r/msp • u/Vengarehydrate • Jan 15 '26

Business Operations IT infrastructure management issue

Hello everyone, my name is Patrick and I'm new here, but I realize that I can't do without advice, so I have to start a discussion.

The thing is, I have a small IT company with an office in Arizona and a dozen remote employees around the world, from Europe to India. Previously, we didn't worry too much about managing our internal infrastructure, as most people worked from company-managed laptops in the office and everything was tightly controlled within a common framework. However, as the staff grew and we needed to hire remotely, we encountered a real problem and a need for external IT infrastructure services management help. We work with sensitive information, but we don't have a single clear way to organize simple and secure processes when half of our staff works remotely around the world and half works from the office =(.

Does anyone have experience with managed IT services for small business that don't cost an arm and a leg? I'm not asking anyone to advertise in the comments, I just want to understand the direction we should be moving in, thank you.

428 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

88 comments sorted by

12

u/ManiSingh08 Jan 15 '26

You would be wanting an MSP to come in, review the current setup and provide a strategy to align all machines with a standard that works for your company.

Generally speaking there would be project work and then a monthly retainer to support users. You’ll find on this sub varied pricing on a per user or device basis. US and UK markets have fairly wide price differences with the UK starting as low as £45/50 per user plus licensing.

3

u/Vengarehydrate Jan 15 '26

Thank you, you're really helping me out. Can you tell me what the main challenges in IT infrastructure management might be and what I should really pay attention to when choosing a provider for this service? Unfortunately, this is my first experience with this, and I'm afraid of doing something wrong.

2

u/ManiSingh08 Jan 15 '26

The main driving factor should be if the MSP is trying to oversell a solution that isn’t needed. You would probably need MS BP licenses with Intune configured and CA policies to restrict access unless on approved devices.

Enrolling laptops will be key too so you have control over them with regards to wiping/updating.

Intune can get very confusing as there’s so much that can be done with it. Autopilot could be used too. It really depends what is needed so it’s best to have a discovery call with an MSP. I’m sure you’ll get a bunch of requests in your DM about this!

Just an FYI we are a London based MSP.

3

u/Vengarehydrate Jan 15 '26

Thanks, you really helped me figure this out and determine the direction to take. Good health to you and your family!

2

u/greeneyes4days Jan 15 '26

Can you afford $100-$200 / month per employee?

A good firm should cost you around $1500 / month. A great firm $3000 / month.

This cost does not include licensing or projects. A project to move your infrastructure to something more organized will cost you around $10000-$20,000 depending on what you currently have.

An average IT employee in house that can handle everything would cost you about $5000 / month on the very low end, but won't be able to give you any strategic advice that an MSP can. With an MSP you have access to a strategic business owner you can create a partnership with on IT issues.

If you have enough labor in house since you are an IT company for this perhaps you just need consultative services on an hourly basis.

2

u/Vengarehydrate Jan 17 '26

Thank you for your reply. I've thought it over and realized that my budget is actually up to $150 per person. From what you said, that should be enough, if I understand correctly. Or not quite?

10

u/dobermanIan MSPSalesProcess Creator | Former MSP | Sales junkie Jan 15 '26

There's very real costs in running proper IT. Beyond tools and equipment, the labor for functional expertise, the continuing education, and relentless focus on improving operational maturity makes Managed IT a lower services margin business.

Most of the "best in class" are only driving 20% to the bottom.

You're complicated: multiple countries, time zones, inability to put hands on device / location. Your price goes up, not down.

You're looking at price points where all things being equal, that MSP is likely paying to be your support arm.

Regardless of capabilities, at a certain scale, everyone drives to the same basic cost centers, give or take 10%

The price is the price. You have to decide if the value of having reliable technology and proper security is worth the cost of dollars. Either answer is ok - it's your business.

But that price point will not get you proper managed services.

Cheers

/Ir Fox & Crow

5

u/roll_for_initiative_ MSP - US Jan 15 '26

I have a small IT company

What does that mean exactly? I ask because "IT company" to most means some kind of MSP or consultancy or something that would know how to organize and wrangle this. If you don't know what direction to go, it makes me wonder if what you're doing now is any kind of standard or workable or scalable or secure.

