Co-Managed IT — The Team Behind Your Team
Co-managed IT for NY/NJ businesses with an existing in-house IT person or department. We add 24/7 SOC monitoring, tier-3 engineering escalation, after-hours coverage, vacation and sick-day backup, and the full security stack — without replacing your team. Tools-only, co-managed, and fully-managed engagement models.
What's included
- 24/7 SOC monitoring (managed detection & response) layered on your environment
- Tier-3 engineering escalation for incidents your in-house lead cannot resolve alone
- After-hours and weekend coverage so your IT person actually has nights and weekends
- Vacation, sick-day, and parental-leave coverage with documented handoff
- AV / EDR (Microsoft Defender for Endpoint, CrowdStrike, SentinelOne, Huntress)
- RMM (NinjaOne, ConnectWise, Datto, N-able) deployed and tuned to your environment
- Image-based backup with off-site replication and quarterly recovery testing
- Compliance documentation maintenance — HIPAA, PCI-DSS, NY SHIELD, SOC 2-aware
- Cyber-insurance attestation and renewal-questionnaire support
- Quarterly business reviews with your IT lead and leadership
- Documentation handover so your team owns the runbook
The team behind your team
Most NY/NJ businesses with internal IT live in the same trap: one talented in-house person carrying the entire IT operation. They handle helpdesk, infrastructure, security, vendor management, projects, and the after-hours pager — usually all of it. They do good work, but they are exhausted, they have not had a real vacation in two years, and on the day they finally take one your business runs on a prayer.
Co-managed IT solves that problem without replacing your in-house team. We become the engineering depth, the 24/7 monitoring, the tier-3 escalation, and the vacation backup — so your in-house lead can stop being constantly on-call and start doing the strategic work they were actually hired for.
What co-managed actually delivers
24/7 SOC monitoring. Modern endpoint detection (CrowdStrike, SentinelOne, Microsoft Defender for Endpoint, Huntress) layered on every device, watched by US-based human analysts around the clock. Most ransomware lands at 2 a.m. on a Sunday because the attacker knows nobody is watching. SOC fills that gap.
Tier-3 engineering escalation. When your in-house lead hits something they cannot resolve alone — a network performance issue, a cloud architecture decision, a security incident, a complex M365 problem — they pick up the phone and a Sage senior engineer joins them. Same day for routine, same hour for urgent, immediate for security.
After-hours and weekend coverage. Pager duty rotates to us when your in-house lead is off the clock. They actually have evenings and weekends; the business actually has 24/7 coverage.
Vacation, sick-day, and parental-leave backup. Documented handoff so when your IT person needs to be unavailable, the business does not run on a prayer. We pick up the work, route through a single inbox, and hand back a written summary on their first day back.
The full security stack. AV/EDR, RMM, image-based backup with off-site replication and quarterly recovery testing, MFA enforcement, conditional access, immutable backup retention, and the documentation that satisfies cyber-insurance underwriters. Deployed in your tenancies — you own the tooling, you own the data.
Compliance documentation maintenance. Written information security policy, incident response runbook, access reviews, vendor management log, training attestations, and the artifacts your auditor or insurance carrier asks for. HIPAA, PCI-DSS, NY SHIELD Act, SOC 2-aware.
Quarterly business reviews. Sit-downs with your in-house IT lead and your leadership team to review tickets, security posture, project pipeline, budget, and the IT roadmap for the next 90 days.
When co-managed is the right call
You have one in-house IT person and they are constantly on-call. You have a small IT team (2-4 people) that needs depth and after-hours coverage without hiring more headcount. You operate in a regulated industry (healthcare, finance, legal) where the cost of a security incident is far greater than the marginal cost of 24/7 monitoring. You need to pass a cyber-insurance renewal and your current stack does not meet the carrier’s checklist. Your business has grown past the point where one person can credibly handle everything alone but has not yet reached the size where you want to outsource end-user helpdesk.
When co-managed is NOT the right call
You have no in-house IT and do not want to hire one — you should be looking at fully-managed, not co-managed. You have a large in-house IT department with senior engineers and 24/7 coverage already — you may want tools-only / monitor-and-report instead. You are a five-person company without a dedicated IT person — start with fully-managed; co-managed assumes you have a partner on your side.
How a typical engagement runs
Week 1 — Discovery. We meet your in-house IT lead, walk the environment, review existing tooling, identify gaps, and document the existing state. You get a written assessment within 48 hours of the call.
Week 2-3 — Stack deployment. EDR, RMM, and backup agents roll out to every endpoint and server. SOC monitoring begins. Documentation tenancy (IT Glue or Hudu) gets seeded. We configure the cloud and identity hardening per your compliance requirements.
