What Twenty-Five Years Taught Us
A conversation with ATS Founder & Principal Tim Conley
On August 6, 2001, ATS Group opened its doors with a simple objective: help customers solve infrastructure challenges through thoughtful engineering and trusted technical advice.
Twenty-five years later, the technologies have changed considerably, but the principles behind the company have changed very little.
To mark ATS Group’s silver anniversary, we sat down with founder and principal Tim Conley to reflect on the decisions that shaped ATS, the lessons learned along the way, and the values that continue to guide the company today.
The interview captures that conversation. The highlights that follow expand on several of the themes Tim discusses and provide additional context around the company’s evolution over the past twenty-five years.
Watch the full conversation:
It Started with Customers
Ask Tim about the beginning of ATS, and he doesn’t start with a business plan.
He starts with customers.
Before founding ATS, Tim and his co-founder, Chris Churchey, spent years at IBM, working with organizations on enterprise infrastructure projects. It was an experience that shaped both their technical expertise and their approach to solving customer challenges.
As they worked with more organizations, they also began to see opportunities to contribute beyond the implementation itself. They wanted to spend more time helping customers think through architecture, long-term planning, and the decisions that happen before technology is deployed.
As Tim explains:
“We knew there was more value that we could provide to customers… We could do a way better job for our customers outside of IBM than inside of IBM.”
That idea became ATS.
Looking back, that same philosophy is easy to see throughout the company’s evolution. ATS expanded its services, added new capabilities, and developed Galileo, but the objective remained remarkably consistent: helping customers make informed decisions and solve complex infrastructure challenges.
Experience Changes the Conversation
In 2001, enterprise IT looked very different than it does today.
IBM Power environments, enterprise storage, disaster recovery planning, and large infrastructure implementations made up much of the work. Since then, virtualization, cloud computing, automation, hybrid infrastructure, observability, and artificial intelligence have all changed how organizations build and operate their environments.
Those changes also changed the conversations customers were having with ATS.
New technologies brought new opportunities, but they also introduced new questions. How do we modernize without disrupting the business? Where should we automate? Which investments will have the greatest long-term impact? How do we prepare for what’s next without overcomplicating what we have today?
Those are the kinds of conversations that have shaped ATS’s work for the past twenty-five years.
During our conversation, Tim reflected on how much the technology has evolved over the past twenty-five years. What stood out just as much, though, was how often the fundamentals stayed the same. Customers still want practical advice. They still want someone who understands their environment. They still want confidence that the recommendations they’re receiving are grounded in experience, not just the latest trend.
That perspective has shaped ATS through every stage of its growth, and it continues to influence the way the company approaches both services and the ongoing evolution of Galileo.
Credibility Is Earned
As the conversation turned to advice, Tim shared a principle that’s guided him throughout his career.
“Know what you know. Know what you don’t know.”
It wasn’t presented as a leadership lesson or a company philosophy. It was practical advice for anyone working in technology.
Enterprise IT is full of difficult decisions, and no one has every answer immediately. Tim believes customers respect honesty far more than certainty. If the answer isn’t known, say so. Then do the work to find it.
That approach has shaped the way ATS works with customers from the beginning. Technical expertise is expected in this industry. Credibility comes from being transparent, preparing thoroughly, and following through on commitments.
Relationships Outlast Projects
One story from the interview stood out because it had nothing to do with a major implementation or technology milestone.
Just a phone call.
A few days before we sat down together, Tim had been speaking with a customer he’d worked with for nearly two decades. They were discussing a new initiative, but what stayed with him wasn’t the project itself. It was hearing the confidence that had been built over years of working together.
Those relationships don’t develop during a single engagement.
They’re built over time through thoughtful recommendations, consistent execution, and being available when the next challenge arises.
Tim summed it up simply:
“Your existing customer is your best customer.”
It’s an observation that reflects how ATS has approached customer relationships since the beginning. Projects have defined moments. Long-term partnerships have defined the company.
A Consistent Approach
Toward the end of our conversation, I asked Tim two questions.
The first was what he wished customers, partners, and employees understood better about ATS.
His answer wasn’t a technology or a service. It was the amount of preparation that goes into every successful engagement. He talked about the planning that happens before a project begins, the travel, the disaster recovery exercises, and the work that often takes place outside normal business hours. Much of that effort is invisible to customers, and that’s exactly the point. When the preparation is done well, projects tend to feel less complicated because many of the difficult decisions have already been made.
I also asked what excites him most about the future.
Once again, Tim’s answer came back to people. He talked about finding exceptional engineers, watching teammates become lifelong friends, and building a company that customers continue to trust.
Listening to the interview, those two answers seemed closely connected.
Over the years, ATS has expanded its services, developed Galileo, grown its team, and adapted to an industry that looks very different than it did in 2001. Through all of that, the company’s approach has remained remarkably consistent. Do quality work. Continue learning. Be honest with customers. Invest in good people.
When I asked Tim what he hoped people would say about ATS another twenty-five years from now, he didn’t talk about growth, technology, or the next milestone.
He smiled and said:
“They were awesome.”
It’s a simple answer, and after hearing him reflect on the past twenty-five years, it also feels like an appropriate one.
Thank You
To our customers, partners, employees, and everyone who has been part of the ATS story, thank you.
Your trust, your collaboration, and the opportunity to solve meaningful challenges together have shaped this company from the very beginning.
We’re grateful for the past twenty-five years, and we’re looking forward to continuing the journey together.
thank you for being part of our story.
25 Years of ATS
Browse a timeline highlighting some of the milestones that shaped ATS from 2001 through today.