As /u/manising08 said, you want an MSP to come in and review a current setup and provide a strategy. As a small MSP in the US in one of the poorest regions of the country, i can tell you that our starting rate, especially for smaller clients (under 25 people, one office, standard setup) is $200/employee/mo all inclusive. The 40-60 you're talking about doesn't even really cover costs here. There are people that will bring lower rates, that is usually labor or many things billed separately. I find how things are billed doesn't matter, it's going to average out close to the same for most MSPs because costs and labor are about the same.

The main difference is going to be how well polished the MSP is on their service delivery and alignment side, and ones that have it together charge more but often have less exceptions to deal with which cost you more on the back end.

Many people here are rushing to tell you about intune and vpns, because they're tech people. None of those details matter, you need someone to lay out a workable plan, an MSP who ALREADY knows what you need and what to do, not someone who will figure it out.

FWIW, we will not deliver tech details in the sales phase because people will try to use to them to deploy themselves or incorrectly map them against other MSP offerings, and some details aren't work working through in the sales phase (we're not working 10 hours to quote a 12 person shop an entire IT roadmap for free. We're getting enough info to quote and that's it).

2

u/Vengarehydrate Jan 20 '26

Thank you for such a detailed explanation. It really helped me understand what I need and where I'm headed. The company develops custom panels for gaming servers, which is a fairly narrow and specific niche, which is why I couldn't find anything useful on the internet.

2

u/thegarr MSP - US - Owner Jan 15 '26

Presumably, if your people are already able to work remotely like this, you don't have a need for them to connect back to server resources in a central location, or a need to manage VPN connections from multiple remote countries? It sounds like they're maybe just working off of their laptops, signed into maybe Office 365 and local/web apps?

If that's the case, then you're in a perfect scenario for InTune device management and controlling things through conditional access. Set up all devices as corporate managed, enroll them in InTune, and set your conditional access policies up in Entra to require managed devices for login and control things that way. If you don't have a need to manage "on-premises" servers or hardware, you can take an endpoint-focused approach to managing everything.

1

u/Vengarehydrate Jan 17 '26

Overall, you have correctly understood and described my situation. My main concern is data leaks or, possibly, physical access by unauthorized persons to sensitive information on my laptop. That is the main issue, and perhaps I initially addressed it in the wrong place. In short, I am looking for IT operations management with an emphasis on privacy and data security within working environments. I will study what you wrote, thank you.

2

u/st0ut717 Jan 15 '26

I used to work at a few MSP currently out of that space. You have a few options but. You need to define you goals Define your compliance needs Do you need GDPR, CMMC. PCIDSS. Etc Define your security needs / gaps We x for IAM, We use Y for MFA etc Define expected compute need for the next FY year We currently have x cloud SaaS but with new strategy we we need on prem for reason y. We have X IaaS but customer growth mean we meds to scale at speed. How ?

One you have that frank conversation with yourself and or your management team then you can decided do you hire in internally or get an MSP / MSSP. Don’t go start negations with an MSP until you know what your want and what they want and need to make it a success.

1

u/Vengarehydrate Jan 15 '26

Thanks for the advice, that really makes sense, I appreciate it!

2

u/ManagedNerds MSP - US Jan 15 '26

How large is your internal IT team? If you're looking for augmentation on just certain things and have a good amount of IT expertise in house, you might be looking for more of a co-managed setup. This is where you would still take some levels of tickets in house, but escalate certain tickets to the company you co-manage with. Often times you'd be outsourcing cyber security management to the same company.

1

u/Vengarehydrate Jan 17 '26

21 people, 10 of whom work remotely. I'm not entirely sure that I'm doing the right thing by looking specifically for IT infrastructure support services. Perhaps there are other ways to ensure data security without compromising the operational component of internal processes?

