Best Co-managed IT Services for Organizations with In-house IT Teams

Many organizations have invested in a skilled in-house IT team, but even the most capable departments face significant challenges. Specialized skill gaps, the demand for 24/7 support, and the relentless burden of routine maintenance can stretch internal resources thin. This is where finding the right co-managed IT services for organisations with in-house IT teams becomes a strategic advantage, not just another operational cost. This collaborative model augments your team's capabilities, allowing them to focus on high-value initiatives that drive business growth instead of getting bogged down in day-to-day firefighting.

A co-managed IT partnership empowers your internal staff by offloading time-consuming tasks and providing access to enterprise-grade tools and expertise that are often too expensive to acquire independently. Whether you need to bolster your cybersecurity posture, ensure round-the-clock monitoring, or get expert help with a complex cloud migration, the right partner fills critical gaps. This guide reviews the best co-managed IT providers who excel at collaboration, offering scalable support and advanced security to help you maximize the return on your existing IT investment. We evaluated each provider based on their partnership model, service depth, and ability to deliver predictable results for businesses with established IT support for construction and other demanding industries.

Why Your In-House IT Team Needs a Co-Managed Partner

Adopting a co-managed IT model delivers a direct return on investment by enhancing the efficiency and capabilities of your existing team. It’s about strategic reinforcement, not replacement. This partnership allows your business to address key operational challenges and unlock new opportunities for growth.

Bridge Critical Skill Gaps

Gain access to specialized expertise in cybersecurity, cloud infrastructure, or compliance without the high cost and lengthy process of hiring full-time specialists. A co-managed partner provides a deep bench of certified professionals on demand, ensuring you have the right skills for any technical challenge.

Boost Internal Team Productivity

Offload time-consuming tasks like help desk support, software patching, and endpoint management. Freeing your internal team from these routine responsibilities allows them to focus on strategic projects that align with core business goals and drive innovation.

Enhance Security and Compliance

Leverage enterprise-grade security tools and 24/7 monitoring from a dedicated Security Operations Center (SOC). This is a capability that is often prohibitively expensive to build and maintain in-house, providing a stronger defense against sophisticated cyber threats and simplifying compliance management.

Achieve 24/7/365 Coverage

Ensure continuous IT support and monitoring after hours, on weekends, and during staff vacations or sick leave. This eliminates dangerous gaps in coverage, reduces business risk, and provides peace of mind that your systems are always protected.

Optimize and Predict IT Costs

Transition from unpredictable capital expenditures to a predictable, flat-fee operational expense. This improves budget accuracy, reduces the total cost of ownership for essential IT tools and platforms, and makes financial planning more reliable.

The Business Case for Co-Managed IT: By the Numbers

The decision to partner with a co-managed IT provider is supported by clear operational and financial data. These statistics highlight the common challenges that an augmented IT model helps solve, reinforcing the business case for collaboration.

• Tier 1 help desk requests, such as password resets, can consume up to 40% of an in-house IT team's time.
• The average salary for a mid-level cybersecurity specialist in the U.S. is over $115,000 per year, not including benefits or tools.
• Building an in-house 24/7 Security Operations Center (SOC) can cost a small business over $1 million in the first year alone.
• More than 70% of organizations with an internal IT team use an external MSP for some part of their IT function, demonstrating the model's value.
• Predictable, flat-fee IT service models can reduce unforeseen IT expenditures by up to 30% compared to break-fix models.

How We Evaluated These Co-Managed IT Providers

To identify the best providers for businesses with existing IT departments, we used a set of criteria focused on partnership and tangible results. Our evaluation process was designed to highlight companies that truly understand how to augment and empower an in-house team.

• Co-Managed Focus: We prioritized providers who specialize in partnership models and have a proven track record of successfully collaborating with internal IT staff.
• Comprehensive Service Offerings: Each provider was evaluated on the breadth and depth of their services, particularly in high-demand areas like cybersecurity, cloud management, and 24/7 help desk support.
• Scalability and Flexibility: The list includes providers that offer flexible contracts and can scale services up or down to meet the evolving needs of an organization.
• Client Reviews and Industry Reputation: We analyzed third-party reviews, case studies, and industry recognition to assess customer satisfaction and demonstrated results.
• Transparent Pricing: Preference was given to providers offering clear, predictable pricing models, such as flat-fee plans, that align with business budgeting.

Top 10 Co-Managed IT Service Providers

The following providers have demonstrated a strong commitment to the co-managed model. They offer the tools, expertise, and collaborative approach necessary to enhance your in-house IT team's capabilities and drive business success.

