique hosting.” He said it provides value to local businesses that need help removing some of the complexity of large cloud service providers like Microsoft Azure and AWS.
Having a local presence makes it easier for Rojoli to help local businesses that may be facing challenges associated with aging on-premises IT infrastructure.
Tech help and peace of mind
As systems age and become outdated, maintaining them can become increasingly difficult and costly for the businesses that rely on them.
Rojoli helps alleviate these pain points for small businesses by either managing on-premises systems or by providing cloud hosting, which generally offers lower costs and better reliability.
This is especially important, Ganote said, for companies with large remote workforces who rely on collaboration tools like Microsoft Teams and Zoom to stay connected.
“It makes a lot more sense to put [IT systems] into the cloud,” Ganote said. “It’s up 24/7, 365. The network connectivity is always on, so it provides a much more solid, secure and redundant system.”
This is Rojoli’s niche, and it’s where Ganote sees the company continuing to expand in the years ahead.
Because of its unique relationship with the local business community, Rojoli can provide more of a boutique experience than might be found elsewhere or with more nationally focused MSPs and cloud providers.
Like buying from a local shop versus a big box retail chain, the difference for Rojoli is about relationships and providing a personalized touch.
This approach makes it a unique member of the local business community in Peachtree Corners and across the state.
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Photos by George Hunter
How NetPlanner Systems powers businesses with tech-forward services and solutions
Anyone who’s been in business for more than a decade — maybe even less than that — can attest to the changes one must make to stay relevant. Such is the case with NetPlanner Systems.
During a discussion recently with Southwest Gwinnett magazine, CEO Clint Bridges explained that NetPlanner was an outgrowth of another company he started in 1983, initially in Mableton and later moved to the Peachtree Corners/Norcross area in 1985.
The first company manufactured printer and modem cables, which were in high demand during the early personal computer market boom. The company transitioned from manufacturing to providing networking services in 1987 due to the shift in the market and the desire to stay in a service-oriented business.
“Those cable assemblies sold for higher margins in the early days of the PC market. Rapidly, a lot of that manufacturing went offshore, and the margins went down, and a number of my competitors decided just to become brokers in that field,” said Bridges. “I didn’t really want to become a broker. I am very technical, very hands on, and so I sold that first business in 1986.”
Services and market reach
The contacts and trust he’d built with customers prompted him to go another route.
“Local area networking was starting to come into the marketplace, and so instead of manufacturing cable assemblies, we started to do networking, which involves putting network cabling and related hardware into commercial buildings,” he said.
NetPlanner built some of the earliest networks in the area.
“This was back in the days before there were any standards for this,” Bridges added.
Today NetPlanner provides complete design services, installation and ongoing maintenance of all communication systems in commercial buildings, focusing primarily on hardware. The company also runs a network services division that offers help desk support for small businesses without their own IT departments.
“That’s what really caused NetPlanner to be formed in 1987 — the desire to be in a service business and to provide a service that was still working with the same sorts of clientele in the computer marketplace,” he said.
NetPlanner works with a variety of commercial enterprises, as well as K-12 schools, colleges, universities and large hospital systems.
“Everything that wasn’t on the IP network in a commercial building before 1990 started to fall onto the IP network,” said Bridges. “Things that we never anticipated, including telephone systems, which were totally separate back in the 1980s, now all operate over IP-based systems.”
In addition, things like security and access control, video surveillance and similar systems all work on IP networks.
“So as time has gone on, NetPlanner has received requests from our customers to install these other systems, and we’ve embraced the other technologies that are now a part of almost all commercial buildings,” he added.
The company is now expanding its services to include nurse call services for hospitals — one of the newer markets for NetPlanner.
Security and access control systems
With ever-changing business technology needs, NetPlanner successfully keeps current with trends. With heightened security concerns everywhere, the company installs biometric readers and smart camera systems for access control.
“We provide a wide variety of smart camera systems, where they can do recognition, license plate recognition, facial recognition — all those kinds of intelligent systems for commercial spaces,” he said.
Building relationships with a wide variety of manufacturers who provide different types of software systems is how NetPlanner meets the needs of its clients.
“We work with whatever software system the particular enterprise feels is most appropriate for their needs, depending on whether they want to do license plate recognition or face recognition,” said Bridges. “We do a tremendous amount of security camera work in schools all over the southeast. And that is becoming more top of mind in school systems now.”
