Question 1

What is managed IT?

Accepted Answer

Managed IT is a service model where an outside provider (an MSP) takes ongoing responsibility for some or all of a company's technology — typically helpdesk support, monitoring, patching, backups, and security — for a predictable monthly fee instead of hourly break/fix billing. The exact scope varies by provider and agreement.

Question 2

What's the difference between co-managed and fully managed IT?

Accepted Answer

Fully managed IT means the MSP acts as the company's entire IT department. Co-managed IT means the MSP works alongside an existing internal IT person or team, typically filling specific gaps such as after-hours coverage, cybersecurity, tooling, or project capacity while the in-house team retains ownership of strategy.

Question 3

How do I know if my business is the right size for an MSP?

Accepted Answer

MSPs commonly serve businesses from a handful of employees up to several hundred. The better question is whether you'd benefit from predictable monthly costs, proactive maintenance, and access to a broader skill set than a single hire could provide. Hourly break/fix or a single in-house generalist can become limiting as a company grows.

Question 4

What's the difference between an MSP and a break/fix IT company?

Accepted Answer

Break/fix providers bill hourly when something goes wrong — their revenue grows when your systems fail. MSPs charge a flat recurring fee and are incentivized to prevent issues before they cause downtime. Most modern providers operate on the managed model because it aligns the provider's interests with the client's uptime.

Question 5

How is managed IT typically priced?

Accepted Answer

The two most common models are per-user and per-device. Per-user pricing tends to be simpler when employees use multiple devices; per-device pricing can be a better fit for environments with many shared or single-purpose endpoints. Either way, expect a flat monthly invoice for in-scope services, with hardware, licensing, and major projects quoted separately.

Question 6

What's usually NOT included in a flat monthly MSP fee?

Accepted Answer

Most MSP agreements exclude hardware purchases (workstations, servers, firewalls), third-party software licensing (Microsoft 365, Adobe, line-of-business apps), and large project work such as office moves, full cloud migrations, or major infrastructure overhauls. These are typically scoped and quoted separately. Always confirm the scope of your specific agreement.

Question 7

Are long-term contracts standard?

Accepted Answer

Term length varies. Some providers require multi-year commitments; others offer month-to-month or annual options. Annual agreements often come with better pricing. Read any termination, data-handoff, and price-increase clauses carefully before signing.

Question 8

What questions should I ask before signing an MSP agreement?

Accepted Answer

Confirm what's in scope versus billed extra, response-time commitments (SLAs), how onboarding works, who owns documentation and admin credentials, how offboarding works if you leave, what cybersecurity controls are deployed, and how price increases are handled. Get answers in writing.

Question 9

What is an SLA and what should I look for?

Accepted Answer

A Service Level Agreement defines how quickly the provider will respond to and work on issues, usually tiered by severity. Look for separate response and resolution targets, clear severity definitions (e.g., outage vs. single-user issue), and what happens if targets are missed.

Question 10

Is 24/7 support standard?

Accepted Answer

24/7 monitoring and automated security response are common inclusions. Around-the-clock human helpdesk is typically an upgrade or add-on. Many small and mid-sized businesses operate fine with business-hours helpdesk plus 24/7 monitoring and on-call security response.

Question 11

Is support usually unlimited?

Accepted Answer

Many MSPs include unlimited remote and on-site support for in-scope work under their flat fee, but definitions of 'in-scope' vary. Project work, third-party vendor management, and after-hours requests may be billed separately. Confirm the specifics in your statement of work.

Question 12

How do users typically submit support tickets?

Accepted Answer

Common channels include email, phone, a self-service portal, and Microsoft Teams or Slack integrations. The best providers meet end users where they already work and track every request in a ticketing system so nothing falls through the cracks.

Question 13

What cybersecurity controls are considered baseline today?

Accepted Answer

Industry baselines generally include multi-factor authentication, endpoint detection and response (EDR), DNS or web filtering, email security and anti-phishing, encrypted and tested backups, patch management, and ongoing security awareness training. Cyber-insurance carriers increasingly require these as conditions of coverage.

Question 14

What happens if a business is hit by ransomware?

Accepted Answer

The standard incident response sequence is contain (isolate affected systems), eradicate (remove the threat), recover (restore from clean backups), and investigate (root cause and notification obligations). Outcomes depend heavily on whether immutable backups exist, how quickly the incident is detected, and whether an incident response plan was in place beforehand.

Question 15

Why does security awareness training matter?

Accepted Answer

Most successful breaches start with a person — typically a phishing email or a credential reuse. Regular training combined with simulated phishing measurably reduces click-through rates and is required by most cyber-insurance policies and many compliance frameworks.

Question 16

How does cyber insurance fit into the picture?

