Co-Managed Network Services
Most mid-market organizations have internal IT, but lack network engineering depth — the part that matters when the network has to be redesigned, audited, or recovered. Co-managed network services slot in alongside your existing team, owning the network engineering layer without replacing the people you already have. Cisco, Fortinet, multi-vendor capable, senior-led.
Track Record
We only do networks. That is not a limitation — it is why the outcomes are different.
Years of network-only practice. Architecture, security, and operations — not IT generalism.
Sites delivered. Healthcare clinics, law offices, financial branches, multi-site operations.
Unplanned downtimes following network redesigns. Every implementation, with the precision it requires.
Senior engineer–led. No junior handoffs. No ticket queue. No escalation chain.
Career aggregate. The 20+ years and 300+ sites span the operator’s full network-only practice, including prior-employer engagements. Zero unplanned downtimes reflects post-redesign performance on engagements where the architecture standard described above was applied.
Why Co-Managed Works
Co-managed network services exist because there’s a real gap between general IT and dedicated network engineering. Your internal IT person handles devices, Microsoft 365, and day-to-day support brilliantly. But when the firewall needs redesigning, when SOC 2 auditors want network-control evidence, when a multi-site rollout needs architecture — that’s a different kind of work, and one that doesn’t justify a full-time hire at most mid-market companies. Co-managed solves it.
Your IT team keeps doing what they do well: help desk, devices, Microsoft 365, business apps, software vendor management. We layer on top: network architecture, firewall management, multi-site standardization, security posture, audit support. Two complementary surfaces, clearly delineated.
We define up front who handles what — including incident response handoffs, escalation paths, change-management responsibilities, and procurement boundaries. No turf wars. No "I thought you were doing that." Everyone’s clear on the surface they own.
Every change comes with diagrams, configs, and decision records. Your IT person can read the documentation and understand what was done and why. The knowledge stays with your organization — if our relationship ever ends, you keep the runbooks. No vendor lock-in by way of mystery.
Your IT team gets a senior network engineer on call — not as a vendor relationship, but as a partner. The kind of person they can ping for a 15-minute architecture review or a 3-week project, depending on what’s needed. Real engineering depth, accessible like an internal hire.
What Co-Managed Looks Like
Concrete deliverables across the network engineering surface. Most co-managed engagements include 2–4 of these; some include all of them. Selection happens after the assessment.
A senior engineer reviews your current network end-to-end. You get a written report on segmentation, security posture, drift, and compliance gaps — with prioritized recommendations. The report is yours to keep, whether you continue with us or not. Common entry point for new co-managed engagements.
FortiGate deployment, configuration, ongoing policy management, and quarterly posture reviews. Auth integration with your identity provider. Site-to-site VPN. Remote access. Auditor-ready evidence on demand. The outcome: one platform, one configuration standard, every site.
If you operate across multiple locations — or run a regional or national footprint from a single HQ — we standardize the architecture across every site. Same config. Same vendor. Same monitoring. Consistency across the fleet that your internal team would have to build from scratch.
HIPAA, PCI-DSS, SOC 2 — the network controls that matter for each. Documented configurations, signed snapshots, change history, and audit packages on demand. We work alongside your compliance team to make audit cycles uneventful.
Continuous monitoring of every site, every device, every link. Alert routing tied to severity — you get the page, not the complaint from your operations team. Monthly performance reports. Quarterly architecture reviews to catch drift before it becomes an incident.
If your current network was inherited, accumulated over time, or installed by a generalist MSP that has since drifted — we redesign it to a documented standard. HA firewall pairs. Aggregated cores. Dual-homed access. The architecture that means a single device failure does not take a site down.
Engagement Models
The shape of the engagement depends on what your team needs and how much surface they want owned externally. Most clients land on one of these three patterns.
Defined-scope project — network redesign, multi-site rollout, vendor migration, compliance hardening. Clear deliverables, fixed timeline, fixed fee. Your IT team handles operations during and after; we handle the engineering project. Typical: 4–16 weeks.