But there’s more. NetPlanner also provides distributed antenna systems (DAS) to improve cell phone coverage in commercial spaces.
“Cell carriers are concerned about not just signal strength, but also channel capacity — the ability to have a much larger number of users that might be around a particular cell tower at any given point in time,” said Bridges.
When installing a DAS, NetPlanner’s proficiency in coordinating with the carriers ensures compliance with carrier requirements and optimizes signal strength and coverage throughout the building.
Evolution of the technology-driven company
Anyone who knows Clint Bridges shouldn’t be surprised that he’s right in the thick of the technology boom. He started his first company at 19 and attended Southern Tech for a while before focusing on entrepreneurship.
“My passion for technology goes back to my earliest years. I’ve been fascinated by electronics and computers since I was very young. And I always had a home laboratory in the basement of the house as I was growing up,” he said. “I knew when I was in high school that I wanted to be an entrepreneur. During my time at Southern Tech, I started my first company and realized that’s what I wanted to do more than be at Southern Tech.”
NetPlanner is not only a local company. It operates fully-staffed branch offices in Augusta, Columbus and Savannah, as well as in Nashville, Tennessee; Raleigh, North Carolina; and Tampa, Florida. It has also provided services in every U.S. state, as well as parts of the Caribbean, Canada, London and Puerto Rico.
“We do projects all over the country, including some that are for companies that need to do national rollouts,” Bridges said. “A lot of our customers want to see the exact same approach used consistently throughout all their facilities across the country. So they’ll look to a company like NetPlanner to go and provide that consistent installation of all their communications technology needs in all their facilities across the country.”
Community commitment
Whether it’s working with manufacturing facilities and distributors, some of the largest big box organizations in the country, small retail businesses or anything in between, NetPlanner never loses sight of the local community.
With a home base in Peachtree Corners, the company has strong community involvement — including adopting a roadway section for clean-up efforts and participating in local chamber of commerce activities. NetPlanner has been active in several community events, such as shoe drives, food drives and charity walks, demonstrating its commitment to giving back.
“Since 2018, we’ve adopted a roadway section in the community through Gwinnett Clean and Beautiful,” said Michelle Bruck, marketing specialist at NetPlanner. “We go out about five times a year, clear debris off of that roadway and just make sure that it’s beautiful and that it’s safer for people who are walking or driving in the area.”
Nationally, NetPlanner participates in Toys for Tots and Walk to End Alzheimer’s.
“Not only [do we give back] in our headquarters location, but all of our branch offices look for ways to help, get involved and support our communities that we’re part of,” Bruck added.
NetPlanner’s marketing efforts include social media, direct marketing and trade shows, with support from Vox-Pop-Uli for branded materials and printed media.
“When we first started using Vox-Pop-Uli, we had just a straightforward vendor relationship, but they very quickly became a partner to us,” said Bridges. “Vox-Pop-Uli has actually set up a company store on our behalf where our employees can purchase branded material, branded clothing, ball caps and those sorts of things. And they also handle printed media — things that we would use at trade shows.”
Looking forward
With technology moving at a warp speed, NetPlanner relies on a lot of repeat business.
“Bandwidth requirements are increasing year after year,” Bridges said. “Fiber optic cabling that we might have installed 10 years ago won’t support the data rates that are needed today, so it needs to be changed out in many cases.”
Many of the customers that he’s been with for several decades use NetPlanner’s services over and over.
“We’ve gone into the same building and re-cabled it over and over again as the different category levels of copper cabling have advanced,” he said. “The demands on fiber are now way beyond what they were even five years ago because the capacity has increased so much.”
And as everyone is embracing artificial intelligence, Bridges said he’s working to keep up.
“Everyone is well aware of what’s happening in the artificial intelligence space. And what’s really amazing to us is the number of new data centers that are being built across the United States by all the major players,” he said. “It’s kind of hard to imagine even being able to keep up with all that. We do a lot of data center work ourselves, and are trying to engage with more of our customers to help build some of these newer data centers.”
He added that the artificial intelligence boom is causing so much additional strain on the network infrastructure across the country, there are concerns about how it’s all going to be powered.
“I think everyone’s concerned,” he said. “Everyone that’s involved in this is wondering how we’re going to meet the bandwidth demands, the capacity demands, the power demands to make all this work.”
