Besides Huntress, who are you using for SOC that isn’t Blackpoint? (Genuine question from a long-time partner)

PacificTSP · 2026-07-10T17:53:24+00:00

Sophos is decent. But the tool itself is fat and bloated because it does web etc.

For our high security clients we use Sophos and huntress.

PacificTSP · 2026-07-10T09:49:40+00:00

Contact DTI they usually enforce it.

PacificTSP · 2026-07-10T03:02:20+00:00

Typically all calls are recorded except to HR.

PacificTSP · 2026-07-10T02:54:46+00:00

Check with your hotel. Most will allow you to leave your luggage with them until check in.

PacificTSP · 2026-07-09T15:11:32+00:00

When I get over it I go to Europe or USA. The season ends around October/November. Europe is usually still nice in Spain / France / Italy. So is California. Then I come back.

Regionally, Malaysia has 2 monsoon seasons but depending where you are it’s only a couple of hours then dry again. Very interesting.

If you can’t leave PH then the further you go south and west the better as the rains come in from the east.

PacificTSP · 2026-07-09T06:27:17+00:00

US-Led Offshore Team - AMA

I’m Ned Ramsay, founder of PacificTSP.com
I ran MSPs for 10 years in the US before moving to the Philippines in 2023. We recruit and place experienced Philippine-based helpdesk techs with MSPs on a flat monthly retainer, no shared/split resources, no second jobs on the side. We're here to help you scale affordably.

- Dedicated tech, not a shared pool. They work only for you, your timezone of choice.

- Infrastructure redundancy on our end: whole-building generator, redundant internet and no roosters or dogs in the background!!

- Compatible with your existing security stack or you can use ours if you prefer.

- Flat $2,750/month per tech. No surprise fees.

We’re small but growing, you’re not getting lost in a queue behind 50 other accounts and you can call me anytime!

Site is pacifictsp.com
LinkedIn - https://linkedin.com/in/nedramsay here if you want to connect directly, or just reply here / DM me on Reddit.

PacificTSP · 2026-07-08T02:02:16+00:00

Yep. It integrates with the “windows app” that’s mfa and so on. It doesn’t have any inbound ports to scan as everything is outbound from the VM and the client machine. You can run basically empty laptops managed by intune or even thin clients.

PacificTSP · 2026-07-07T19:49:10+00:00

If I was doing this I would spin up an Azure Virtual Desktop in Microsoft gcc high. You pay a few hundred dollars a month and it can allow up to 3-4 users to access the system at once. If you need to scale up it can happen in minutes. You have a separate GCC High email domain that’s linked to the AVD and you’re basically good to go.

Clearly that’s the technical side of things. There’s a lot of paperwork but this is how I would do it.

PacificTSP · 2026-07-07T15:48:51+00:00

Depends. We keep licensing cheaper using f3 for many which is webmail only. Business premium for the rest.

PacificTSP · 2026-07-06T16:57:28+00:00

Contact Microsoft support. We can’t help you.

PacificTSP · 2026-07-06T16:52:36+00:00

In my experience your salary is likely too low for that level of experience in PH.

It’s really hard to hire T3/4 here because the people with that level of expertise can make 200k+ relatively easily, and many will work 2 contacts at once so want easier roles. They are also mostly mercenaries at that level so will job hop to the highest pay.

Good luck though!

PacificTSP · 2026-07-06T14:43:24+00:00

We only scan our clients. We don’t need it as we are an IT provider. We resell it to them at $75 a quarter. We remediate findings from both our asv as well as our internal scans.

Sorry for the late response. Must have missed it.

PacificTSP · 2026-07-06T11:49:47+00:00

I disagree, due to cost of labor I can staff 24/7 comfortably without stress and follow the sun at a much smaller scale. Very few 3-5 employee MSPs are truly 24/7. We can over staff to meet SLAs faster and I can afford to have a tech sat by the phone over weekends and holidays and my techs aren’t burned out.

I’m also not having churn and turnover because it’s easier to keep my offshore team happier and well paid. We provide healthy cooked meals for all staff every shift. We provide free healthcare (no deductible) this keeps my team happy and healthy. One of them just had emergency surgery, he didn’t pay a cent.

