IT glossary
Co-managed IT (Co-managed information technology)
Co-managed IT is an arrangement where your internal IT person keeps running things day to day and an outside provider works alongside them, not instead.
The internal person keeps the relationships, the context and the decisions. The provider brings the after-hours coverage, the specialist skills and the tooling that would be uneconomic for one person to buy.
Why it matters to you
If you have one IT person, you have one point of failure. They cannot be awake at 3am, take a holiday, be an expert in networking and Microsoft 365 and security at the same time, and also deliver projects. Most organizations discover this the week that person is away.
Co-managed IT is the usual answer. It is cheaper than hiring a second internal person, it does not cost you the knowledge your current person has built up, and it removes the quiet risk of everything depending on one memory.
What it typically covers
- Overnight and weekend coverage, so your person is not on call permanently
- Security monitoring and response, which needs a team rather than an individual
- Patching, backups and other work that is important but repetitive
- Project delivery: migrations, rollouts, office moves
- A second opinion on architecture and spending decisions
What it does not mean
It does not mean the outside provider takes over. If the arrangement quietly turns into full outsourcing, that is a different service being sold under a friendlier name. A good co-managed agreement says explicitly who owns what.