Environment audit
Network topology, vendor inventory, tooling stack, identity model, backup state, and incident history. Read-only data collection.
// TRANSITION
SWITCHING MSPs.
The 30-day onboarding plan we run when a new client moves to us from another provider. Predictable, parallel-run, and reversible until you sign off.
The thing most prospects ask first
"How painful is the switch?" is the question we get on every introduction call. The honest answer is: almost nothing changes for your end users, and a great deal changes for your IT leadership. The work is in the cutover plan, not the day-to-day.
This page describes how we run that plan. It is the same template for every engagement, adjusted for size — a 50-user single-site environment is two or three weeks; a 600-user multi-site is six to eight.
// WEEK 1
DISCOVERY & HANDOVER.
Read-only. We document the existing environment without making a single production change.
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Stakeholder interviews
Time with your existing team and key vendors. We learn what works, what does not, and what tribal knowledge needs documenting.
Contract review
Existing MSP and tool contracts. We map renewal dates, exit clauses, and any data-portability concerns.
Target architecture sketch
First-cut target architecture and transition plan, framed as options rather than a final answer.
// WEEK 2
PARALLEL INSTRUMENTATION.
Side-by-side monitoring goes in. The outgoing MSP keeps operating; we shadow.
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Monitoring deployed
Our NOC and SOC tooling deployed in parallel with the existing tools. Discovery alerts only — we are watching, not intervening.
Runbook drafting
Site runbook, incident-response runbook, and change-management runbook drafted from the audit. Reviewed with you.
Backup validation
First test restore of a tier-1 system from existing backups. Either confirms the prior backup posture or surfaces gaps to be fixed before cutover.
Onboarding kit
Named account team introduced. Ticketing portal, escalation paths, and on-call schedule shared. End users see no change yet.
// WEEK 3
CUTOVER & HANDOFF.
Phased takeover, one service at a time. Roll back at any step if something is unexpected.
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Service-by-service handoff
Network management first, then security operations, then backup & DR, then user support. One service per day or per week, depending on environment size.
Help desk transition
User-facing tickets routed to our help desk. The outgoing provider remains on warm standby for the first two weeks.
Credential rotation
Vendor accounts, admin credentials, and API keys rotated to our managed identities. Old credentials retained read-only for audit.
Sign-off
Each service has a written go/no-go checkpoint. You sign off before the next service hands over. Nothing is irreversible up to this point.
// WEEK 4 ONWARD
STEADY STATE.
Operations mode. The transition project closes; the long-term engagement begins.
Once the transition closes
- 30-day post-transition review. What worked, what we got wrong, what the runbooks need to reflect. Written summary.
- Monthly service reviews. SLA performance, incidents, capacity trends, recommended changes.
- Quarterly strategic reviews. Roadmap alignment with your business plans, budget visibility for the next year.
- Annual posture review. Architecture against current threat model, framework drift, technology refresh planning.
Most clients hit steady state within the first 30 days. From there the relationship looks more like an embedded function than a vendor — the kind of MSP relationship that is rare enough that it is the main reason we wrote this page.
Reversible until sign-off
Every cutover step has a documented rollback. We do not flip irreversible switches without your written go-ahead.
Existing staff respected
If you have an internal IT team, we work alongside them. Most of our long-running engagements have an in-house lead we report to.
Predictable cost
Onboarding is a fixed-fee project. The recurring monthly fee starts when the transition closes — not before.
// START THE CONVERSATION
LET'S TALK ABOUT YOUR ENVIRONMENT.
A 30-minute scoping call. No commitment. We can usually tell within that call whether the fit is right.