Cortavo

Role: All-in-One Co-Managed IT Partner

Snapshot: Cortavo stands out with its transparent, flat-fee pricing model that bundles all essential IT functions into one predictable monthly cost. This includes 24/7 help desk support, advanced cybersecurity with a SOC, cloud management, connectivity, and even hardware procurement. Their approach is designed to simplify IT management and budgeting for organizations of all sizes. By acting as a direct extension of your in-house team, Cortavo handles the tactical, day-to-day tasks, freeing your staff to concentrate on strategic initiatives. Their comprehensive service stack ensures there are no gaps in your IT infrastructure, from endpoint security to network monitoring.

Core Strength: A predictable, all-inclusive flat-fee model that simplifies budgeting and eliminates surprise IT costs.

Best For: Organizations seeking a comprehensive and cost-effective partner to handle all aspects of IT support and security.

Pro Tip: Use their included vCIO services to align your IT strategy with long-term business goals.

SecureFrame IT

Role: Cybersecurity Augmentation Specialist

Snapshot: SecureFrame IT focuses exclusively on bolstering an organization's security posture. They integrate with your in-house team to provide advanced threat detection, 24/7 SOC monitoring, and incident response services that are often beyond the scope of internal departments. Their co-managed security model is built on collaboration, providing your team with access to enterprise-grade security information and event management (SIEM) tools and certified security analysts. This partnership allows your IT staff to manage daily operations confidently, knowing a dedicated team of experts is constantly monitoring for and responding to threats in the background.

Core Strength: Providing deep cybersecurity expertise and 24/7 SOC-as-a-Service to augment an internal team's security capabilities.

Best For: Businesses in high-risk industries that need to enhance their threat detection and response capabilities.

Pro Tip: Leverage their compliance experts to prepare for audits like SOC 2 or HIPAA.

CloudAscend

Role: Co-Managed Cloud Infrastructure Experts

Snapshot: CloudAscend specializes in helping organizations optimize their AWS and Azure environments. They partner with in-house IT teams to manage cloud infrastructure, control costs, and ensure security and compliance in the cloud. Their services are ideal for companies that have migrated to the cloud but lack the specialized expertise to manage it effectively. CloudAscend's engineers work alongside your team to architect scalable solutions, automate deployments, and monitor performance. This collaborative approach ensures your internal team builds its cloud knowledge while benefiting from expert oversight and support, preventing common issues like budget overruns and security misconfigurations.

Core Strength: Deep, certified expertise in managing, optimizing, and securing AWS and Azure cloud environments.

Best For: Organizations that rely heavily on public cloud infrastructure and need to optimize costs and performance.

Pro Tip: Use their cost optimization reviews to identify and eliminate wasteful cloud spending.

Continuum Solutions

Role: Business Continuity & Disaster Recovery Partner

Snapshot: Continuum Solutions focuses on ensuring your business remains operational through any disruption. They work with your IT team to design, implement, and test robust business continuity and disaster recovery (BCDR) plans. Their co-managed service includes managing offsite backups, providing failover environments, and leading recovery efforts during an actual event. This allows your internal team to focus on immediate, on-site needs while Continuum manages the complex backend processes of data restoration and system recovery. Their proactive approach and regular testing provide verifiable assurance that your business can withstand unexpected downtime.

Core Strength: Developing and managing comprehensive business continuity and disaster recovery strategies to ensure operational resilience.

Best For: Businesses that cannot afford any downtime and require a guaranteed recovery plan.

Pro Tip: Schedule biannual disaster recovery tests to validate the plan and train your team.

ScaleRight Tech

Role: Scalable IT Support for Growth Companies

Snapshot: ScaleRight Tech is designed for fast-growing startups and mid-market companies whose IT needs are rapidly evolving. They provide a flexible co-managed model that can scale support up or down as the company grows, adds new locations, or hires more employees. They specialize in onboarding new users, managing an expanding fleet of devices, and scaling infrastructure without friction. By handling the increasing volume of help desk tickets and infrastructure demands, ScaleRight allows your core IT team to focus on strategic projects that support the company's expansion rather than being overwhelmed by support requests.

Core Strength: Offering highly flexible and scalable IT support that adapts to a company's rapid growth.

Best For: Startups and high-growth businesses that need an IT partner who can keep pace with change.

Pro Tip: Integrate their team directly into your employee onboarding and offboarding workflows for efficiency.

ComplianceGuard

Role: Co-Managed IT for Regulated Industries

Snapshot: ComplianceGuard provides co-managed IT services specifically for organizations in regulated industries like healthcare (HIPAA), finance (FINRA), and legal. Their expertise lies in implementing and managing the specific technical controls required to maintain compliance. They work with your in-house team to conduct risk assessments, manage compliant data backups, and generate the documentation needed for audits. This partnership offloads the immense burden of compliance management from your internal staff, reducing the risk of costly fines and data breaches while ensuring your IT practices meet strict industry standards.

Core Strength: Deep expertise in implementing and managing IT systems to meet strict regulatory compliance requirements.

Best For: Healthcare, finance, or legal firms that need to ensure their IT practices are fully compliant.

