We help to improve the software tools, infrastructure, and technical operations that support your online services.

"round trip" captures our beliefs in regards to online products design, development and operation cycle. Building great software is only half the story. Providing a solid technical infrastructure, and supporting it through excellent operations is the other half necessary to realize an online product's full potential. They are indivisible parts of a cycle.

Software Architecture

We have extensive software development experience, especially building online services that require around-the-clock availability, and sustain high, unpredictable traffic levels. We have worked with numerous startups, either building the first version of their products, or improving scalability for existing ones. We do not have preferences for specific programming languages: we have worked comfortably with Java, Ruby/Rails, PHP, Perl, Python to name a few.

Success in online services means massive traffic load increase, pushing to the limit the capacity of existing platforms. We help to identify and solve bottlenecks, improving the service response under load conditions, as well as the way applications handle error and near-failure conditions.

Technical Infrastructure

We help to design, and build IT infrastructure whether based on a data center or a cloud provider platform. From the network layer up through the database, application and web tiers. We have significant experience with core aspects of Internet technology: IP networking in the data center, ISP operations, VPN, DNS, co-location, cloud-hosting and outsourcing contracts.

We have planned and managed capital investment projects in excess of a million dollars, including equipment and software specification and procurement.

Operations and Support

There is no one-size-fits-all solution for the processes involved in supporting online services. We have a multi-disciplinary team with many years of collective experience providing 24-7 operations and support.

We understand the need to release software often, with minimal disruption. We believe operations and software engineering teams need to work hand-in-glove to guarantee service quality and availability, hence release management is an aspect of online operations we put a lot of efforts into. We have database administrators in our team who have worked extensively with MySQL, Oracle, MS SQL Server databases.

We know what is not measured cannot be managed, hence we considering automated monitoring and alerting to be a necessity, not a luxury. We have worked with a significant collection of monitoring tools: Nagios, Observium, Cacti, New Relic, Pingdom, Sitescope, Netflow, Smokeping, RANCID to name a few. We believe automation is the only efficient way to manage large fleets of servers and devices, hence we make extensive use of automation tools such as Puppet, Chef and Ansible.


What our clients say about us

  • the Roundtrip Networks team has been essential partners assisting our team with architectural, support, troubleshooting, and platform migration projects. They are absolute professionals.

    I can't say enough great things about the Roundtrip team.I have hired them at three different companies to help provide supplemental/outsourced IT support. The team is knowledgeable, personable, and flexible to the various needs and size of an organization. They are consistently my go-to resource when it comes to IT, i and I look forward to hiring this group again throughout my career.

  • Whenever I have a need for technical operations expertise, I pick up the phone and call the Roundtrip Networks and team. Their maturity and breadth of knowledge are key traits that I've come to rely on for both project work and staff augmentation. In our first engagement, RoundTrip Networks was brought in to sort out an inherited tangle of wires. From there, I learned to rely on the team for all aspects of our service management and operations. The relationship culminated in leveraging the team to bring our Ecommerce platform in-house under duress from an uncooperative SaaS provider. In my second project I brought in RoundTrip to wholly manage technical operations for an Ecommerce vertical after two failed attempts by management to perform the same with favored vendors. RoundTrip came in and cleaned up the mess left behind, bringing stability to an otherwise shaky platform and "operationalizing" day-to-day tasks and maintenance.

  • Have called on Roundtrip Networks team's expertise in the last 3 places I have had responsibility for systems operations. On everything from saving us while on a burning platform all they way to setting us up for growth through automation. Could not recommend them high enough if you need expertise - system administration, network operation and automation.

  • Having worked with some of them as a colleague in the same company, and most recently as a client, I can attest to his absolute top caliber service level, strong leadership, high integrity, and deep expertise. RoundTrip worked with our web architect to customize the most robust and scalable IT infrastructure for our budget, resulting in an on-time launch and stable ongoing operations. RoundTrip was always able to accommodate our start-up's short deadlines and was very understanding of our evolving needs. They also understand the importance of transparency and regular communication, responding to requests immediately and keeping us informed on project status. I heartily recommend the team of top-notch professionals at RoundTrip!

  • The Roundtrip Networks team helped us migrate to a new infrastructure platform. They successfully delivered on the initial project and have continued to provide services in a variety of areas. Members of the team are effective in helping us anticipate potential breakdowns and developing strategies to address.

    RoundTrip Networks provided my team with exactly what we needed, experts who worked quickly and professionally to deliver expert results. Working with the team I was quickly able to offload all of my operations tasks to his team and focus on other areas, all with the knowledge that it was being taken care of professionally. I look forward to working with him and his team again.

