Insights Straight answers to common IT questions

Most managed IT providers charge a flat monthly fee per user or per device, plus separate quotes for one-off projects. What you pay depends on headcount, how many servers and cloud services need looking after, the hours you want covered, and whether backup and security are included.

Outsource when IT has become someone's second job, when your one IT person can't take a vacation, when projects keep slipping behind daily support, or when nobody can say when a backup was last tested.

Disconnect affected computers from the network and Wi-Fi, but leave them powered on and don't wipe anything. Call your IT provider and your cyber insurance carrier before you respond to the attacker.

Not in the way most people assume. Microsoft keeps the service running and holds deleted items for a limited time. Once that time passes, a deleted mailbox or folder is gone unless you have your own backup.

Co-managed IT means you keep your own IT person and a provider backs them up. Fully managed IT means the provider is your IT department and your staff call them directly.

A backup is a copy of your data that you can restore from. Disaster recovery is a standby copy of your servers that you can switch to and keep working while the originals are repaired.

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) means renting servers, storage and networking from a provider instead of buying and housing the hardware yourself. You pay for the capacity you use, and the provider maintains the equipment.