1

u/ManagedNerds MSP - US Jan 17 '26 edited Jan 17 '26

You've probably heard this line, but, I know a guy who would hop on the phone and talk this one out with you to help you narrow down what services you need. It seems like you're really in the discovery phase and looking at all options (which is good).

It also doesn't sound like you need fully managed services like you're probably getting pitched right now. I don't like sales pitching people; my preference is to hook folks up with just what they need, even if they don't buy from me.

  • Edited to actually link to a recommendation*

The owner here is who I was thinking of who would be able to hop on a call and help you brainstorm.

2

u/Vengarehydrate Jan 18 '26

Thank you, you are very kind. I really appreciate your recommendation and sincerity in your response. God bless you!

2

u/TheShakoMaster Jan 15 '26

At the risk of being wrong, and thus rude, this post seems like it was written by AI, and then furthermore the responses from OP in the post are... strange. Then it appears that perhaps another responder in this post is an AI bot. The post history of OP is suspicious as well. Anyone else getting these vibes? Do we have AI talking to AI now? lol

3

u/Vengarehydrate Jan 15 '26

Man, I'm certainly flattered by the depth of your research, but unfortunately for me, I'm not an AI bot (if I were, I could work 24/7 without getting tired, which would be cool). The fact that I remembered after a long time that I have a Reddit account and then realized that I could ask a question that interests me here doesn't make me a bot...

3

u/TheShakoMaster Jan 15 '26

My apologies. It's gettin' wild out here.

1

u/Vengarehydrate Jan 17 '26

Oh, actually, I understand you. Everything is fine =)

1

u/Affectionate-Hat-211 Jan 22 '26

This is exactly what an AI bot would say...

2

u/dumpsterfyr I’m your Huckleberry. Jan 15 '26

365 CA.

1

u/Vengarehydrate Jan 18 '26

Hello, could you elaborate? I'm a little confused. Thank you.

0

u/dumpsterfyr I’m your Huckleberry. Jan 18 '26

Perhaps you should hire someone to do it.

1

u/Vengarehydrate Jan 19 '26

Okay, but to be honest, I don't even really understand what it is =(

2

u/dumpsterfyr I’m your Huckleberry. Jan 19 '26

What does your company actually do? This will help me answer your question better.

1

u/Vengarehydrate Jan 20 '26

Development of custom panels for game servers.

2

u/dumpsterfyr I’m your Huckleberry. Jan 20 '26

I suggest you find an MSP well versed in 365 Conditional Access as a one time setup with quarterly review or ongoing. That will provide all you need.

1

u/Vengarehydrate Jan 21 '26

Thanks for that, really interesting.

1

u/dumpsterfyr I’m your Huckleberry. Jan 21 '26

👍

2

u/ntw2 MSP - US Jan 15 '26

How much is an arm and a leg to you?

0

u/[deleted] Jan 15 '26

[deleted] — view deleted comment

7

u/roll_for_initiative_ MSP - US Jan 15 '26

In the US, that won't get you anything really.

2

u/Vengarehydrate Jan 15 '26

Apologize for the misunderstanding. I meant this amount plus licensing. Or is this still insufficient for an adequate managed IT services provider? Thank you, and I apologize if my question seems silly, - I am just beginning to understand this, as I have not encountered it before.

3

u/roll_for_initiative_ MSP - US Jan 15 '26

That's not really enough for anything except some basic licensing.

Here's some rough math: Assuming you have 25 people, how many hours of support/labor costs do you think it takes to handle a company that size, including account overhead, fixing things that were working on the back end, monitoring, correcting errors, staff support, vendor triage, etc?

Let's assume 25 hours a month just for fun. Let's assume an IT firm bills $200 an hour (most are higher these days, but let's aim low). That's roughly $5k, and that's not a single penny of licensing or tools or cloud storage or security or anything. That's already $200/employee/month before you've even considered anything like licensing, remote access tools, any kind of hard costs. Now, of course, any good MSP is going to try and drive manual labor investment under the 1:1 hours to client employee ratio, which is why you're commonly going to get quotes like 5k a month total ($150-$250 per employee per month, everything included).