Staying ahead of the curve
With decades of experience, Bridges offers advice for all types of businesses starting out — put technology needs into your business model early on.
“The companies that struggle the most with technology are the ones that wait until after everything with the building is developed and completely built before they realize that they need Wi-Fi or some other network installation done,” he said. “It’s just a much more efficient process if we’re involved as early as possible to help design the network, along with the building structure itself.”
He also emphasized the importance of staying ahead of technological advancements to avoid falling behind.
“As fast as technology moves, if you get behind the power curve, it’s really hard to catch up,” he added.
The Local Thread: This business profile series is proudly supported by Vox-Pop-Uli, championing local stories and the communities we serve.
Peachtree Corners marks May Mobility’s third driverless operation in the US and first commercial driver-out deployment
May Mobility, a leading autonomous vehicle (AV) technology company, recently announced the launch of its first commercial driver-out autonomous transportation service in the City of Peachtree Corners.
The company has transitioned its Peachtree Corners service to driverless operations, marking May Mobility’s third driverless deployment in the United States, following successful demonstration deployments in Sun City, Arizona and Ann Arbor, Michigan.
In partnership with Curiosity Lab, T-Mobile and the City of Peachtree Corners, May Mobility has been offering public rides in its autonomous Toyota Sienna Autono-MaaS (mobility-as-a-service) to visitors of Peachtree Corner’s Curiosity Lab — one of the country’s first smart city environments powered by real-world connected infrastructure and T-Mobile’s 5G — since September 2024 with safety drivers in place.
Now passengers will be able to ride the service without anyone behind the wheel. The service zone includes eight pre-determined stops along Technology Parkway at popular destinations such as hotels, restaurants, retail shops, office spaces, the Innovation Center at Curiosity Lab and Peachtree Corners City Hall.
“Peachtree Corners will be our third driverless operation, and we are excited to debut our first publicly available driverless service in the City of Peachtree Corners,” said Edwin Olson, CEO and founder of May Mobility. “This launch reinforces the importance of working with cities and communities everywhere to solve real transportation challenges.”
About the vehicles
May Mobility’s vehicles are equipped with its patented Multi-Policy Decision Making (MPDM) technology that leverages in-situ AI reasoning models to continuously learn and adapt to new, complex and even unpredictable driving conditions to create a safer, more comfortable ride.
In doing so, MPDM solves the industry’s biggest challenge — adapting to unexpected, dynamic conditions or “edge cases,” and allows the company to scale quickly and efficiently to new environments.
“Curiosity Lab’s real-world, smart city ecosystem has provided May Mobility with a unique environment to both continue to develop and improve their operations over the past six months, which has only further prepared the May Mobility team for its third driver-out operation and first commercial operation in the U.S.,” said Brian Johnson, Peachtree Corners city manager.
“T-Mobile’s 5G is a key staple of our ecosystem and the driver-out transition, as it provides May Mobility with low latency, high bandwidth connectivity for a smoother rider experience and enhanced safety operations.”
“This will continue to be important as we work toward expanding the route towards Town Center to provide additional means of transportation for city residents and visitors,” he continued. “It is incredible to see how the May Mobility team has been able to achieve driver-out operations within six months of the initial launch in our city, and we look forward to having our residents and visitors experience it for themselves.”
The details
May Mobility’s driverless operations in Peachtree Corners are open to the public Monday through Friday from 9:30 a.m. to 3 p.m., with each vehicle accommodating up to five passengers at a time.
Riders will be able to easily book trips to any of the service’s eight stops on-demand through the May Mobility app, powered by transit tech company Via, available in the App Store and Google Play. The app guides users on how to book a ride and access the vehicle, answers questions and more.
May Mobility is working with the City of Peachtree Corners on future expansions and has plans to launch autonomous vehicles in other parts of metro Atlanta in partnership with Lyft later this year.
Additional driverless operations in the U.S. will be announced throughout 2025.
May Mobility extended its leading portfolio of AV use cases with its recent announcement at CES 2025 of a partnership with Tecnobus, an established European electric minibus manufacturer, to introduce a new AV minibus platform able to seat up to 30 passengers, including wheelchair accessibility.
For more information about May Mobility, visit maymobility.com.
For more about the City of Peachtree Corners and Curiosity Lab, visit cityofpeachtreecornersga.gov and curiositylabptc.com.
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