History

In 1995, the founders of Distributed Systems Services, Inc. (DSS) seized an opportunity – helping local organizations manage the increasing complexity of their distributed environments. The company they created is now a comprehensive provider of technology solutions for over 400 clients in the Mid-Atlantic region.

“We were fortunate to start the company with very skilled employees,” explains DSS president Jim Sweeney. “Their expertise in systems management filled a market need then and still does today.” Initial DSS employees had worked for Meridian Bank, an early adopter of the emerging technologies for distributed infrastructure management. When Meridian was acquired by CoreStates, technology jobs were transferred out of the area. DSS was fortunate to hire the individuals responsible for systems management and support for Meridian's network of 6,000 PC users.

In its first service engagements, DSS provided support at its clients' locations. By the end of 1996, DSS established a single point of contact help desk on its campus, began building a warehouse and integration facility to support its PC reseller business.

DSS experienced significant growth, validating its business strategy. By 2000, DSS had almost 100 employees. Then, following the dot com frenzy and Nasdaq crash, the IT industry contracted. Spending slowed even more in 2001 after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Because of its solid financial position and strong customer relationships, DSS survived a difficult time. In fact, DSS focused on its core strengths and enhanced its solution portfolio.

Today, we live in an always on, always connected world. Technology enables business innovation. In this exciting era, our customers remain concerned about managing IT complexity. At the same time they face challenges to reduce costs, increase availability, optimize resources, and mitigate risks.

To help clients address these challenges, DSS now offers Infrastructure Hosting solutions from our state-of-the art enterprise class data center. The data center and DSS headquarters are located in Spring Ridge, a building familiar to our initial employees as their Meridian Bank headquarters. DSS invested in new infrastructure and re-commissioned the data center to support the demands of today's high-density architectures.

DSS remains true to its initial vision, helping customers simplify and optimize management of their technology infrastructure. With a broad range of offerings, DSS helps clients address IT and organizational objectives with the agility today's business world requires. Change is certain, and as the IT industry moves into a new era with new business models, DSS and its customers are well prepared for an exciting future.