
Internal IT vs. Managed Service Provider: How to Decide
Hiring an internal IT team and partnering with a managed service provider (MSP) both have real tradeoffs. Here's how to think through the decision - and why many businesses use both.
Choosing between an internal IT team and a managed service provider (MSP) comes down to cost, coverage, and specialization: an internal hire offers in-person familiarity with your business but limited coverage hours and skill breadth, while an MSP offers 24/7 coverage and a full team of specialists for roughly the cost of one or two internal salaries.
The Cost Comparison
A single internal IT hire typically costs $60,000-$90,000 per year in salary alone, before benefits, training, and tools. For that cost, you get one person with one set of skills, available during business hours. An MSP contract at a similar or lower total cost typically provides a team of specialists - network engineers, security analysts, a vCIO - with 24/7 monitoring coverage.
What You Gain With Internal IT
An internal hire is physically present, deeply familiar with day-to-day operations, and immediately available for hands-on issues like hardware setup or in-person troubleshooting. For businesses with highly specialized, proprietary systems, internal institutional knowledge can be valuable.
What You Gain With an MSP
An MSP provides breadth of expertise no single hire can match - dedicated security specialists, compliance experts, and a vCIO for strategic planning - plus redundancy. If one internal IT person is out sick or leaves the company, an MSP doesn't have that single point of failure.
Why Many Businesses Use Both (Co-Managed IT)
Many growing businesses land on a co-managed model: keeping one internal IT person for in-person, day-to-day needs while an MSP like Veracity handles 24/7 monitoring, cybersecurity, compliance, and strategic planning. This combines the benefits of both without doubling headcount.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is it cheaper to hire internal IT or use an MSP? For most small-to-midsize businesses, an MSP delivers more coverage and expertise per dollar than a single internal hire, though very large organizations may eventually need both.
Can an MSP work alongside our existing internal IT staff? Yes - this is called co-managed IT, and it's one of the most common engagement models for growing businesses that already have internal IT staff.
What happens if our only internal IT person leaves? This is one of the biggest risks of relying solely on internal IT - all institutional knowledge and coverage leaves with them. An MSP provides built-in redundancy that a single hire cannot.
Veracity Technologies offers both fully managed IT and co-managed IT models, so you can choose the right balance of internal and outsourced support for your business.
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Published 2026-02-05 · Last reviewed December 2025