The person who'll actually answer the phone.
Media78 is a specialist firm, founder-led — on purpose. When you hire us, you work directly with someone who has run production IT since 2001, led it for a Florida city through hurricane season, and operates our own network on our own hardware.
- Running production systems since 2001
- Former municipal IT director, Florida coastal town
- Operator of AS36065 — our own network
- Based in Destin, Florida
Hi, I'm Gavin.
I started working in production IT in 2001 and never left the systems that have to stay up. Over 25 years I've been responsible for networks and infrastructure where failure wasn't an inconvenience — it was a town without 911, a global operation losing a timezone of work, or a regulated producer failing an audit.
I built Media78 to bring that standard of work to organizations on the Emerald Coast that have outgrown "the one person who's good with computers," but aren't big enough to hire a CIO. You get the planning, the infrastructure and the judgement of someone who has done this at scale — delivered by a specialist firm small enough that you always know who's accountable.
What I do now: I act as a virtual CIO and infrastructure partner — I set the roadmap, run the network and hosting on hardware we own (AS36065), make sure the backups actually restore, and keep the day-to-day support disciplined underneath it. I draft the plan; you approve every change.
Where I learned this work
Four careers in regulated, high-stakes IT.
The working definition of information security — handle it carefully, keep it confidential, keep it available, and prove it hasn't changed — isn't theory for me. Each of these taught one part of it.
Handling
Student data for a Florida charter school.
I led student-data reporting for a Florida charter school — small operation, big consequences. Records had to be classified correctly, retained on schedule, and reported with precision under FERPA and Florida's student-privacy rules, because every audit fed straight into the school's budget and staffing.
Classify it, retain it, control who touches it, and be able to prove all three — that's the discipline every compliance regime rewards. It's the instinct I bring whether the framework is FERPA for a school or the FTC Safeguards Rule for a business.
Confidentiality
Network infrastructure for a global operation.
I ran network infrastructure for a global organization with follow-the-sun teams across Europe and Asia — 24/7 operations, intercontinental coordination, and a regulatory environment where every byte of personal data carried legal weight.
When data is regulated, confidentiality isn't a feature. It's a license to operate.
Availability
IT director for a Florida coastal town.
As IT director for a Florida coastal town — a permanent population plus roughly fifteen million annual visitors — I answered to taxpayers, council, police, fire and utilities. Hurricane season was the annual exercise of keeping 911 working when the power went out, then standing in front of a council to explain how.
It's why continuity at Media78 is rehearsed, not promised.
Immutability
IT operations for a global Scotch whisky producer.
I led IT operations for one of the world's largest Scotch whisky producers — manufacturing, distribution and regulated production across a global supply chain. In regulated industries the question isn't whether the data is secure; it's whether you can prove it hasn't changed.
Production records, batch numbers and excise records all had to survive scrutiny. Immutability is what keeps an audit defensible.
Why a specialist firm, not a big MSP
Big enough to do the work. Small enough to be accountable.
A large MSP sells you a tier and routes you to whoever's free. You become a ticket. A founder-led specialist firm is the opposite trade: you get senior judgement on every decision, and the person who planned your IT is the person who answers when it matters. The honest version of "small" is a feature — fewer clients, deeper work, nothing hidden behind "our team."
The fair question for a founder-led firm is what happens when I'm not available. The answer is built in: the work is documented and automated, not carried in one person's head. Runbooks, monitoring and tested backups mean your IT keeps running on the systems — not on me being reachable.
Want to talk it through?
Coffee in Destin, a call if you're farther up the coast,
or thirty minutes on a video call if that's all you've got.