Services / Managed IT Services / Co-Managed IT
Co-Managed IT
You already have an IT person. We back them up — with the depth, after-hours coverage, and tooling a one-person shop can't carry alone.
Co-managed IT is for businesses that have an internal IT person (or a small internal team) and don't want to replace them. They want a partner that takes the work that's wearing them down — the 2 AM alerts, the security stack nobody on the inside has time to run, the projects that pile up while the day-to-day eats every hour. Mako runs co-managed engagements across Houston and the Woodlands area for healthcare practices, law firms, accounting firms, energy services, and construction businesses where the internal IT lead is great at the business-specific stuff but is being asked to also be the help desk, the security analyst, the vCIO, and the after-hours on-call. We split the work to suit. Sometimes Mako runs the security stack and the after-hours; sometimes Mako runs everything except the line-of-business app the internal person owns. The goal is to keep your internal expertise in place and stop burning that person out.
What’s included
The specifics.
- ✓Tier-2 / tier-3 escalation depth — your IT person stops being the ceiling
- ✓After-hours and weekend on-call coverage
- ✓EDR / MXDR / SIEM stack run by Mako, dashboarded for your team
- ✓Patching, monitoring, and backup operations on Mako's runbook
- ✓Vendor management — Mako handles the ISP, hardware, and SaaS calls
- ✓vCIO + quarterly strategy reviews alongside your internal lead
- ✓Documented division of responsibilities — no ambiguity about who owns what
- ✓Cross-coverage for vacations, illness, and turnover
Who needs this
Houston-area businesses with one to three internal IT staff who are stretched thin. Common fits: 30-200 employee companies whose IT manager is competent but doesn't have the bandwidth for security operations or after-hours coverage; firms in the middle of growth where the next IT hire is months away; organizations where compliance work (HIPAA, CMMC, SOC 2) needs depth the internal person can't reasonably acquire on their own. If your internal IT person is asking for help — not a replacement — co-managed is the answer.
FAQ
Co-Managed IT — common questions.
What is co-managed IT, and how is it different from fully outsourced?+
Co-managed IT means you keep your internal IT person (or small team) and Mako fills in around them — typically the after-hours coverage, the security operations stack, the depth on hard problems, and the vendor management. Fully outsourced means we are your IT department. Co-managed is for businesses whose internal IT lead is great at the business-specific work but is being asked to also be the help desk, the security analyst, the on-call engineer, and the vCIO — and is burning out.
Will Mako try to replace our internal IT person?+
No. The whole point of co-managed is to keep your internal expertise in place. Your IT person knows things about your business that no MSP will pick up in onboarding — the line-of-business app quirks, the people, the politics, the workflows. Mako's job is to make that person more effective, not to replace them. We've had co-managed engagements where the internal IT lead ends up promoted because they finally have time to do strategic work.
How does co-managed pricing work?+
Co-managed engagements are priced based on the slice of work Mako takes on. A common shape: Mako runs the security stack (EDR, MXDR, SIEM, dark-web monitoring), the after-hours on-call, and the patching/monitoring runbook — at a discounted per-user rate vs. our fully managed $125/user/month. The exact number depends on what your internal team keeps and what they hand to us. We'll quote the specific split before you sign anything.
What does the division of work look like in practice?+
Documented and explicit — never ambiguous. Common patterns: (1) Mako handles all security operations, the internal lead handles the line-of-business apps and end-user support; (2) Mako runs everything technical, the internal person owns vendor relationships and project planning; (3) Mako covers nights, weekends, and vacations only. Whatever the split, we put it in writing as part of onboarding so your team and ours both know who owns what when something breaks at 11 PM on a Saturday.
Can co-managed help with HIPAA, CMMC, or SOC 2 compliance?+
Yes — and this is where co-managed often pays for itself. Compliance frameworks demand evidence (MFA reports, patch records, restore-test logs, training completions) that your internal person almost certainly does not have time to maintain alongside their day job. Mako's operations stack collects that evidence as a byproduct of how we run the environment. When the auditor asks, the answer is ready. Your internal person stays the relationship owner with the auditor; we hand them the evidence binder.
What if we already have an MSP — can Mako co-manage with another provider?+
Sometimes, but it's usually a sign that the existing MSP relationship needs to be reset rather than augmented. We've done it where the incumbent owns a specific carve-out (a manufacturing line's OT network, for example) and Mako runs everything else. We will not do it as a way to paper over a failing primary MSP — that's bad for you, bad for us, and bad for the other vendor. If your current MSP is the problem, the answer is a clean transition, not co-management.
Questions about co-managed it?
Twenty minutes, real conversation, no pressure.