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Small, Virtual Sysadmin Services?
treesim asks: "I work for a tiny research company of five employees, with a growing need for a system administrator. However, our needs are unlikely to ever require a full time person, so I'm wondering if small, offsite sysadmin services exist (something like virtual assistants, since the larger corporate-sized outfits are just too much). On one hand, this seems an obvious niche to be filled by entrepreneurial moonlighters, but there are a ton of questions regarding trust. Nonetheless, we already have good relationships with offsite bookkeeping and payroll services. Am I just being naive, or does anyone have experience with outsourcing small-scale sysadmin tasks?"
Have you considered sending one of the five employees to a community college for some classes? Maybe a part time highschool or college student would fit the part too. You could hand him some mindless tasks when nothing else needs to be done.
Religion for nerds. Stuff that really matters
My experiences have only been with individual contractors. In this case it's just a roll of the dice if you can't get a specific recommendation from someone you trust. It's easy to post to craigslist and others. But I suggest asking around other small companies in your area you're familiar with. The only way to know what you'll get is to speak to another customer.
Developers: We can use your help.
Speaking as someone who IS a some-time sysadmin for several clients, I can say that trust is paramount. The places of which I speak are generally self-sufficient on a day-to-day basis, but need advice or someone to "just do it" when a major upgrade needs to take place and no "regular" staff can be spared for the task (assuming their knowledgeable.) I do work for doctors, lawyers, and one print shop (to which I even have a key!). These are all people I have known for years, however, in a rural setting. I would think that references should be a MUST given what you are likely to need such a person to do.
signat-url: http://www2.potsdam.edu/dctm/prescor/signat-url.h
Sure they do!
Send an email to these guys, and tell them they're interested in outsourcing your system adminstration tasks. I did, and they got me set up in a jiffy.
By the way, what was your username again? >clickity-click<
So you asked for a company, here it is:
HandyNerds.com http://www.handynerds.com/
That's the company I run, and that is the service I provide. Honestly it is hit or miss if you get someone worth their while. Unfortunatly you won't discover this until you are in the thick of it.
If you want more information, let me know. Always happy to help.
--Brett
Now you do mention virtual sysadmin, but I will guess you don't mean someoone who is completely remote, they might be a need for them to come in and do some manual stuff like setting up the physical network, printer stuff, etc. I previously worked at a company of 20 employees where we do outsource our tech support. The person would come in 2 times a week for an hour or two, and we would schedule work for them. Fix a computer, install software drivers, update the OS, that kind of work mainly. The problem we faced was the quality of the workers, and the response times. We used one company who had a pool of tech support, and some of the guys they sent us were a hit or miss. Those who sucked we never saw again. As for timeframe, we had one incident where we had to wait a few weeks to get a laptop problem resolved. The good thing was we were provided with a temp laptop in the meantime. Some of delays are to be expected since it is a virtual staff. Arrival times, and scheduling them between work hours or at least when a company employee is present is difficult at times.
Sure! Just tell me your ip and root password!
--
Superb hosting 20GB Storage, 1_TB_ bandwidth, ssh, $7.95
Just hire a full-time sysadmin. They're the cheapest of the cheap, and will gladly work an eighty-hour week for just a bag of Fritos and a can of Mountain Dew. Sysadmins even cost less than your janitorial service!
Here's a different idea:
If you're in a small office tower, consider pooling the resources together of everyone in the building or street. Maybe you need someone 2 hours a week, the office down the hall (or street) needs someone one day of the week, etc. There might be a skilled self-employed computer tech in your area who doesn't want to travel much. Check around.
You might find that in pooling all your resources together, you can find one or two techs you trust to do all the administrative tasks. You should get a better quality person in the end since they're virtually 'guaranteed' the hours to fullfill the tasks in the area. And it should eliminiate the chance you get a different person each time.
Check out www.computerexpertsindy.com They are a VAR channelled towards SMB's. They are a great example of what you get without having to hire an IT department. Taking into consideration that having a full time IT department that is only used part of the time, why spend the money? It would essentially be more economically sound to outsource an IT department. With an in-house IT staff, you have to pay for the staff person(s), their equipment, their desk space, etc. On top of those expences, you have to then pay their salary. These costs are ridiculously high. Now, to pay the service fee for an outsourced IT staff; that sounds more cost-effective to me. I don't know... maybe I'm off my rocker, or maybe people LIKE to spend more money than they have to.