Accepted Answer

Cyber insurance covers some of the financial fallout from a breach (forensics, notification, business interruption, sometimes ransom). Carriers now require specific technical controls — usually MFA, EDR, backups, training, and email security — before they'll write or renew a policy. Application questionnaires are detailed and answers are legally binding.

Question 17

What is involved in a Microsoft 365 or cloud migration?

Accepted Answer

A typical migration includes discovery (what data and apps exist, who uses them), tenant setup, identity and licensing configuration, data and mailbox migration, endpoint and policy deployment, user training, and a cutover plan. Timeline depends on data volume, the source environment, and the number of users.

Question 18

Are Microsoft 365 or other SaaS licenses included in an MSP fee?

Accepted Answer

Almost never. Software licenses pass through from the vendor (Microsoft, Adobe, etc.) and are billed separately, though many MSPs will manage and right-size your licensing as part of their service.

Question 19

Should we move our on-prem server to the cloud?

Accepted Answer

It depends on the workload. File shares, email, and many collaboration tools usually belong in the cloud. Large databases, latency-sensitive line-of-business apps, and certain regulated workloads sometimes make more sense on-prem or in a hybrid setup. The right answer comes from evaluating cost, performance, security, and how the workload is actually used.

Question 20

Does Microsoft back up my data in Microsoft 365?

Accepted Answer

Microsoft replicates data for service availability and offers limited retention, but their shared-responsibility model puts long-term backup and recovery on the customer. Most organizations deploy a third-party M365 backup with point-in-time restore for mailboxes, OneDrive, SharePoint, and Teams.

Question 21

What does it mean for an MSP to 'support' a compliance framework like HIPAA, CMMC, or PCI?

Accepted Answer

An MSP can implement and document the technical controls a framework requires — access controls, encryption, logging, backups, vulnerability management — and produce evidence for auditors. MSPs are not auditors and don't issue compliance certifications themselves; that's the role of a qualified assessor (e.g., a C3PAO for CMMC, a QSA for PCI).

Question 22

What is a BAA and when is one required?

Accepted Answer

A Business Associate Agreement is a contract required under HIPAA whenever a vendor handles, stores, or transmits protected health information on behalf of a covered entity. Any IT provider working with a healthcare client subject to HIPAA should be willing to sign one.

Question 23

Which industries most often use managed IT?

Accepted Answer

Professional services (law, accounting, financial services), healthcare and dental, manufacturing, construction, nonprofits, and any business with regulatory or insurance-driven security requirements are common fits. Industry experience matters because each vertical has different applications, compliance obligations, and risk profiles.

Question 24

What does onboarding to a new MSP look like?

Accepted Answer

A typical onboarding includes a discovery and security assessment, environment documentation, deployment of the new provider's monitoring and security tooling, knowledge transfer from the prior provider, introductions to the user base, and a transition of support channels. Most small and mid-sized engagements take a few weeks; complex environments take longer.

Question 25

How do we switch from our current IT provider?

Accepted Answer

A good MSP manages the transition end to end: coordinating with the outgoing provider, taking ownership of documentation, licenses, and admin credentials, and running in parallel until cutover. Done well, the switch should be largely invisible to end users.

Question 26

What if our current provider won't cooperate during a transition?

Accepted Answer

It happens. Experienced MSPs have playbooks for rebuilding documentation from discovery, recovering tenant ownership and admin access directly through vendors (Microsoft, domain registrars, etc.), and standing up new tenants where required. Your data and credentials belong to your business, not the outgoing provider.

Question 27

How long does it take to get started with a new provider?

Accepted Answer

For most small and mid-sized businesses, onboarding can begin within one to two weeks of signing. Emergency engagements — active breach, provider walking away, urgent migration — can typically be triaged faster, sometimes within 24 to 48 hours.

Question 28

Where does Liquid IT serve clients?

Accepted Answer

Liquid IT is based in Scottsdale and serves businesses across the Phoenix metro and Arizona, including Phoenix, Scottsdale, Mesa, Chandler, Gilbert, Tempe, Glendale, Peoria, Tucson, Flagstaff, Prescott, and surrounding areas.

Question 29

Can MSPs support remote employees in other states or countries?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Because most support, monitoring, and security tooling is delivered remotely, an MSP can support distributed teams almost anywhere. On-site visits are limited to the provider's physical service area, but the day-to-day model isn't dependent on geography.

Question 30

Is IT support delivered remotely, on-site, or both?

Accepted Answer

Both. The majority of issues are resolved remotely in minutes. On-site visits are reserved for hardware work, network changes, new-office buildouts, and situations where in-person presence is genuinely needed.

Frequently Asked Questions

General & Getting Started

Pricing & Contracts

Support & Response

Cybersecurity

Cloud & Microsoft 365

Compliance & Industries

Onboarding & Switching

Service Areas

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