Our Co-Managed IT Services are designed to complement your existing staff, providing the tools, support, and expertise they need to stay ahead of growing demands. Don’t have an internal IT team yet? Our Managed IT Services provide full, end-to-end support instead.
Whether you’re scaling operations, tackling complex projects, or simply need extra hands on deck, we deliver enterprise-grade IT services without replacing your team — we empower them.
Co-Managed IT Services in Sarasota for Your In-House Team
Co-managed IT means your in-house IT person or team keeps day-to-day support, and we take on the work that’s hard to staff: infrastructure monitoring, patching, 24/7 security monitoring and a second set of expert hands when they’re stuck or stretched thin. Portolan Networks provides co-managed IT to businesses across Sarasota, Manatee and Charlotte counties.
What we take off your team’s plate
Who does what
Every co-managed setup is different. Some teams hand us the whole infrastructure; others want coverage for specific gaps. This is a typical starting point, and we adjust it to fit your team.
| Area | Your IT team | Portolan Networks |
|---|---|---|
| Day-to-day user support | Your team: First point of contact for your staff | Portolan: Backup during business hours when your team is out or overloaded |
| Server and network monitoring | Your team: Optional access to your organization in our RMM, including alerts | Portolan: 24/7 automated monitoring; we investigate and act on alerts |
| Patching and updates | Your team: Can request a different maintenance window | Portolan: Schedules, deploys and reports on patches, on our standard schedule unless you need a different window |
| Security monitoring and response | We run EDR/MDR with a 24/7 security operations center, DNS filtering and privileged access management. Who follows up with affected users is agreed up front. | |
| Backups | Your team: Handles routine restore requests, if you prefer | Portolan: Monitoring, verification and test restores |
| Escalations and complex problems | Your team: First look | Portolan: Second-tier help when your team is stuck |
| Projects (migrations, new offices) | Shared, divided project by project | |
| Onboarding and offboarding | Your team: Runs the process day to day | Portolan: Helps define and document it |
| Tools | Optional access to our ticketing system and remote monitoring (RMM) tools, so everyone can work from the same picture | |
When co-managed IT makes sense
- You have one IT person, and everything stops when they’re on vacation or out sick
- Your IT team spends its week on tickets and never gets to projects
- You need 24/7 security monitoring, but staffing a night shift isn’t realistic
- You’re growing faster than you can hire
If you don’t have anyone in-house, fully managed IT is the better fit.
The security baseline
When we manage your workstations, our standard baseline applies: EDR/MDR backed by a 24/7 security operations center, DNS filtering and privileged access management (PAM). If your team manages endpoints and already has tools in place, we’ll work with them where they’re solid. Where they aren’t, we’ll recommend changes. Your cyber insurance carrier will very likely expect the same controls either way. More on our cybersecurity services.
Common Questions
With co-managed IT, we take on monitoring and management of your servers and network infrastructure, while your in-house team continues handling day-to-day support — and we’re there to help when they’re stuck on a problem or stretched thin. Many co-managed clients also add our security stack (endpoint detection and response, DNS filtering, and privileged access management) and gain access to our ticketing and remote monitoring tools. Every co-managed relationship is different — we work with you to divide responsibilities in whatever way fits your team best.
Yes — that’s exactly what co-managed IT is built for. We integrate with your internal team’s existing workflows rather than replacing them, and there’s no minimum team size required to make it work. Having some existing documentation of your network helps us get up to speed faster, but it’s not a requirement to get started.
Typically: patching and system updates, security monitoring and incident response, backup oversight, and being a second set of hands for troubleshooting when your team hits something outside their expertise or bandwidth. Exactly which tasks we take on is tailored to your team’s needs and our capabilities — some clients want us handling infrastructure entirely, others just want backup coverage for specific gaps.
Both. We make sure your team is comfortable with any tools we provide access to, like our ticketing system or RMM, and we’ll work with you to define or refine processes like computer onboarding and offboarding. We’re also glad to walk your team through specific tasks — setting up GPOs or firewall rules, for example. For broader IT training or certifications, we’re happy to point you toward good resources, even if it’s outside what we provide directly.
It depends on your specific needs, but co-managed IT avoids many of the costs that come with a new hire — recruiting, benefits, PTO coverage, and ongoing training. It also means you’re not relying on a single person’s availability: between our monitoring systems, help desk coverage, and support network, your team has backup even when one person is out sick or on vacation.