  • The Roundtrip Networks team was instrumental in building our network operations team and technical infrastructure. They have excellent soft skills, a tremendous depth of knowledge in network operations and software architecture, and an impressive work ethic. I would highly recommend the RoundTrip Network folks to anyone who could use their wide selection of services.

  • I have had the pleasure of working closely with Roundtrip Networks over the past few years on a variety of challenging and exciting projects. From racking servers for a new infrastructure to writing the code that would run on that infrastructure, the team has been an essential element in the success of our business. The Roundtrip team has helped us with tasks such as screening potential employees, overseeing the drive towards PCI compliance, drafting and organizing technical documentation, managing complex database backups, and too many other tasks to list here. In addition to their technical expertise, Roundtrip Networks has set the gold standard for communication, flexibility, reliability, and trustworthiness. Top notch, in every respect.

  • I have had the benefit of working with RoundTrip Networks through several incarnations, spanning many years. First: as colleagues at a .com, and then as a consultant working for the same company. Working with them in these capacities was collaborative, energized, responsive. Consummate pro’s, they came to these relationships with complete accountability to me and the rest of the company. Subsequently, I hired RoundTripNetworks for consulting work at two other companies as experts in Network Operations and Application Architecture. Most Recently the RoundTripNetworks team acted as outsourced technology owners for a significant and fast-paced platform migration. At the center of our Network infrastructure and Operations re-build, they were ultimate professionals, guiding, teaching, listening, adjusting. Finding people that I’m genuinely interested in finding ways of working with time and time again is a rare thing. RoundTripNetworks is this kind of consulting group.

  • A year ago our voice/data network was a disaster. Roundtrip Networks designed and executed a strategy to help us rebuild from scratch. They have a wealth of knowledge, and the experience to match the right solution to the problem. Lastly, they were on call in a pinch when our (former) IT staff was not.

    The Roundtrip Networks team has been a pivotal player in our development and network delivery over the last several years and continues to be so. They are a key provider of expert information to our team so that we can make the most informed decisions on where and how to take us to the next level in terms of network operations. It has been a pleasure working with them, and I look forward to continuing the relationship with the team at Roundtrip Networks.

Experience

As a team we have many years of combined experience with Internet services, infrastructure, software development and maintenance. We were involved with the Internet and its services a decade before it became mainstream, used primarily by educational institutions.

We have built infrastructure, networks, and applications in very challenging economic environments. We have built and operated regional Internets in developing countries. We have trained engineers from developing countries since the early '90s, an activity we continue to practice.

Before we decided to team up and work together, we were members of teams that helped build and operate high profile websites such as Babycenter.com, Mylifepath.com, Opentable.com, OpenTV and several others. We can proudly state that all the companies we worked for before the year 2000 successfully weathered the dot-com debacle. They continue to operate to this day, either on their own, or after being acquired as valuable assets by recognized companies such as Johnson & Johnson and Blue Shield of California, among others.

We know every penny counts, and our solutions reflect a sensible balance between needs and resources, short-term constraints and long-term goals.

We understand the importance of long-term relationships with the clients we build and support services for. Some of our customer organizations have been working with us since we founded Roundtrip Networks in 2008. Nothing makes us prouder than when we receive an email from a former customer that says "I have a new job, and I have this problem I would like you to help with".

Bob Stiles
Bob Stiles Managing Director / Founder

Bob Stiles has been involved in web-based software architecture, and website operations for over 18 years. Bob has extensive experience in software architecture and development, scaling web site operations, release management, automated cloud provisioning, and database management.

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Carlos Armas
Carlos Armas Managing Director / Founder

Carlos Armas has been involved with TCP/IP networking and Internet operations for over 23 years.

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Ryan Slobojan
Ryan Slobojan Managing Director

Ryan has been doing software development in one form or another since he first stumbled upon Turbo Pascal when he was 16 and used it to write BBS programs.

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Geoff Sears
Geoff Sears Database Administrator

Geoff Sears discovered the Internet when constructing a networked bulletin-board system between the Philippines and Hong Kong in 1987.

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Luis Luaces
Luis Luaces Database Administrator

Managing IT groups of different sizes and complexities, Luis has developed the ability to lead teams and projects to success with limited resources and tight budgets.

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Greg Norton
Greg Norton Linux / Unix / Solaris Systems Administrator

Greg has been using and administering Linux environments for over 18 years.

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Dan Ballinger
Dan Ballinger Network Engineer / Systems Administrator

Dan Ballinger has been involved in network engineering and UNIX/Linux systems administration for over 20 years. His main focus of attention is building networks maximizing redundancy and scalability while minimizing design complexity.

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