November 2021 Newsletter

connections

NOVEMBER 2021

connections CEO’S MESSAGE

DCN THANKS OUTGOING BOARD MEMBERS, WELCOMES NEW

When most people think of DCN, they often think of infrastructure – fiber infrastructure or data center infrastructure. But the issue of “connections” is really focused on people as much as fiber or buildings.

At DCN, we often say our founders were visionary – not only visionary in their founding of DCN, but in the foresight it took in the 1950s to establish North Dakota’s telephone cooperatives and independent telephone companies.

That was truly the start of connecting North Dakota to the world.

Seth Arndorfer, CEO

We continue to grow the depth of talent on staff here at DCN. This year marks 25 years in business for DCN, and very few of our original founding members are still in our workforce.

In fact, as you can see from the story to the right, just this year three members of DCN’s Board of Governors have announced their welldeserved retirement. I want to thank each of them for their leadership and participation on the DCN board and wish them the best in the next chapter of their lives.

I can’t help but reflect on how blessed North Dakota is to be served by such great leaders in deploying rural broadband into nearly every community across the state. I’m especially impressed by the amazing vision and thought leadership of the board that recognized the importance of bringing fiber to the home, business, and school, laying a solid foundation for all emerging technologies that are being deployed in our world today. That being said, I have a very high degree of confidence that our industry is in good hands with the next generation of leaders who share the same commitment to North Dakota maintaining its status as a leader in the nation when it comes to broadband connectivity.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 2

The leaders of these organizations, our Owners, comprise the DCN Board of Governors. As 2021 comes to a close, three are retiring from their organization as well as the DCN board.

Perry Oster, with United and Turtle Mountain Communications out of Langdon, has been on the DCN board since 2010. Perry retired September 30 and Steve Swanson assumed the role of general manager/CEO. Steve, who has been with United since 2002, most recently served as the chief operating officer.

Paul Schuetzler joined the DCN board in 2003 when he was named general manager/CEO of Consolidated Telcom based in Dickinson. Paul retired from Consolidated the end of October and is succeeded by Bryan Personne. Prior to the appointment, Bryan held the CONTINUED ON PAGE 2

DCN CEO Seth Arndorfer presented each retiring board member with a plaque in appreciation of their service. Top to Bottom: Perry Oster, Paul Schuetzler, and Steve Lysne.

New members of the DCN board, L to R: Steve Swanson, Bryan Personne, Cassidy Hjelmstad

www.DakotaCarrier.com

connections CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

DCN’s middle mile network will play a major role in supporting emerging technologies like precision ag, Artificial Intelligence, and IoT – Internet of Things – applications. Not long ago, these technologies were merely concepts, but they are already becoming mainstream in our daily lives. For example, the IoT – many of us have access to things like our home and business security system, thermostat, door locks, and more in the palm of our hand. My 98-year-old grandmother constantly marvels at the things her family can do with a couple taps on their smart phones! We know there is a bright future in these emerging technologies which is why DCN has been actively participating in initiatives like the Grand Farm and Vantis, the statewide “beyond visual line of sight” (BVLOS) drone network.

As I said though, our connections are also about people. DCN’s sales team has been active in the communities of Bismarck, Fargo, and Grand Forks attending trade shows and speaking at several events on topics like cybersecurity, broadband deployment, and precision agriculture. We attend these events not only to connect with more users, but because we believe networking events like the chambers host are important and we want to help bring them to our communities.

As we look to the future, I’m excited for the what the next 25 years will bring to our industry and I’m optimistic that North Dakota has positioned itself as a leader in connectivity and broadband capabilities.

DCN THANKS OUTGOING BOARD MEMBERS, WELCOMES NEW CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

position of chief operating officer at Consolidated for 19 years.

Steve Lysne, CEO/general manager of SRT Communications with headquarters in Minot, joined the DCN board in 2002. He officially retires on December 31, 2021, and Cassidy Hjelmstad will assume the role on January 1, 2022.

Cassidy has been with SRT since 2010, most recently as chief marketing officer.

DCN is grateful for the dedication and service Perry, Paul, and Steve brought to DCN as members of the Board of Governors. We also welcome Steve, Bryan, and Cassidy to the board and look forward to the new perspective each will bring to our organization.

THANKS TO WILHELMI SCHILLING NEW CHAIR Midstate Telephone General Manager/CEO Ryan Wilhelmi stepped down as chairman of the DCN Board of Governors.

“Ryan is an excellent board member and we appreciate the additional time he dedicated as chair,” said DCN CEO Seth Arndorfer.

Troy Schilling, who has been CEO/ general manager of West River Telephone and on the board since 2016, is the new board chair.

Ryan Wilhelmi

Troy Schilling

FARGO CO-LO EXPANSION DOUBLES CAPACITY MORE CABINETS, MORE POWER This summer the expansion of the Fargo data center was completed.

This project removed the north wall of the co-location room, allowing for more efficient and effective cooling and making it easier for customers to grow their space.