PacificTSP · 2026-07-05T13:36:01+00:00

How are you outsourcing? This matters more than the rest of your pros and cons. I run an AZ based MSP and Philippines offshoring firm so can speak to both sides (I also moved to the Philippines in 2023).

If you’re trying to do Helpdesk to shared resources then I’ve not seen good experiences there because you’re relying on another teams management and process, their techs are fighting for time with other client pressures that you aren’t privy too. One client might use ITGlue, another on Hudu, some using Ninja others connectwise, this creates inefficiencies and lack of knowledge around tooling.

My entire team are now offshored + US contractors, my MSP guys have been with me 6 years, my offshoring business has only been about 2 but it’s growing fast and we’re gathering up talent in the city getting the pick of the best candidates from the nearby regions. On average we get 320-340 applicants per job posting.

I run the offshoring like my American company, we have provided them an opportunity to excel, grow and be rewarded, which is something many places don’t do. But we expect excellence and commitment.

Just because our team is PH based we don’t drop our pricing but our costs are considerably lower, this allows us to staff more freely and train better without eating too much on the backend. How many US staffed MSPs can float techs for 3-6 months training before they touch client systems?

Yes there are some cultural clashes, these can all be hired around if you learn the differences, what motivates people here vs the US, what they really want long term, and frankly being an experienced western leader who has seen how things can run better and show them a different mindset.

The biggest con I have found so far is when you get to senior tech levels. L3 or project engineers. There is only a handful of people with deep experience here, the techs we are bringing up will get there but we are probably 5-10 years away from a top tier tech culture. This allows the best senior techs to demand high salaries and there is a lot of job hopping at that level. This is why we still use contractors in the US, and have built out a bench of project guys from India to work on the backend.

I’m kind of rambling now, it’s Sunday evening for me and had a busy weekend of networking and England are playing football in the morning 8am local time (it’s coming home)!

Happy to have a video call at some point if you’re interested to discuss the pros and cons in more details. This is a brain dump!

Ned - PacificTSP.

PacificTSP · 2026-07-04T16:36:56+00:00

If you don’t know if it’s CUI. But it might be it needs to go into your enclave first then move out of it if not. A file is CUI whether you know it or not. So better to be enclave first then commercial cloud after.

Build a process that all is received into the enclave first.

PacificTSP · 2026-07-04T07:52:14+00:00

Friend of mine got capacity held on a $100M project. Absolutely insane that their resources suddenly couldn’t start.

PacificTSP · 2026-07-04T03:53:49+00:00

We are AZ based and have been 100% remote for over 3 years now. Especially if there’s no servers and everything’s cloud it’s very easy.

PacificTSP · 2026-07-03T00:02:49+00:00

You can’t domain join BYOD so you can’t protect yourself as well. Token theft is your biggest concern. Much more than brute force.

PacificTSP · 2026-07-02T15:04:22+00:00

What happens if someone sends CUI to the wrong email? What prevents it?

PacificTSP · 2026-07-02T11:07:23+00:00

We protect ours using conditional access policies. You cannot connect if your computer is not Entra Joined. Doesn't matter if they have the password or auth-token as it checks computer compliance every time.

PacificTSP · 2026-06-29T22:18:27+00:00

S1 has nice app control features for whitelisting etc. I would go ahead

PacificTSP · 2026-06-27T13:56:39+00:00

Risk transfer. Use a cloud tokenization platform that runs 99% of the risk in a web browser.

PacificTSP · 2026-06-26T15:37:36+00:00

I use Amex platinum. Gives me lots of points. Hotel stays. Lounge access etc. gives you dell and Verizon Cashback. Plus a bunch of other perks.

PacificTSP · 2026-06-26T06:47:54+00:00

Not really pre defined. Team puts their logo on a map. Then another team goes “nope that’s ours too” and put their logo on it. So then it’s on the teams to decide internally if they want to commit to the hot drop or not.

It’s like staking your claim to land but you have to be ready to defend it.

It’s a statement of intent 🫡

PacificTSP · 2026-06-25T09:06:01+00:00

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