5 questions with Ryan Jennison

Ryan Jennison sells a product he dubs a “cloud in a box,” which sounds mysterious and kind of cool.

Jennison, 32, is CEO of Applianz Technologies, which sells AppEazy, a server that gives small and medium-sized businesses remote connections, off-site backup and disaster recovery, hardware warranties and managed virtualization.

Originally from the tiny western Kansas town of Healy, Jennison moved to the Wichita area three years ago to follow his fiancee. He worked in sales and marketing for the company before he and partner Brandon Friesen bought it in June from company founder Mark Janzen.

He is married to Sonya and they have a 7-month-old son.

Q. 1 What is a “cloud in a box”?

A. It’s an all-in-one cloud-featured server that you can have on your site. It allows you to integrate your software with your local environment or infrastructure. … My pitch is that it’s peace of mind for the small business owner. They can worry about growing the business and not worry about the technology.

Q. 2 What prompted you to buy the company?

A. I saw the value in what the company is doing and the future of this market.

Q. 3 Do you ever have trouble explaining to non-tech people what exactly it is you do?

A. You bet. IT is one of those things that people use every day but don’t always know how it works. For people who need technology but don’t understand what it is, that’s where we come in.

Q. 4 What’s the tech scene in Wichita like?

A. In the tech scene there are some exciting things coming in Wichita. There’s more interest from the community in what the tech side can do.

Q. 5 How do you pronounce Applianz?

A. Applianzz, not Appliance. … But we’ve gotten used to answering it both ways.

This story was originally published September 3, 2014 at 4:23 PM with the headline "5 questions with Ryan Jennison."