As an IT professional, you likely have a firm grasp on how tech works at both your company and within your industry. But how much do you know about IT in other businesses and trades? In a series called Extreme IT, we highlight both tech and IT pros in interesting or unusual industries.

It’s a fair bet that when most people think of the Amish, they think of barn raisings, horses and buggies, and maybe the phenomenally well-crafted furniture they’ve become well known for. It’s also probably safe to say very few people think of the Amish as computer manufacturers and IT pros.

“An Amish computer technician sounds more like a joke than a reality,” acknowledged Steve Blank, owner of StarLux Illumination in Parkesburg, Pennsylvania.

Blank is a member of the Lancaster County Old Order Amish, a branch of the Mennonite Christian group that emphasizes to traditional social mores and technologies. He’s also a computer manufacturer, retailer, and IT service provider for his community.

StarLux started out as an off-grid lighting company about 15 years ago — which in itself may seem like an anachronism, since many people incorrectly assume the Amish don’t use electricity. Over time, so he could better run his business, Blank started using a Brother DP-500 series electronic typewriter with built-in spreadsheet software.

When other members of the community saw that the Brother was helping Blank run a more efficient business, he began selling them to the community. As helpful as the Brother models were, Blank quickly realized they had capability gaps that could be filled without offending the cultural traditions of his community.

This led him to develop his own device: a more sophisticated unit that uses standard computer parts called "The Guardian." Today a majority of his business comprises sales of Guardians, standard laptops/desktops, and IT services to his community.

Amish diversity

And while an Amish computer business may sound ridiculous to people who don’t know much about Amish culture, it’s really not as crazy as it seems. There is a huge spectrum within the Amish world when it comes their relationship with technology.

“The use of computers by Amish-owned firms varies a great deal from one settlement and subgroup to another,” said Steven M. Nolt, senior scholar at the Young Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies via email. ‘The more conservative groups do not make use of any computerization. Others allow computers for word processing, accounting, and email only (no video or internet connection); and still others allow more complete computerization and have a service contract with a non-Amish IT firm.”

Although Blank said he is “atypical,” he explained the use of modern technology is more pervasive in certain corners of the Amish world then most outsiders might suppose.

Nolt agreed: “In some Amish settlements, some Amish-owned businesses advertise their products online or have internet-connected computers in the workplace."

“The support for such services varies. In some cases, the Amish-owned firm simply hires a tech support company, like any other firm would, to create and manage a website on its behalf. In other cases, the business might be jointly owned, in an Amish and non-Amish partnership, and the non-Amish co-owner provides computer services.”

“So it would depend, but I don’t think it would be all that different or unusual from what one would find in a typical non-Amish business,” Nolt added. ”Amish-owned businesses are generally small, and have few employees and low overhead. So like small businesses everywhere, they contract out most tech support.”

The StarLux Guardian. (Photo credit: StarLux Illumination)

A barn full of gigabytes

Still, there probably aren’t too many people who would argue that Blank’s business isn’t unusual. He doesn’t have a showroom. He keeps his inventory in the loft of his barn. And the Guardian itself is certainly fascinating. For starters, each unit is custom made and housed in a hand-crafted wooden case built by an Amish carpenter.

“(The Guardian) is restricted to certain specs that we as a company work very hard to maintain,” he said. “And those specs are pretty basic. There’s no internet. No web surfing. There is internet connectivity, but no display of web pages with a browser. There’s no audio, no video, no games. And in order to keep that all intact, we retain the admin privileges to the machine.”

Although the machines are made to fit the individual need of each customer, the standard Guardian runs Windows 7 Professional with a COA. It comes with a quad-core Intel i5-4590 3.3-GHz processor with 6MB cache, and the system includes a 256GB SSD Samsung Evo 850 hard drive.

Each unit also includes 4 GB of DDR2 SDRAM memory (1333 MHz) and eight USB ports. Throw in a 19-inch LCD flat panel display, a 380-watt power supply, and a military-class MSI H81M-P33 motherboard, and you’ve got yourself a Guardian.