I'll third this line of thinking. Trust is huge. I am self employed, run my own business doing this type of thing (and more), and have other people (sub-contractors, basically) I rely on to get specific work done that I know I can trust to do it well.
ALL my work is with former employers, people who run their own businesses, are CIOs/IT Directores, etc., and people I've known for years. I do not advertise as a general rule because I don't need to, for one, and I find word of mouth much more meaningful and effective, for two.
Think six degrees of separation...you know somebody who knows somebody, etc., and that's a good why to find somebody trustworthy, who does good work for a reasonable fee.
"Am I just being naive, or does anyone have experience with outsourcing small-scale sysadmin tasks?""
That's what ASP's are for.
This is a very good point. A lot of sys admin work is remotely doable. But something sooner or later will require physical access.
It's what I do for a living, as a part of a larger nationwide company.
I wont bother mentioning who because we're in Australia.
But I find it hard to believe that _most_ IT companies in the US over 20 employee's wont do this.. you obviously didn't ask anyone from the real world.
"Consider how lucky you are that life has been good to you so far. Alternatively, if life hasn't been good to you so far
Everywhere I've lived has had little companies to handle just this sort of need. Usually a smallish company which either has a contract setup or agreed hourly billing to act as the IT for a bunch of little companies. One admin will usually share time between about a dozen offices [depending on size and need].
They're really popular for accountants, lawyers, doctors... the sort of people who need computers, but only really ever have a few employees. Ask around.
The fact that you're only 5 employees and already thinking you need a sysadmin, means that you do need one. I'm sure there's plenty of cheap mediocre talent you could hire, have them there fulltime to do your windows grunt work and answer your questions like a good little google proxy (were talking interns here). Whatever you do, don't get fooled into thinking you can have a SysAdmin that works remotely *all the time. Won't work, and you'll get pissed at the turnaround time. If the intern sucks, just fire them until you find someone smart. They're out there Im pretty sure (and they need $$$). Just hard to find somtimes.
I'd like to add that as much as you need to trust, you also have to cultivate trust from you occasional sysadmin. Pay them promptly without having to be asked more than once please.
I tried the solo-operator tech to small business and I absolutley hated hounding companies (referred from people I know and trust no less) so that I could pay my rent.
Also, listen when your hired tech tells you that what you want can be done, but will take anywhere from x to y number of hours, they're not kidding!
Oh and one last thing... if you change your mind, you don't get the first 4 hours work free.
ok, I'm done
Here are some tips:
h ing support is easier and cheaper for everyone. If you want to be able to fuck around on your systems, and expect hand-holding, be prepared to pay extra or find a third-rate service that will put up with that.
1) Be prepared to sign an agreement for monthly support, and pay it regularly. Nothing makes contractors happier than knowing what to expect. And nothing makes them angrier than not getting paid.
2) Be up-front about your needs. Don't try to hire someone for a few months and have them teach you everything they know. These people exist, but they bill at $150/hr and won't be worth your while. Micromanagement behaviour, especially from small businesses who claim they need outside services, sets off alarm bells for contractors. If they don't trust you, you won't trust them.
3) Be extremely clear with each other about what type of support is expected. Full service, I-have-the-root-password-and-nobody-installs-anyt
4) Pooling resources is also extremely beneficial. If you can find a few other small businesses in need of support, the odds of finding and retaining high quality help will increase.
5) And, most importantly, computer support is about more than just fixing mice and installing updates. Especially for small businesses, outsourcing IT means reaping the benefits of more efficient processes than you otherwise would be able to accomplish. Take advantage of those benefits.
"I assumed blithely that there were no elves out there in the darkness"
If you have a local university with a reputed CS department, thats the way to go. Post a message on the school linux mailing list or something, get a couple of good junior (or senior) students as interns for a year , ask for references from their profs and its a win win situation. If by next year you expand the company then get a full time person otherwise just get new students.
That way you can get a well qualified and competant person who is ready to work part time and doesnt expect a hefty salary.
I believe DirectPointe does something like this by installing remote management utilities for windows.
Tweet, tweet.
This is exactly what I get paid to do.
We drop in a linux box for a router, and set you up with a vpn from that to out network. We SSH to linux systems, RDP to servers and VNC to desktops all from our office. If it breaks too badly, we head onsite.
We run multiple companies, from 2 people to over 200 people with no problems and minimal cost - if you're in Ottawa, I can help. Otherwise, just look up the smaller IT outsourcing firms. They are always willing to let you keep some control of things. But we also will think your an idiot if you interfere with us keeping things running for you by breaking it.(have had one or two who do that constantly)
The confidentiality is part of the contract, and is about as good as any other outsourced finance or the like.