The growth also necessitated the installation of a new generator, UPS, and PDUs. Thanks to our outstanding team, we were able to double colo capacity without causing any downtime for customers.

DCN CREATES IS DEPARTMENT INFORMATION SYSTEMS FOCUSES ON HOSTED SERVICES DCN constantly strives to respond to customer needs and find ways to serve our customers even better.

One area that has grown is hosted services, resulting in the formation of a new department dedicated to information systems (IS).

Aparna Subramanian, who many customers have worked with in her previous roles as sales engineer and systems engineer, now serves as the IS manager. In this new role, she directs all activities related to internal IT, application development and administration, information security, product development, cloud services, and sales engineering.

Aparna and DCN Director of Operations Jesse Heck worked closely to determine the best way to structure the IS department, reconfiguring some of the existing positions and determining what functions required additional team members.

Isabel DeWitt had a title change, from web application developer to software developer. This better reflects the work she performs, designing and creating custom applications as well as APIs with third-party software.

Isabel has been with DCN since 2015 and works from the Bismarck office.

Tara Taylor, previously a member of the Network Operations Center (NOC) team, joined the IS team as application analyst. Previously an application administrator, she also

had a title change to better-reflect her position conducting SLA reporting and service assurance. She also joined the team in 2015 and works from the Bismarck office.

Steve Frank, who joined DCN in 2011 as Ethernet/IP technician II, was promoted to sales engineer, serving as a technical resource for design, verification, and deployment of services. This includes identifying customer IT needs and designing solutions to meet those needs, acting as a liaison between the sales and operations teams to facilitate the implementation and testing of customer solutions, testing and validating customer solutions in a lab environment, and demonstrating service offerings to current and prospective customers.

Steve, who has an associate degree in electronics, has more than 30 years’ experience in the telecommunications industry.

He continues to work from the Fargo office.

This summer brought the retirement of Mitchell Schaff, who was operations systems support specialist at DCN for more than decade. With his departure, a new position dedicated to cloud services was created.

In September, Branden Rasmussen joined the team as cloud services specialist in Bismarck. With more than 20 years of experience in

information technology, he serves as DCN’s subject matter expert for all of our cloud services. Branden designs, implements, and maintains the software and hardware platforms in DCN’s cloud services infrastructure.

He also acts as an internal IT resource for DCN and plays a key role in resolving issues with DCN internal systems, identifying and implementing new technology as needed, and ensuring systems are current and follow best practices.

Branden earned an Associate of Applied Science, computer support specialist, and holds a variety of active certifications, including VMware Certified Professional – Data Center Virtualization, Microsoft Certified Systems Administrator, and Microsoft Certified Professional.

Two IS positions are in the process of being filled: systems administrator and an additional software developer.

The reorganization and growth of the team also allows for greater crosstraining to better serve customers.

The software developers and application analyst will cross train on SLA reporting, internally developed application training, and externally developed application training. The cloud services specialist and systems administrator will cross train on cloud services infrastructure and support.

It is anticipated that the team should be fully staffed by the end of the year.

DCN Information Systems team, L to R: Aparna Subramanian, Isabel DeWitt, Tara Taylor, Steve Frank, Branden Rasmussen

DCN WELCOMES MALSAM connections David Malsam joined DCN as an Ethernet/IP technician II. In this role, David supports DCN’s stateof-the-art carrier Ethernet and IP networks, including network monitoring and provisioning, receiving and resolving trouble reports, and provisioning and troubleshooting carrier Ethernet and IP services and equipment. He is based out of DCN’s NOC in Bismarck.

David brings nearly 20 years of experience in information technology, with 15 of those being dedicated to network engineering. He earned an associate degree from North Dakota State College of Science where he studied in the area of microcomputer specialist with a focus on networking. Throughout his career, David has continued his education with training in a variety of technical areas.

Secure.

Scalable.

Solutions.

2021 LANDMARK ANNIVERSARIES This year at DCN, we celebrated four landmark anniversaries: • • • •

Anna Kalbus, accountant I, 5 years Barb Pfeifer, Ethernet/IP technician I, 10 years Steve Frank, sales engineer, 10 years Jim Laske, CFO, 20 years

“When a company has stability in its team, everyone benefits – including the customer,” said DCN CEO Seth Arndorfer.

“That’s one reason we are so fortunate to have Anna, Barb, Steve, and Jim on our team. Each of them works hard every day to make sure that DCN provides the highest level of reliability and responsiveness, whether it is a technical issue or accounting question.”

DCN wants to be your partner in business.

We are dedicated to matching your unique needs with the technology solutions that are right for your business.

Contact your account executive or call 800-814-3333 to learn if there are additional DCN products or services that can keep you connected and your data protected so you can focus on your core business.

Diverse Data Centers | SD-WAN | Dedicated Internet | Cloud Computing | Disaster Recovery | Security Services

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With more than 42,000 miles of fiber across the state, DCN and its 14 owner companies operate North Dakota’s most robust fiber optic network.

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