When Bill McMillan sold his company in 2012, he didn’t sit back and enjoy his free time. Feeling the need to pursue a new venture, he contacted his friend of 30 years, Henry Hassinger, and together, they formed Qumulis in January 2013.

Qumulis is intended to ramp up the typical on-site hardware and software service to cloud service, allowing clients to access any file, anywhere, with a simple Internet connection. “In today’s environment, we are seeing a need to switch to cloud service. With cloud service, there is no need for a person to be physically there to fix a problem and a business can be run from anywhere,” McMillan explains.  

For McMillan, Qumulis is an opportunity to help clients by doing what he does best. “I hate to say we’re typical IT guys, but, we’re typical IT guys,” he laughs. “What sets Qumulis apart is that we are forward-thinking and always looking to give clients an advantage through methods of reduced cost and downtime.”

In any business niche, there are plenty of variations of expertise and customer service. Qumulis stands out from the crowd because their focus is on the customer. “Even though there are nearly 30 similar companies in State College alone, only a few rise to the top. We are one of those. When my client has a problem, it becomes my problem. At Qumulis, we do what we have to do, regardless of time or day,” he states.

Today, Qumulis has three employees in two locations, State College and Harrisburg. They serve 10 clients and nearly 600 users. In addition to their physical locations, Qumulis acquired virtual space and resources at Innovation Park. “With our virtual space, we have access to all of Innovation Park’s resources, including investor relations,” McMillan says.

Looking ahead, McMillan is excited for Qumulis’ growth. “We are working on expanding the Qumulis brand to build a datacenter. Our aspirations are to get bigger than we ever thought possible,” he explains. The datacenter is expected to be in State College and max out at 200,000 square feet. With investors and banks interested in the project, McMillan is hopeful that the datacenter will be functioning in 2018, although the exact timeline depends on all parties involved.

Expanding to a physical datacenter will give Qumulis the opportunity to provide their own clients, and other companies, a place closer to home to store their services. “A datacenter is the heart of the cloud,” McMillan explains. “The cloud is not ambiguous – it is a real, live building. Our datacenter will feature multiple Internet providers, air conditioning cooling systems and power. Everything in the building will be redundant to prevent failure and we will have a back-up for it all.”  

With the datacenter complete, Qumulis will have the first of its kind in the region, potentially bringing up to 25 more employees to the company. Currently, the nearest datacenters can be found in Edison, New Jersey; Philadelphia; or Pittsburgh. The need for the service in Central PA is clear to McMillan. “People are asking for this service. That’s what gets us excited about it.”