Week 4 — Cutover and handoff. After-hours pager routes to us. Tier-3 escalation pathway is documented in your in-house lead’s wiki. First quarterly business review is scheduled.
Ongoing. Your in-house lead handles end-user support, the small projects, and the day-to-day. We handle the security stack, the SOC, after-hours, vacation backup, and tier-3 escalation. Quarterly reviews keep everyone on the same page.
Pair with the rest of the stack
For specific layers, see structured cabling, network design, security cameras, cloud, and cybersecurity. For the full all-you-can-eat managed model, see fully-managed pricing. For a budgetary estimate of co-managed monthly cost, see the tools-only and co-managed pricing calculator.
Co-Managed IT — The Team Behind Your Team — questions we get
What is co-managed IT, exactly?
Co-managed IT is a partnership model where you keep your in-house IT person (or team) and add Sage as the team behind the team. We supply the enterprise-grade tooling — AV/EDR, RMM, backup, 24/7 SOC monitoring — plus tier-3 engineering escalation when your in-house lead hits something they cannot resolve alone. We cover after-hours, weekends, vacations, and sick days. We do not replace your team; we make it dramatically more effective.
How is co-managed different from "tools-only" or "monitor-and-report"?
Tools-only is the lightest model: we deploy the security and monitoring stack, watch the alerts, and email a monthly report. Your in-house team handles everything else, including tier-3 work. Co-managed adds the human layer — when something escalates, your in-house lead picks up the phone and a Sage senior engineer joins them on the incident. Most clients start tools-only and graduate to co-managed once they realize they want backup-coverage instead of being on-call 24/7.
How is co-managed different from fully-managed?
Fully-managed means we are your IT department — including end-user helpdesk for password resets, M365 admin, hardware troubleshooting, and vendor management. Co-managed leaves the helpdesk and day-to-day end-user support with your in-house team while we handle the engineering depth, security, and after-hours. The crossover question is usually whether your in-house person enjoys the helpdesk side or wants to focus on higher-leverage work.
When does co-managed make sense over hiring a second IT person?
Hiring a second internal IT person costs roughly $90,000 to $130,000 fully loaded — and you get one human with one area of expertise, vacation days, and sick days. Co-managed for the same total spend gives you a full team — helpdesk, network, security, cloud, vendor management — with documented runbooks and 24/7 coverage. The math is even better when you factor in recruiting cost, ramp time, and the risk of a bad hire. The typical breakpoint is around 30-40 endpoints — below that, in-house alone often suffices; above that, the depth and coverage of co-managed wins.
What does our in-house IT person do day-to-day under co-managed?
They own the relationship with users, leadership, and your line-of-business vendors. They handle end-user support, run the small projects, and work with us on the bigger ones. We become their tier-3 escalation, their after-hours coverage, their vacation backup, and the team that watches the security alerts so they can sleep. Most in-house IT leads find that co-managed lets them stop being constantly on-call and start working on the strategic projects they were hired for.
Who controls the tooling — us or you?
You do. The RMM, EDR, backup, and SOC tooling is deployed in tenancies you own. Documentation lives in a shared repo (typically IT Glue or Hudu) that your in-house IT lead can access in full. If we ever part ways, you keep the tools, the data, the documentation, and the cloud accounts. Lock-in is not the model.
Will co-managed help us pass a cyber-insurance audit or renewal?
Yes. Cyber-insurance carriers require specific controls that almost every co-managed engagement defaults to: MFA enforcement, EDR with SOC monitoring, immutable backup, security awareness training, documented incident response, and regular access reviews. We fill out the renewal questionnaire with your in-house lead and provide attestation letters where the carrier asks for them. Most clients see materially lower premiums after their first co-managed renewal cycle.
What is the contract length and exit?
Standard term is 12 months with a 30-day out clause, like every other Sage agreement. Documentation, tooling tenancies, and runbooks transfer cleanly to you or to a successor provider on departure. We do not lock clients in — we earn the next month every month.
What is not in scope under co-managed?
End-user helpdesk for password resets, M365 admin, and hardware troubleshooting (covered under fully-managed). Hardware purchases. Software licensing (M365, line-of-business). Project work (server replacement, office relocation, M365 tenant migration, structured cabling, AV install) — quoted separately. On-site work beyond what is in your retainer scope.
How is co-managed priced?
Custom retainer, typically aligned to endpoint count, server count, and the layers of the stack you want included. Use the [tools-only and co-managed pricing calculator](/tools/stack-pricing/) for a budgetary estimate, or request a written quote — we walk your environment, document the existing-state, and itemize every line before the work starts.
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