Ask HN: How do you handle “corporate IT” needs at a startup?

[skyraider]

Large companies have an internal IT department to manage disk encryption monitoring, support, firewalls, virus scanner installation and upgrades, etc. Smaller startups, how do you handle this stuff?

Most of the IT companies that are willing to quote services beyond the basic "let your users call us for help" usually offer outdated disk encryption software, secure thumb drives and on-premise Active Directory installations. Yikes! I'd think someone would offer to manage Google Apps, set up multi-factor auth, and provision and manage various cloud services. Also, if users are calling for help, I want the IT company to have experience with cloud services, so that the IT support is efficient.

Pipe dream or is there a "corporate IT for startups" startup or provider out there?

[toast0]

Do you really need an IT department to handle all that? Why not let the employees be responsible for their own machines?

Google apps is not that hard to manage: definitely setup a script to make it easy to create new users and add them to groups, because it takes about 7000 clicks otherwise.

[mobiplayer]

There are lots of companies offering those services, you just have to find one who balances a good price, good service and availability for when you really need them. Many of them could offer an integral package, but some others just offer an specialty at a reduced price. E.g. I have a quite specialised service where I review packet captures for you: http://www.netstrikeforce.com We use ZenDesk as the communications interface (over HTTPS, not over email) due to the nature of the information exchanged.

On the other hand you may want to have a look at managed cloud service providers where you've got a bunch of quite tenured sysads available 24x7.

[Someone1234]

Microsoft Intune tries to do that for SMBs. Haven't tried it however, so cannot say I recommend it, but if they're mostly Windows machines it might work for you.

For the $6/user/month you also get a Windows 8 Enterprise licence I believe (although check with them re:that).

[detaro]

At least some MSPs are managing cloud services for their customers, so ask around. Maybe Google/MS have lists of their resellers somewhere?