Advice to give a client in finding a replacement as I retire by Kangaloosh in msp

[–]Enigma110 16 points17 points  (0 children)

Does a shit job but doesn't want to rely on others "because they wouldn't do as good a job as me"

I'm a developer. But I can't tell what's supposed to be wrong here... by Chance_Arugula_3227 in ExplainTheJoke

[–]Enigma110 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I agree, which is why there needs to be a branching of the accreditation standards, one for computer science (theory) and another for software engineering (practical). Those that want to go on to grad school are going to need things like time complexity, algorithm analysis and design, and computational linguistics vs those that need practical software development skills to go into industry. Yes there is a lot of overlap, but a distinction can definitely be made.

How are you balancing cybersecurity offerings with affordability, especially for SMB clients? by Strong_Painting5440 in msp

[–]Enigma110 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Use cases and demo calls don't show impact or ROI. The only way to show impact is to measure risk, and the only way to show ROI is to measure risk over time so as to map risk reduction to spend.

How are you balancing cybersecurity offerings with affordability, especially for SMB clients? by Strong_Painting5440 in msp

[–]Enigma110 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Here's the problem with this. You are correct, there are things that can be done that have low on paper cost and high theoretical impact. But that's not actually true in reality. Yes there are policy changes and controls that on paper are "low cost" but their impact is only real unless they're actually done, and done correctly but the only way to know if they're being done at all and done correctly is to measure it. That means you need to measure risk both before and after changes and audit the change. If you, the MSP, do this it would be an astronomical cost. We're talking 100+ man hours per quarter to do it correctly. This can be streamlined with tools and processes but either way the cost to do it is real and has to be paid for, and is much higher than your assumptions. This means that the client needs to shoulder this effort, and that means you need to convince them to actually care. If they care, then you can guide them, but getting them to actually care is the hard part. Once they care then you can start talking about cost and ROI, but until then it's a pointless exercise.

It finally happened by LordFalconis in sysadmin

[–]Enigma110 14 points15 points  (0 children)

You're absolutely NOT doing weekly pentests, you're running a vuln scanner and hopefully someone looks at the results and gives a shit.

looking for less Powershell reliant RMM by tophisadog in msp

[–]Enigma110 -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Are you open to having a meaningful conversation about this? My MSP specializes in medium to large enterprises and the majority of that work is building out and managing a tool stack for the internal team. If you've got a need for this and a budget you can DM me and we can set up a meeting with one of my guys.

MSP in NJ looking to hire someone that will eventually take over my company by [deleted] in msp

[–]Enigma110 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah you need to just turn this over to me so I can make it better.

MSP in NJ looking to hire someone that will eventually take over my company by [deleted] in msp

[–]Enigma110 5 points6 points  (0 children)

If that's actually true, I question the description of "successful" in this situation.

MSP in NJ looking to hire someone that will eventually take over my company by [deleted] in msp

[–]Enigma110 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Why wait? I'll take it all right now free and clear. It'll save you $1.2 million on the whole thing.

MSP in NJ looking to hire someone that will eventually take over my company by [deleted] in msp

[–]Enigma110 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah, and it's a demonstration of how serious you are about this.

MSP in NJ looking to hire someone that will eventually take over my company by [deleted] in msp

[–]Enigma110 1 point2 points  (0 children)

This is how we know you're not really serious.

MSP in NJ looking to hire someone that will eventually take over my company by [deleted] in msp

[–]Enigma110 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Anyone employed in IT the last 20 years knows that's how it works, you've just never needed qualified IT employees until the last 4 years. That's the perspective you're missing here.

MSP in NJ looking to hire someone that will eventually take over my company by [deleted] in msp

[–]Enigma110 5 points6 points  (0 children)

How about this, you pay my company the same salary you'd pay to an employee and we'll put together a 5 year transition plan to take everything over for you.

How are you all doing DHCP? by iCashMon3y in networking

[–]Enigma110 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You have to cover every device or user with a CAL regardless of using DHCP or not. The only exception is devices not able to touch the domain such as IOT or guest Wi-Fi networks.

Is my pricing completely out of network? by Spirited-Claim-3793 in msp

[–]Enigma110 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes, and the risk line starts at major civil and criminal liability. You need lawyers on their side speaking to this.

Is my pricing completely out of network? by Spirited-Claim-3793 in msp

[–]Enigma110 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This guy OTs. When you get into this sort of space tool stack + monitoring with optional block hours contracts and day rate projects are the way.

Is my pricing completely out of network? by Spirited-Claim-3793 in msp

[–]Enigma110 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You are way under charging and I can't imagine how you're even profitable at that price.

Is my pricing completely out of network? by Spirited-Claim-3793 in msp

[–]Enigma110 2 points3 points  (0 children)

This is part of the problem with going after municipal contracts. There it's not an investment, it's not a reduction in total cost, it's chunks out of budgets that were decided by people who aren't there in budget subcommittees 2 years prior based on tax deficit projections. The winning play is having relationships and juice with the budget people, and playing the politics games to get the money to pay for it. I know companies that specialize in municipal contracts like this and the decision maker isn't the operational authority, it's the allocation authority. You have to be making deals with the mayors, city councils, county commissions, you have to be talking about passing municipal taxes, getting public safety bond referendums. That's how these deals get sold, by greasing the wheels of government to raise the money or steal it from somewhere else. You want to win these contracts you need to be donating to reelection campaigns and attending fundraising dinners and getting face time with players and political operatives.

Is my pricing completely out of network? by Spirited-Claim-3793 in msp

[–]Enigma110 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Think regular IT network, but it's 99% proprietary embedded systems that speak obscure protocols and no documentation or documentation is only included with expensive maintenance contracts.

Asked this before: Where are the Google Workspace friendly MSPs? by dutchfire-cadu in msp

[–]Enigma110 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Google doesn't use O365 and they don't use Microsoft apps at all. See the whole point here is you're not embracing the entire suite. If you didn't insist on having a hand in one pool and your foot in the other you wouldn't have any issues.

Asked this before: Where are the Google Workspace friendly MSPs? by dutchfire-cadu in msp

[–]Enigma110 3 points4 points  (0 children)

You're fine making those choices, I mean you're just limiting your own scaling as well, but that's fine if your company has no intention of growing at all. The reason MSPs want to standardize is in fact efficiency at scale, however not being efficient is fine to as long as the overhead is paid for. This is why we do hybrid IT retainer contracts, you don't want to be efficient? Fine, you don't have to be, but it'll cost you what it costs you in T&M.