By Tom Hermstad, CEO of HD Tech — trusted IT partner to growing businesses nationwide.
It’s a trade-off between control and capability. In-house gives you direct control and a dedicated culture fit. Outsourcing gives you a deep bench of expertise, 24/7 scale, and a predictable cost. For most growing businesses, the best answer is a hybrid: an internal IT coordinator backed by a specialized partner like HD Tech.
Treating IT as a cost center instead of a strategic function. The “cheapest” option almost always costs the most in downtime, security breaches, and stalled projects.
Start by asking three questions: 1) What is mission-critical? 2) What strategic work are we failing to get to? 3) What is our true financial risk from an outage or breach? Answering those honestly almost always reveals the right model.
The Executive's Guide to IT Strategy
The New IT Reality for Modern Businesses
Ten years ago, IT meant printers, passwords, and the server in the closet. Today, it’s cybersecurity, multi-state remote work, cloud infrastructure, and AI-driven productivity.
For most businesses with 10–200 employees, hiring a full-time, multi-person IT department is financially unfeasible. Yet, having a single, overwhelmed “IT person” (or worse, no one) is a critical business risk.
This is why the Hybrid IT model—blending internal coordination with external horsepower—has become the standard for smart growth.
The Case for In-House IT
- Pros:
- Immediate Availability: On-site presence for hands-on, daily issues.
- Cultural Alignment: A deep understanding of your unique workflows and people.
- Direct Control: Priorities are set 100% by internal leadership.
- Cons:
- Limited Skill Range: One person cannot be an expert in cybersecurity, cloud, networking, and user support.
- High TCO: The Total Cost of Ownership includes salary, benefits, training, recruiting, and management overhead.
- Coverage Gaps: What happens when your IT manager is sick, on vacation, or quits? The business is exposed.
- Best For: Companies with highly complex, proprietary internal systems or heavy regulatory burdens that justify a full-time, specialized team.
The Case for Outsourcing IT (Managed Services)
- Pros:
Deep Expertise: Access an entire team of certified specialists for less than the cost of one senior engineer.
24/7/365 Scale: Enterprise-level monitoring, security tools, and after-hours support are built-in.
Predictable Cost: A flat monthly fee for all-inclusive support, making budgeting simple and predictable.
- Cons:
Response Time: Without a strong Service Level Agreement (SLA), you may wait for support.
Cultural Fit: Requires a partner who communicates clearly and understands your business goals, not just your tech.
Best For: Most small-to-mid-sized businesses that need enterprise-level capability, security, and reliability without the enterprise-level payroll.
The Hybrid Advantage: The Best of Both Worlds
The winning formula for most growing businesses is: One Internal IT Coordinator + One External Managed Partner.
Your internal person (often an Office Manager or “power user”) handles the human side—managing day-to-day staff needs and business context.
Your partner (like HD Tech) handles the heavy lifting: 24/7 security, infrastructure management, data backups, and strategic planning. This gives you the human connection of an internal team and the powerful defense of an external one.
Key Factors for Executive Evaluation
When comparing models, move beyond “cost” and evaluate the true business impact.
Factor | In-House (Single Person) | Outsourced / Hybrid Partner |
Total Cost | High & Hidden: Salary + benefits + training + tools + downtime costs. | Predictable & Transparent: Flat monthly fee. |
Expertise | Limited: Generalist. Expertise leaves when they do. | Deep & Wide: Team of specialists in security, cloud, etc. |
Risk | High: Key-person risk, burnout, 24/7 coverage gaps. | Low: Redundant team, 24/7 monitoring, guaranteed SLAs. |
Scalability | Poor: Hiring is slow and expensive. | Instant: Scales up or down with your business needs. |
Strategy | Low: Trapped in “firefighting” daily help-desk tickets. | High: Manages fires and provides strategic guidance. |
Leadership Takeaways
For CEOs: Treat IT as strategic infrastructure, not overhead. Your choice determines your company’s resilience, security, and ability to scale.
For CFOs: Budget for risk reduction, not reaction. A predictable managed-services fee is infinitely better than the unpredictable, massive cost of a breach or outage.
For COOs: Demand metrics. You need guaranteed response times (SLAs) and regular reports on uptime and security. You can’t manage what you don’t measure.
Why Businesses Partner with HD Tech
We are built to be the perfect hybrid IT partner for growing businesses.
National Reach, Proactive Support: We provide 24/7 remote monitoring and support nationwide, with on-site dispatch when you need it.
Expertise Across the Stack: We cover cybersecurity, cloud, compliance, and user support, all under one roof.
Transparent Reporting: You get executive-level dashboards that show you exactly what’s protected, what we’ve done, and what the risks are.
Client Feedback:
“HD Tech has been our “in-house” IT department for many years. We can’t thank them enough for making our IT as streamline as possible with a concentrated focus on our data security. The entire team at HD Tech has been terrific to work with and their attention to detail and customer service is top notch. For our firm, downtime means lost billing, with HD Tech on our side we have close to no interruptions. Secondly, data security is always a large concern, but with HD Tech on our side, we know we are doing everything we can to avoid a data breach and we rest easier.”
— COO, Accounting Firm
Executive Checklist: Choosing Your IT Model
What are our non-negotiable uptime and security requirements?
Can our current model realistically meet them 24/7/365?
What is our true Total Cost of Ownership for IT (including downtime, lost projects, and staff overhead)?
Do we have clear visibility into our compliance and cyber-risk?
Is leadership getting regular IT performance reports, or just help-desk complaints?
If any answer feels uncertain, it’s time for an IT strategy review.
Frequently Asked Questions
No. Once you factor in the hidden costs of an in-house hire (salary, benefits, recruiting, training, paid time off, and management), most SMBs save 25-40% annually by outsourcing.
Yes—and almost always better than a single internal person. A dedicated partner monitors your network 24/7, manages all patches, enforces security policies, and uses advanced tools that are financially out of reach for most SMBs.
Not with the right partner. A professional partner’s entire business model is built on efficiency. HD Tech’s average response time for critical issues is under 15 minutes, which is often faster than tracking down a busy internal employee.
This is a critical risk. With an in-house model, you face an immediate crisis: all knowledge, documentation, and continuity disappear. With an external partner, your support, documentation, and security are never dependent on one person.
Absolutely. We call this a “co-managed” or hybrid approach. We can build a transition plan that slowly takes over tasks from your internal team, starting with high-risk areas like security and backups, ensuring a smooth transition with no disruption.
Team up with Orange County’s leading cybersecurity specialists. Stay ahead of threats with proactive protection that safeguards your finances and reputation. Schedule your free, no-obligation security assessment today.
H&D Technologies, LLC
322 Main Street, Suite 4
Seal Beach, CA 90740