Just do the standard checking around before choosing someone, there are a lot of pathetic fakes out there too, and I hate cleaning up after one of them has messed up a network.
Anyway...
Enjoy!
On Arrakis: early worm gets the bird. Magister mundi sum!
It's difficult sometimes... getting a new client is always rough but I have enough now (been doing this for about 11 years) so I don't have to work as hard as I used since I've gotten my clients pretty well trained. I tell them they (and their employees) can install whatever the hell they want but they should be prepared for some pretty big bills while I spend many hours cleaning their messes up. I gennerally grin and rub my hands together when I'm saying this to drive the point home. I have about 20 networks that I take care of and I gennerally try to train my clients to be as self sufficient as possible) make sure virus definitions are updated, run spybot, reboot the computer before calling me, etc.
I only have a few that pay me a regular retainer and it gets kinda slow/scary in the summer but if I have to have a slow time I want it to be in the summer.
If they dazzle you with buzzwords and all their certificates then I'd look elsewhere. Once they have your root/admin passsword you might as well just give them a key so they can come in and work without interupting your business. If you do this make sure to remember that even though you haven't seen your computer guy for awhile, if your stuff is working then you should just be happy to pay his bill. I don't advertise, don't have business cards, don't give out my cell phone number (except for my exisitng clients) and my home phone is unlisted. I can't take on any more clients and still be able to have quick response times.
My point is, you're probably not going to find a good part-time admin by looking the in yellow pages. Ask around.
G
... for a LINUX server.
The WINDOWS server needs too much hands-on TLC to do remotely (yes, I now about VLC but it's too painfully slow and VNC does not support 120 reset), and the workstations^Wusers also need dace-to-face help. ANother guy is doing this.
It might work if the users don't mind getting their hands dirty once in a while (tunnel ssh through PSTN).
"Am I just being naive, or does anyone have experience with outsourcing small-scale sysadmin tasks?"
Of Course there are: http://www.epicalliance.com/ is one.
I know my company provides services like that. We can do remote IT Administration for a nominal fee. The website is Axigent Technologies Group, Inc. - Check us out or email if you have questions! It's what we set out to do as a company. We mostly do on-site admin, but doing it remotely is not a problem.
~.Evanrude
Individuals who do this are generally cheapest, and sometimes you can get past the trust issue by using a friend or a friend of a friend. On the flip side, they have a tendency to leave for day jobs when times get tight (or be hard to reach when busy if they're moonlighting).
Companies give you a few advantages -- they tend to be more stable (if one person leaves, you still have backup if they're well organized) and they can have a wider variety of expertise (so the odds of needing to bring in other parties is lower). But there are two challenges here. The first is that if they're not sufficiently well organized, you'll sometimes get someone who doesn't know your environment. The second -- if they charge by the hour -- is that no matter how worthy of your trust they are, it's still in their best interests to bill you for as many hours as possible. This means that most of the successful ones either find ways to get you to buy extra work, or don't do the proactive maintenance they should (so they get more revenue from the things that break).
We've taken the approach of managing IT infrastructure for a fixed monthly fee. This is tricky, but after a couple of years of using this model it's coming together. It's a difficult sale, because you have to get customers to agree in advance to pay for hidden IT labor costs (both ongoing minor maintenance and the periodic major incident) -- small companies are used to paying for IT reactively rather than budgeting for it. Also, you need to become actually good at the things that IT organizations always talk about being good at -- sharing information, doing proactive maintenance, documentation, following processes, etc. And the work is generally front-loaded, so most customers aren't profitable until the second year. And this model ends up having a little more overhead (despite being more efficient per customer) so it's hard for the whole thing to be profitable until you've grown enough to have some economies of scale. That said, about two years after converting from an hourly and project model to a fixed-monthly-fee model, we find it working quite well (and we're finally profitable again).
Local is better, in my opinion. I think that you would do just as well with part time help from your local "tech guy". It all depends on your needs. Certainly it would help with the trust issue a bit more if you got to know your sysadmin personally. Also, systems work is very often hardware related, so that requires in office visits.
You can search for local service providers in Page's Computer Services Directory at http://DIRECTORY.pagecomputers.com. Any service provider can add their own listing for free.
Currently you have to signup to get real results, because the site in beta test, but in the very near future it will be completely public and will even have ratings and reviews for the companies listed.
