NerdsToGo Is On The Move For Small Businesses

Michael Varnadore is a nerd, and he’s proud of it.

He says he’s been a nerd since the 1980s, when he first laid his eyes on an Apple IIe computer, bought his first Commodore 64 and got his first Information Technology (IT) gig in 1986, when the U.S. Air Force started using the new Zenith Z-100.

What a decade that was. The computer world has changed a lot since then, and Varnadore has changed along with it. Now, he directs an entire team of nerds at NerdsToGo Computer Services, located in the Pebble Creek Collection shopping plaza on Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd. Varnadore’s nerds can come to you and solve your computing needs.

“First and foremost, we want to be known as the guys you can trust with your IT, with your business, and with your data,” says Varnadore. “All of my nerds are certified, background-checked and drug-tested. Everybody here is a professional IT specialist of one type or another.”

NerdsToGo offers a slew of services, ranging from replacing a cracked screen on an iPhone to serving as an on-demand mobile IT department for your small business.

“We basically do everything,” says Varnadore, who opened his NerdsToGo franchise in 2019. “Our motto is ‘We Make IT Work.’”

NerdsToGo was founded in 2003 in Guilford, CT by David Colella to provide computer service for residential and small business users, long before computers were ubiquitous. The concept hasn’t changed, and there are now 25 locations nationwide, mostly along the east coast but as far west as Seattle.

On the consumer side, Varnadore’s franchise does hardware repair, and can even replace the back glass on an iPhone (and other phones) with its new laser machine. In many cases, they can have your cell phone or laptop with a cracked screen back to you within a few hours.

And, Varnadore promises that they will never put business ahead of honesty.

“This was my first time visiting NerdsToGo, but definitely will not be my last,” wrote one of the customers on Google, where the New Tampa NerdsToGo franchise has a 4.9 rating. “All of the staff here were super knowledgeable and pleasant. They were upfront and honest, did not try to haggle me for business. In my case, I had numerous devices to repair and they were very honest and told me which ones were not repairable. For the items that were repairable I received same day service.”

Varnadore says home networking, mostly involving setting up mesh networks to improve the WiFi range in homes, is popular, as well as options like setting up a new computer and transferring data off an old one, setting up printers, installing certain applications, removing malware and other issues with cyber security.

All of these are even more important issues now, in a Covid world, than they were before, because so many more people are working from their homes. 

There are enough computer conundrums to keep NerdsToGo busy. One of the most common complaints from consumers? “My computer is too slow!”

NerdsToGo specializes in tuning up your device by offering solid state drive (SSD) bundles, where they swap out an old hard disk drive (HDD) for a newer SSD, while transferring all your data to the new drive.

HDDs have moving parts, like a spinning “platter,” which can be broken when dropped or bumped, while an SSD is more like a large memory chip.

Varnadore says the difference in speed can be like trading in a station wagon with side paneling for a Porsche.

“The slowest thing on a computer these days is the hard drive,” Varnadore says. “Data is read and written to the disk so many times, people don’t realize how much that it slows everything else down. Now, with new solid state technology, there’s no moving parts. It’s very fast. You put (an SSD) in, it turns that slow computer into something running better than the day they bought it. People are amazed at the difference in speed, and that can save them hundreds, even thousands of dollars.”

NerdsToGo also is bolstering and emphasizing its local and small business offerings for those who can’t afford a full-time IT employee or don’t want to invest in expensive managed service companies to monitor their networks.

Through its NerdAssure program, NerdsToGo can manage the IT services for small businesses, supporting anywhere from one to hundreds of computers.

“From the day we opened our doors, we’ve always provided services to small businesses,” Varnadore says. “The new NerdAssure is a new branded capability we are rolling out that can do stuff in the background.”

The service monitors more than 3,000 different elements of the business’ computer hardware and software to make sure it’s running effectively, and if there’s a problem, NerdAssure is alerted so it can take action.

Varnadore says that NerdAssure also provides a real-time antivirus, “that not only looks for bad guys’ signatures but actually has a security operations center watching for any events that might be taking place.”

One of the most valuable services is backing up your business’ data. “If you lose critical data you can be out of business,” Varnadore says. “Everything else can be replaced. But, your intellectual property can’t. We can protect that.”

NerdAssure provides hosting for a Microsoft 365 environment and takes care of email issues while offering other IT administrative support as well.

And, when problems do arise, NerdsToGo can be onsite the same day to fix them.

“We want to be the IT company for your small business,” Varnadore says. “When you need us, we are there, and we can be there onsite, so you’re only paying for the time you need us there. When you don’t need us, NerdAssure is monitoring and securing your network in the background.”

And, when you do need NerdsToGo, Varnadore says you won’t be passed through to a call center somewhere else. The New Tampa location phone is answered by a customer specialist, one of the technicians or even by Varnadore himself. So, give your local nerds a call for a free technology evaluation.

NerdsToGo is located at 19651 Bruce B Downs Blvd., Suite C6. The store is open Monday-Friday, 9:30 a.m.-6 p.m., and 10 a.m.-4 p.m. on Saturday. For more information, visit NerdsToGo.com or call (813) 321-1700.