About Kinetic

I’ve seen a lot of “About” pages on company websites in my time. You probably have too. More often than not, I tend to find them overblown and pretentious. So, when I sat down to write the content for this page, I struggled to follow the standard template of singing my company’s praises and talking about all the great things it’s done. Let’s face the it. Kinetic is a brand new company (as of June 2020). It has no history, period; much less any history that I can embellish with all kinds of cool statistics and fancy techno-babble. Yet here I am attempting to write an “About” page where I should spell out Kinetic’s qualifications.

So, since there is no company history to brag about, and I happen to be the owner and sole employee, the only pertinent qualifications I can cite are my own. There aren’t many things I hate more than talking about myself. And since we all live together in these little towns of Kanab and Fredonia, many of you already know me, and you know my history. But for those who don’t, I suppose a little background might be in order.

My name is Craig Baird. I was born and raised in Kanab, and continue to call it home, along with my wife and six awesome kids.

So, what qualifies me to be an IT consultant? Well, I guess the best way to answer this is to throw out my abbreviated information technology credentials—no embellishment or hyperbole—just some of the stuff I’ve done that qualifies me to fix and maintain your computers, networks, software, etc:

1994: While attending college at Southern Utah University, I worked at Northeast Furniture, where I was asked to modify some of their inventory software in order to improve its reporting functionality. After finishing that project, I was then asked to write a program for their appliance repair department to track customer service orders.

1995: Worked as a GIS (Geographic Information Systems) tech for Southern Utah University in their GIS lab. While I was there, we were contracted to the Forest Service to digitize watershed data for the Ashley National Forest in Northeast Utah.

1996: Graduated from Southern Utah University with a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, and a minor in Information Systems.

1996: Co-founded Xpressweb Internet Services, Kanab’s first local Internet provider, providing website design and hosting, as well as Internet access to the residents of Kanab and Fredonia. I served as its president until 2014, when we sold the company to South Central Communications. The following are a few of the milestones achieved by Xpressweb during that time period. Keep in mind that I absolutely cannot take all the credit for these accomplishments. I was fortunate to have had first-rate team members with me at Xpressweb, without whom, most of these accomplishments would not have been possible:

1998: Migrated from 28.8k to 56k modem technology—the fastest technology available at the time for Internet access to the general public.

2000: Established Kanab’s first broadband Internet access network, providing broadband Internet services to local homes and businesses using fixed wireless technology. Later this same year, we expanded coverage to include Fredonia.

2001: Expanded broadband wireless Internet coverage to the Johnson Canyon & Vermillion Cliffs areas.

2003-2004: Expanded broadband wireless coverage into Alton, Orderville, Mount Carmel, and Glendale Utah.

2004: Established a long-haul point-to-point microwave backhaul network between Kanab and Cedar City in order to bring additional bandwidth into Kanab, greatly increasing Internet speeds for customers.

2009: Established a second long-haul point-to-point microwave network between Kanab and St. George to bring more bandwidth into Kanab, and to provide redundant paths to the Internet.

2012: Began construction on Kanab’s first Fiber to the Premises network, providing speeds of up to 100 Mbps to homes and businesses in Kanab. At the time of the sale to South Central, Xpressweb had approximately 7 miles of fiber in the ground and around 40 business and residential customers using the network. This fiber was incorporated in to South Central’s city-wide fiber optic buildout and continues to provide service to customers in Kanab.

1997 – 2014: Worked for Stampin’ Up! in their Kanab facility, splitting my time between it and Xpressweb. Initially, I filled the role of system administrator for the Kanab facility, managing two Windows servers and around 50 Windows PCs. In addition, I also managed the telephone, intercom, and audio-visual systems. Later, I was promoted to the position of network engineer, although, as the only IT employee in the Kanab facility, I continued to hold systems administration and desktop support responsibilities.

2014 – 2016: After the sale of Xpressweb, I Worked for South Central Communications as a Central Office Technician. My responsibilities included continuing to maintain the Xpressweb wireless network, and also assisting with maintenance and provisioning on South Central’s Internet and phone networks. I designed and assisted with the build out of a city-wide wireless business network in Page, Arizona. This network served as an interim high-speed Internet solution for businesses in Page, while SCC worked to complete its fiber build to Page. In 2016, I was promoted to Network Engineer.

At the end of 2016, my wife and I decided it was time to devote some time and resources to our family, so I resigned my position at SCC. Having the opportunity to place my focus back on my family during these few years, has proven to be a great blessing in my life. During this time, I’ve done a few IT projects for businesses and residents in the area. I also spent some time dabbling in website development using WordPress.

In 2020, we decided it was time for me to go back to work. In the course of my 3-year hiatus, I had noticed a lack of availability for comprehensive IT services in Kanab. I spoke to several local business owners who expressed their frustrations at having to call companies in from Cedar City or St. George to provide IT services, and then having to wait for weeks for a technician to make it to Kanab. I started Kinetic with the hope I can fill this void by providing competent and comprehensive IT solutions for our area.

Do you feel that you could use some help getting a handle on your IT systems? Maybe you feel you’re spending too much of your precious time and resources trying to make your systems work properly. Maybe you have concerns about cybersecurity. Or perhaps all you need is somebody to come fix things when they break. If so, I invite you to give me a call, shoot me a text or an email, or just schedule an appointment here on Kinetic’s website. No matter what your IT needs are, I can help!