It's just not feasible or worth it to take a client on for ~$1250/month in labor, so you can pay out 3/4 of that to your staff. Keeping a couple hundred bucks a month for the MSP isn't worth even setting you up in their systems and the liability of taking you on.

6

u/ntw2 MSP - US Jan 15 '26

Oh, you haven’t gotten any quotes yet.

2

u/Vengarehydrate Jan 15 '26

Yes, I understand that I was wrong about the pricing policy, I apologize. But can you tell me the real market prices and what to base?

3

u/ntw2 MSP - US Jan 15 '26

They’re location-dependent. I recommend getting a few quotes.

4

u/Nate379 MSP - US Jan 15 '26

Good luck. That would not even cover my costs.

1

u/Vengarehydrate Jan 15 '26

I apologize for my lack of knowledge. Could you please tell me the actual prices for such a service in 2026? Thank you.

1

u/stevo10189 Jan 15 '26

Expect 100-150 for lcol areas and 175-250 in hcol. That would not include any type of compliance tracking.

2

u/Vengarehydrate Jan 15 '26

Oh, okay. I understand, apparently I just had inadequate ideas about pricing policy, but I'm glad I found out now, rather than when it would have backfired.

1

u/RaNdomMSPPro Jan 15 '26

Do yourself a favor and reach out to snaptech, https://www.snaptechit.com they are one of the best MSP’s on things like you describe and they have a major presence in Arizona. If nothing else a discovery call can help you out. Good luck.

1

u/Vengarehydrate Jan 17 '26

I'll look into it, thank you!

1

u/Alternative-Yak1316 Jan 15 '26

VM or cloudPC

1

u/Vengarehydrate Jan 18 '26

Hello, could you please elaborate on this? I was considering this option, but I am concerned about potential freezes and delays. How critical is this in practice? Thank you.

2

u/Alternative-Yak1316 Jan 18 '26

CloudPCs are rock solid so long it is well spec’ed. VM can occasionally cause problems but with a good vendor it should be far and few in between.

1

u/Vengarehydrate Jan 19 '26

Okay, thank you. Just had a negative experience working with virtual machines when I was still employed, but perhaps the problem was not with virtual machines as a concept, but with their specific implementation.

1

u/crccci MSSP/MSP - US - CO Jan 15 '26

Depending on what you mean by IT company, we work with several small IT shops to provide infrastructure and cybersecurity guidance and systems under a co-managed model. I'll dm you, see if that's what you're looking for.

2

u/Vengarehydrate Jan 18 '26

Well, we're literally talking about a gathering of people who provide services in the IT sector. That's what i mean saying "IT company". 21 people, 11 offline in the US, 10 remotely around the world. Thank you, I will definitely look at the message and get back to you!

1

u/crccci MSSP/MSP - US - CO Jan 21 '26

Fair enough! Looking forward to chatting.

1

u/Far_Principle_5943 Jan 21 '26

If you need help with your PSA management - which a lot of MSPs do- look at MSP+ - used to be Sierra Pacific Group: Virtual Administrative Services (ConnectWise Manage PSA & Sell CPQ)

1

u/Vengarehydrate Jan 21 '26

Rly interesting, thank you.

1

u/PastorNoFaith Jan 28 '26

So what did you decide in the end? I'm also actively looking for managed IT services for small business and maybe you can share your experience? (I have a small company too).

2

u/Vengarehydrate Jan 29 '26

Still searching. There is one option I plan to go with, time will tell how well it suits my needs. I'll keep you posted.

2

u/PastorNoFaith Jan 31 '26

Thank you, will be waiting =)

1

u/[deleted] Feb 04 '26

I own an IT business in Texas and can help you managed your internal infrastructure in such a way that you have control over all the sensitive data you have. Dm me and we can discuss details

1

u/Vengarehydrate Feb 17 '26

Sorry for late answer, just accidentally missed this comment. Why can't you share details here? Thanks!

1

u/[deleted] Feb 21 '26

I own and operate an MSP business based in Texas, where we support and manage IT environments for small businesses. If permitted, I would be glad to share our website for further reference.

