Before “IT” was even a common term, David and Tammie Neel were already figuring it out as they went.
We’re revisiting this July 2023 Alumni Spotlight featuring two Floyd Central grads who built a career right alongside the rise of personal computers, the internet, and now cybersecurity. From helping businesses understand early tech to running their own company for more than two decades, their story shows what it looks like to grow with an industry that never stands still.
Article originally appeared in the July 2023 Legacy Ledger (Issue 35).
-Rex Bickers (FCHS ‘70)
David Neel (FCHS, 1981) and
Tammie Boling Neel (FCHS, 1983)
For David and Tammie Neel, any career that used computers felt very disconnected to the “old days” that Terry Phillips knew. The 70s were nearly over when personal computers brought the first big “high tech” wave. As the 80s played out, PCs were popping up everywhere, with instruction manuals that few people understood. The time was right to contemplate a career in computer services.
David’s Floyd Central years prepared him for a wrestling scholarship at Waldorf College in remote northern Iowa. He aspired to study computer science. After two years, he chose to come back to Indiana to finish his education and start finding (more) employment.
He had already taken his first “IT job” in 1982, during his second year at Waldorf, at the “big neighbor” in town: Winnebago Industries. The state of computers was quite divided in the 80s with “data processing” in the world of “mainframes” and a new world of PCs emerging. Few people in business knew anything about using computers, chiefly in banking, accounting and financial services. David did succeed in a large (hospital) accounting department, but his interests were broader than that. He learned how to help those who felt paralyzed because they didn’t understand the technology they had.
David and Tammie married in 1990. They were soon busy working parents, dually forging a team approach to their career plans. Tammie cultivated a broad repertoire of computer skills used by business offices of that era: accounting, payroll, business-to-business communications and more. She would later complete a B.A. in Business Administration (with kids in middle school!). There was this new internet thing! David concentrated on the technical side of computing. It included the growing connections between users, routers and servers… from the LAN (local area network) of a small group to enterprise-wide configurations across the continent and later, across oceans. Together, they focused on identifying potential clients and assessing their big-picture requirements: especially network design, implementation and documentation of security compliance.
They formed their own company in 1997, called CyberTek Engineering. Its business customers had diverse and ever-shifting needs. A key decision was selling a change in the relationship to clients. CyberTek became a Managed Services Provider (MSP). Its business model worked for clients with or without in-house IT staff.
Nowadays, safeguarding systems require more than just preventing downtime. Attacks are REAL, and they no longer involve “only internal operations”. With an extra “S” for Security… today’s new acronym is MSSP. It’s now crucial: protect the data that belongs to the public, (the customers of the companies they serve).
CyberTek was at year 23 when the pandemic began. Adding new clients never stopped. A new client wanted David to meet people at Venza, a company offering similar services, but devoted almost entirely to the hospitality industry. Venza was impressed by CyberTek’s reputation in network security. By 2021, Venza agreed to purchase CyberTek, leaving it intact to function as a separate business unit. The CyberTek workforce has now more than doubled, though many work virtually from other locations.
Reflecting on 40 years of career experience, the Neels feel certain that their era will not hold a candle to the next big wave of change. It’s already begun with artificial intelligence taking root. Stay tuned for the stories of Floyd Central and New Albany grads from the 2020s and 2030s who will be at the center of these advances in the future!
Read the entire July 2023 Legacy Ledger (Issue 35) edition.