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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?"
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.
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.
Funny you should mention this...I have two customers in the same building. I don't do enough work for either of them separately to want to commit to a contractual number of hours/week but I've just recently proposed to them a sharing plan where they "share me" for a certain number of hours / week.
They are seriously considering this and there's a solid chance they'll go for it. I think it's a win-win-win, really. I get a set committed # of billable hours for each of them for a time and they get a set committed level of service instead of just calling and seeing when I'm available.