Disclaimer: I work for Page Computers.
Hi,
My name is Paul Vallee and I am a co-founder here of Pythian.
As part of our DBA services, we outsource systems administration support for a variety of platforms. Our services are definitely enterprise database-centric, but there's nothing preventing us from helping out even if there's no database at play.
Cheers,
Paul
The real Paul Vallee is slashdot userid 2192, and, what do you mean it's not cool to point out your low userid?
Oh, I want to add that all service providers in the directory are independent. It is a directory, like a yellow pages, but with more information, ratings, and reviews. Page Computers sells products, not services. It is only hosting the directory, nothing more.
This is very common with small consulting firms. We have one that helps with our Oracle on very advanced issues. (always much easier than ticketing Oracle) They also cover off-hour issues if I'm fly off to Chicago, San Fran, or "the wide open spaces of Antarctica" for a long weekend.
The firm we deal with consists of five people each having their own specialty, (Oracle, programming, systems admin, etc) but each generally knowledgable in most aspects of operations of OS, programming, DBA, and other different software applications.
Check all different kinds of user groups. They can be very helpful in locating help. Sometimes, the users group itself has exactly the person you're looking for. You may not even need a consulting firm, just an extra guy that will help when needed.
I was going to recommend Taos Mountain, because they did solid sysadm consultant work for me at a previous job. However, they appear to have reinvented themselves to the point that, after looking at their web site, I'm not sure what they do...
For every problem there is a solution that is simple, obvious and wrong.
Interestingly I'm just about ready to start doing this kind of work.
In the past I've had several clients who've heard of me and asked me to spec/setup a new server for them. Usually that is all it is, but sometimes I get asked to do security scans, or apply updates.
Whilst I do work fulltime I'm beginning to think that I could do a good job if I were to allocate one day a week to dealing with clients (applying patches, general preventative work, etc) and looking for new clients.
I don't expect to be able to earn a living at it, but I'm definitely wanting to try a more pro-active approach to doing these jobs. The variety is interesting, and getting recommendations shouldn't be too hard from previous people.
As already mentioned I suspect the hardest part will be the rare on-site work.
..in other words, you want to hire a consulant. Any
sysadmin worth their beans can do what they do from offsite. But there will always be some tasks involved in sysadminning that they need to be physically present for (or at very least have to walk someone else through it over the phone).
There may be some setup (upfront expense) involved in them setting themselves up for remote access.
There are many sysadmins out there consulting, full or part-time as you need. As you point out, trust is an issue. I would argue that continuity of service is probably also an issue. For both of those reasons I suggest a largish, well known and trusted consulting company that does primarily sysadminning. Preferably one that can place someone local to you with the right skillset so that they can occasionally come into the office as necessary.
The one I know is Collective Technologies. They have a large presence at the LISA conference (deinative sysadmin annual conference) and are well liked by the community. I also know a few people who work for them and enjoy working there and feel it is a good company-unusual in the "consulting company" world.
My advice to you if you are thinking about growing at all, to where you might hire a sysadmin full-time would be to hire an intern sysadmin in addition to the professional. Post and ad and get someone from a local college or community college for 10-20 hours/week, $15-20/hour on an hourly basis. They can be the person to work with the remote sysadmin on tasks that require hands-on. They can potentially be mentored by the remote sysadmin. They can see if sysadminning is for them (since there is no sysadmin major anywhere, you'll be hiring a CS, EE or MIS type person). If things work out in a few years, you can hire them full-time. If not, no great expense to you at all.
If you are saying "oh, but we sure don't need someone even for 10-20 hours per week, particularly if we also are going to be hiring an expensive consultant anyway!" Consider the intern as an investment in your future and consider that if you use technology at all, there is *always* work to do. If they aren't fixing things or putting out fires they can be writing scripts, tweaking or improving or thinking and designing your network strategically, and planning technology purchases and upgrades. Someone has got to do it, and in a small business the key players usually have much more immediately business critical things to put their minds on.
I am a sysadmin.. I can say beyond a doubt, you want to pay for a real admin. Most "consultants" will cost you more by cutting corners, charging you more hours, and costing your other staff hours of time from having to work around their inability to get it done right the first time. You know the phrase "you pay for what you get"
Now if you need some one to do run updates and change the toner, goto a local college IT dept and ask for an intern that the prof can double check. That way you know you have a man that is cheap for the job, but has the knowledge to do the job by proxy.