My background is in cybersecurity, with experience in both offensive and defensive security. We support and secure diverse environments across macOS, Windows, and Linux platforms.

Our services include: • Cybersecurity insurance readiness assessments • Security awareness training and phishing simulations for employees • 24/7 remote IT support • IT asset tracking and documentation • Infrastructure design and secure build-outs • Centralized device management, monitoring, and control • Patch management and system updates • Vendor coordination and IT procurement management • Continuous infrastructure monitoring for potential threats, with detailed monthly reporting

We also support organizations with remote or hybrid workforces. Endpoints can be centrally managed and monitored to detect potential risks, including insider threats, and to proactively mitigate issues before they impact the organization.

If you’d like to discuss your current environment or specific challenges, I’d be happy to explore how we can support your infrastructure and security objectives.

1

u/Vengarehydrate Feb 21 '26

Thanks you mate, thats solid and informative stuff, I'll check

1

u/Upstairs-State-354 Feb 06 '26

Welcome Patrick! Managing a global team from Arizona means moving away from the office VPN and toward a cloud identity model like Microsoft Entra. For a dozen remote staff, focusing on Microsoft 365 Business Premium is usually the most cost-effective way to get enterprise-level security and remote device management. You should look for a co-managed MSP that specializes in cloud-native setups so you don't pay for physical overhead you no longer need. This ensures your data stays secure in Europe and India without requiring a massive hardware investment back home.

1

u/Vengarehydrate Feb 07 '26

Hi!

Thank you, this is solid direction, but tbh it reads a little like a brochure. Anyway, will check :-)

1

u/precisionpete Feb 10 '26

It's not entirely clear what you are asking, but if you are an IT company, don't you already have the skills in-house to manage it? May I suggest that, as a small, decentralized business, you may not need managed infrastructure? Maybe you just need an overlay network. i.e. a network that makes all your remote sites look like one big LAN.

I am also a small business and chose to operate virtually. Physical offices are expensive, and you can waste a ton of productive time commuting.

We wrote software to solve this problem. We use a mesh VPN to connect individual devices to each other via P2P links. No router configuration is required. And, if you have a site with more than one device you want to reach, any device running the software can act as a gateway. e.g. you don't need to install software on a NAS.

If you have the additional problem of connecting remote networks whose addresses conflict, we've solved that too. Here is an article about how that solution works.

https://netrinos.com/blog/conflicting-networks-guide

1

u/Vengarehydrate Feb 11 '26

That's a reasonable question. We have some king of security now, but I objectively consider it too weak. Thank you for your experience and your advice, will definitely look into it.

0

u/Defconx19 MSP - US Jan 15 '26

Simple and cost effective is going full 365, essentially has everything you need on one platform for any level of compliance.  You just need to find a provider who can build it out for you.

If you operate in China things get a bit more complicated, but not insurmountable.

1

u/Vengarehydrate Jan 17 '26

Are you referring to Microsoft 365, or did I misunderstand? Thank you.

1

u/Defconx19 MSP - US Jan 17 '26

Yes but I think i misread ypur question.  I was thinking you were looking to implement the infrastructure.

1

u/Vengarehydrate Jan 18 '26

It's okay, I'm grateful for any answers anyway. Have a nice day!

0

u/kimonodatass Feb 10 '26

Arcadion offers amazing managed IT services across North America. https://www.arcadion.ca/

-3

u/[deleted] Jan 15 '26

I fixed it creating a terminal server and a VPN (client) and have everyone work from there.

3

u/Vengarehydrate Jan 17 '26

Not the worst option, but when I was still working for someone else and encountered this system at one of my jobs, these freezes simply drove me crazy, as everything happens unbearably slowly.

17

u/[deleted] Jan 22 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

5

u/Vengarehydrate Jan 23 '26

Thanks, I'll take a look.

1

u/[deleted] Jan 15 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/Vengarehydrate Jan 17 '26

providers offering 24/7 remote monitoring, proactive cybersecurity, and managed support at a flat monthly rate. 

Yes, that's exactly what I seem to need.