Pro Tip: Use their quarterly compliance reviews to stay ahead of regulatory changes and audit requirements.

Nexus IT

Role: Network Infrastructure & Connectivity Specialists

Snapshot: Nexus IT focuses on the backbone of your business: your network. They partner with internal IT teams to design, monitor, and manage complex network infrastructures, including LAN, WAN, Wi-Fi, and SD-WAN solutions. Their network operations center (NOC) provides 24/7 monitoring to proactively identify and resolve connectivity issues before they impact users. This allows your IT team to avoid time-consuming network troubleshooting and focus on applications and user support. Nexus IT is ideal for organizations with multiple locations or a high dependency on network performance for their critical operations.

Core Strength: Proactive 24/7 monitoring and management of complex network infrastructures to ensure maximum uptime.

Best For: Organizations with multiple sites or complex networking needs that require high reliability and performance.

Pro Tip: Have them perform a network assessment to identify bottlenecks and security vulnerabilities.

Innovate Forward

Role: Project-Based Co-Managed IT Services

Snapshot: Innovate Forward offers a unique project-based approach to co-managed IT. Instead of a long-term contract for general support, they provide specialized teams to help your in-house staff execute specific, complex projects like an Office 365 migration, an ERP implementation, or a major infrastructure overhaul. Their model provides the exact expertise you need, for exactly as long as you need it. This empowers your team to take on ambitious digital transformation projects they couldn't handle alone, ensuring successful outcomes without the need to hire temporary staff or divert the entire team from their core duties.

Core Strength: Providing on-demand, specialized engineering talent for complex, project-based IT initiatives.

Best For: Companies that need expert assistance for a specific digital transformation project, not ongoing support.

Pro Tip: Define project scope and deliverables clearly upfront to maximize the value of the engagement.

Reliant Support

Role: 24/7 Help Desk & Endpoint Management

Snapshot: Reliant Support specializes in one thing: providing exceptional end-user support. They offer a white-labeled 24/7 help desk and robust endpoint management service that integrates seamlessly with your existing IT department. By taking over all Tier 1 and Tier 2 support tickets, as well as device patching and management, they free up your senior IT staff from the constant interruptions of user issues. This allows your most valuable technical resources to focus on high-impact infrastructure and strategy work, dramatically increasing the productivity and morale of your internal team.

Core Strength: A dedicated, 24/7 help desk and endpoint management service to offload all end-user support tasks.

Best For: Organizations whose senior IT staff are spending too much time on basic user support requests.

Pro Tip: Create a clear escalation path between their help desk and your internal team.

Strategic CIO Services

Role: vCIO and IT Strategy Augmentation

Snapshot: Strategic CIO Services provides high-level virtual Chief Information Officer (vCIO) services to work alongside your IT manager or director. They don't handle help desk tickets; instead, they focus on IT strategy, budgeting, vendor management, and technology roadmapping. This partnership is perfect for organizations where the internal IT leader is excellent at tactical execution but needs senior-level guidance to align technology with executive business goals. Their vCIOs act as mentors and strategic advisors, helping your team make smarter long-term technology investments and demonstrate the value of IT to the leadership team.

Core Strength: Providing executive-level IT leadership and strategic guidance on a fractional basis.

Best For: Businesses that need to elevate their IT strategy but don't need a full-time CIO.

Pro Tip: Involve their vCIO in your annual business planning and budgeting process from the start.

Getting Started with Co-Managed IT

Our process is designed to be straightforward, ensuring we understand your needs and can provide a solution that seamlessly integrates with your team.

1. Submit your IT needs (quick online form).
2. Get a consultation to match the right plan for your team size and goals.
3. Receive a flat-fee managed IT plan (cybersecurity, support, connectivity, cost management).
4. Onboard quickly with certified experts, 24/7 help desk, and ongoing technology support.

Why Choose Cortavo for Co-Managed IT?

We provide a comprehensive, predictable, and collaborative IT partnership that empowers your in-house team to succeed.

• Seamless IT management for onsite, hybrid, and remote workplaces.
• Transparent, flat-fee plans with predictable costs.
• Comprehensive services: cybersecurity, help desk, connectivity, hardware, and cost management.
• Peace of mind: recognized as a top managed service provider by G2, Cloudtango, and Clutch.

Find the Right Partner to Empower Your Team

Even the most effective in-house IT teams are often over-extended, facing specialized cybersecurity threats and the relentless demand for 24/7 availability. A co-managed IT partnership is a direct investment in the efficiency, security, and strategic capacity of your organization. This collaborative model empowers your internal experts by giving them the support and tools they need to perform at their best. Choosing a provider that functions as a true partner is critical to achieving the best business outcomes and maximizing the value of your technology investments. To find the right co-managed IT services for organisations with in-house IT teams, start a conversation about your specific goals and challenges. Let's talk!

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