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?"

Comments

Have you considered...

[Eightyford]

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.

Sure they do!

[Tackhead]

> However, our needs are unlikely to ever require a full time person, so I'm wondering if small, offsite sysadmin services exist

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<

Yep, this is advertising

[ThOr101]

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

Hoh boy...

[benjamindees]

Here are some tips:

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-anyth 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.

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.