“That’s the basic model,” Blank said.”We usually keep one or two of those around already assembled. But for the most part we try to keep the parts here. We try to keep the housing, the casing here. And when somebody orders, some people might order with a 1TB drive instead of a 256 GB solid state drive. Some people need a graphics card and additional cooling. In order to be able to customize, we don’t want to have to have them put together and have to be taken apart.”

Over the last few years, Blank said he has been selling fewer Guardians and more of the laptops and desktops he keeps in his barn. While many of his customers mostly need computing in order to run QuickBooks, many of them need more firepower. For instance, a business that manufactures farm equipment may need 3D design software.

And of course, the needs of the community don’t end at the point of sale. While Blank emphasized that his community isn’t composed of “Luddites,” a lot of his customers are not completely computer literate when they make their purchase. He currently employs four technicians and one secretary who helps with software training.

“We take the order,” he explained. “We set it up. One of our technicians goes out and sets up the network or attaches to the (existing) network, attaches the printers. If it’s something you need, we will send (someone) out to teach you how to create an invoice, how to write checks, how to do deposits, how to get your customers in there, how to get you set up. QuickBooks is pretty much the only software that we provide software support for. We also have people who are set up with SOLIDWORKS, which is 3D drawing software. In that case, a lot of times the software vendor will give them the training that they need.”

The trickiest part of all of this might be integrating StarLux’s products and services into a community in a way that doesn’t offend cultural standards. To that end, Blank offers a vast swath of computing options, some of which you probably wouldn’t find at your neighborhood Fry’s. Many of the machines' only real need for connectivity is email. But that’s not enough for many of Blank’s customers.

“We will support anything from a wide-open machine, or I will also present them with the option of whitelisting, which is the internet is blocked except for a handful of websites they need for their business,” he said. “The other is filtered internet. There are different methods of filtering out objectionable content.

"And then there’s the accountability tool, which is a pretty powerful tool," Blank said. "Not only for objectionable websites, but — just what has this machine been doing today? Has this person been wasting time? Accountability is a powerful tool, whether a person wants to be accountable to their culture or an employer wants to hold their employees accountable to what they’re doing on the company machine.”

But can they do the Electric Slide?

Keep in mind, Blank is doing all of this in a community where the use of electricity was controversial not that long ago. He said more than 50 years ago, the Old Order Amish ruled against using electricity. But by the '80s, it became apparent the community would have to harness it in some form in order to stay viable. Blank explained that some Amish, such as himself, are tapped into the grid for power. But others find ways to generate their own.

“In a community like this, it’s hard to undo a ruling once it’s in place,” said. “So 50 years ago, they said we can’t have electricity off the grid. To flip that ruling is very, very difficult.”

But even traditional Amish communities find ways to adapt. And that’s how Blank managed to establish what is possibly the only Amish computing and IT firm in the world.

That said, Blank is very clear that he puts great thought into creating products and services that complement the Amish way of life. According to Blank, the Amish don’t view technology as a problem. He said it’s the threat of becoming a slave to that technology that is the underlying issue. And he knows the Amish aren’t the only ones who grapple with that balance. And he added there is really no need for anybody to feel like a prisoner to tech.

“Not everyone in mainstream society is trapped,” he said. “There are people who have decided to get control of their technology use. The tools are there if somebody really wants to. You don’t have to be Amish to be able to lift up your eyes from the screen for three hours. But the thing is the person has to make that decision to go down that path and be serious enough about their choice to actually implement the changes and follow through. It’s not an easy path for anybody who is addicted to technology.”

When you consider how many people have their faces in their smartphones from dawn 'til dusk, it’s hard not to think that Blank and the Lancaster County Old Order Amish might not be onto something. We could probably all use a little bit less screen time and a little more barn-raising.

Mason Lerner is a writer/editor in Houston. He has covered tech trends in the lab, marketing, and advertising industries for many publications.

