IP Pathways
Re-Defining Virtualization, Optimization and Restor

Joe Shields, President and Co-Founder of IP Pathways, is a man of varied interests and skills. He says it is his modest upbringing and do-it-yourself attitude that helped him view things in a different manner. A unique outlook coupled with a desire to solve problems in distinctive ways brought him closer to engineering, where there was a huge void in the delivery of services that eventually led to the formation of IP Pathways.

“When we co-founded IP Pathways back in late 2007, we recognized a gap in the marketplace. There was a consolidation and virtualization movement that was redefining IT and the data center, yet the majority of IT VARs and service providers were still focusing on the network with emphasis on the convergence of voice and data. IP Pathways was seen as a solution to these problems and was built from the ground up to be a data center infrastructure expert,” explains Shields.

Our focus on maintaining a 3:1 ratio with regards to engineering and sales is the biggest differentiating factor that sets us apart

Headquartered in Des Moines, IA—with offices in Omaha, NE and Overland Park, KS—IP Pathways provides solutions that help customers modernize their data center infrastructures through virtualization; embrace mobility by delivering desktops, applications and data to any device, anywhere, any time; optimize Microsoft applications such as Microsoft Exchange and Lync; and protect their data and implement business continuity strategies. The company’s vision is to customize internal and hybrid cloud solutions in order to allow customers to leverage their existing IT infrastructure investments while increasing utilization of human capital and equipment. The company’s newest offering will now bring the cloud to the customer’s data center, IP Pathways’ data center or any approved third-party data center.

The success story of Iowa of Workforce Development (IWD)—an agency of the Iowa state government that handles unemployment and employee benefits—is one of the best examples of the prowess of IP Pathways’ solutions. When faced with severe budget cuts, IWD needed to identify opportunities to cost-effectively deliver services. IP Pathways provided its services to IWD to develop a solution that supported a virtual desktop strategy. That solution was NetApp storage. This move resulted in marked improvement in performance and storage management, along with greater satisfaction among its 600 users. By allowing IWD to eliminate dozens of brick and mortar offices across the state, IP Pathways helped them save $6.5 million annually. With the assistance of IP Pathways, their IT department was able to provide better service to internal clients. Previously IWD served 55 counties, but now offers its IowaWORKS Virtual Access Points in all 99 Iowa counties. The offering has also helped IWD to increase the rate of service the agency provides through the Virtual Access Sites by about 40 percent.

“Our focus on maintaining a 3:1 ratio with regards to engineering and sales, as well as our strong partnerships with NetApp, Cisco, VMware and other technology providers, allows IP Pathways to design innovative solutions and is the biggest differentiating factor of the company,” explains Shields.

Going forward, IP Pathways aims to branch out into a number of product offerings, including more managed and data center services. “Our focus will be to maintain and improve all of our services, engineering practices and relationships. In addition, we would like to add more services that are tied to our customers’ needs and provide better management services, improved private cloud offerings and greater flexibility,” says Shields. Shifting the desktop to the data center and delivering that personalized desktop through superior virtualization is a big area of focus for IP Pathways in the near future.