Ongoing senior engineer access at a flat monthly rate. Typical: 5–20 hours per month, used flexibly for changes, troubleshooting, architecture review, and project work as it comes up. Your team has someone to call without burning a per-hour T&M relationship.
We own the network engineering layer entirely — firewall management, monitoring, change execution, compliance posture, vendor relationships for network gear. Your team owns everything else. Most common for organizations with 5+ sites or active compliance requirements.
Most clients start with the assessment, then pick the engagement model that fits. Switching between models mid-engagement is common — project work shifts to retainer once you know the relationship works, retainer expands to full co-managed once your team is ready to hand off more surface.
Our Approach
No mystery. No black box. Every step is documented, explained, and approved before execution.
A complete risk assessment of your current network. Configurations reviewed. Segmentation validated. Gaps documented. You get a clear picture — not a sales pitch.
Address critical risks first, then build toward a standardized architecture. Every change documented, tested, and deployed without disruption.
Ongoing monitoring, change management, and architectural review. The network does not just work today — it evolves with your operations.
Your Engineer
Not a team of rotating technicians. Not a ticket queue. One named senior engineer who knows your environment, your compliance requirements, and your business context — from assessment through ongoing operations.
The person who designs your network is the person who maintains it. No handoffs. No abstraction. No loss of context when something breaks at 2 a.m.
Background: Founder, ex-Meta. Past engagements include Cisco, Wells Fargo, Fannie Mae, and other Fortune 500 networks — the same caliber of engineering, now applied to mid-market organizations.
Ambio Edge Networks works with industry-leading networking and security vendors to deliver the infrastructure your operations depend on.
Best Fit
The model fits best when there is an internal IT person or general MSP doing day-to-day work, but the network engineering depth is missing. These are the typical environments.
HIPAA-aligned network segmentation, EHR uptime, secure remote access for clinicians, patient-data network isolation across multi-site clinical practices. From independent specialty practices to multi-clinic networks — we keep the network out of the way of patient care.
Confidential client data, secure document management network paths, and the kind of compliance posture client security questionnaires actually scrutinize. We operate the network behind the scenes so it does not become a liability surface.
PCI-DSS aligned network controls, audit-ready evidence, separation of cardholder data networks, and the kind of architecture documentation regulators and auditors expect. From regional credit unions to growth-stage fintech.
If you run 3 to 30 locations — or a regional or national footprint from a single HQ — we standardize the architecture across every site. Same vendor, same config, same monitoring. Reduces cost-of-incident and makes site expansion a documented process, not a fire drill.
Architecture firms, engineering consultancies, accounting practices, and similar professional services where the network has to be reliable but the firm is too small to justify a full-time network engineer. We function as the network engineering function, on retainer.
Networks supporting OT (operational technology), production lines, warehouse management, and logistics flow. Outages translate directly to lost throughput. We engineer for the kind of reliability operations teams stop noticing only when it’s working.
FAQ
Not if scope is defined up front. We sit down with your IT lead before any engagement to map out who owns what surface, what escalation paths look like, and how communication flows during incidents. The most common shape: your IT keeps everything they currently do; we own the network-engineering layer; the boundaries are written down. Co-managed only fails when scope ambiguity isn’t resolved early.
Closer than people assume. The work is the same; the difference is structure. Hiring a fractional engineer directly means W-2 / 1099 negotiations, payroll, equipment, and 1:1 dependence on one person. Co-managed network services come with a documented scope, a contractual SLA, an organization (not a single person) standing behind the work, and the ability to scale up or down without renegotiating an employment contract.
Yes, intentionally. Documentation is part of every engagement — not just configs and diagrams, but decision rationale (why we chose this design, what alternatives we considered). Many co-managed clients describe this as the most underrated benefit: the internal IT person comes out of every project with a deeper understanding of the network than they had before.
That happens, and it’s a fine outcome. We design every engagement so the work is documented enough for a future internal hire to pick up. If you reach the point where 5–20 hours/month of fractional engineering isn’t enough, hiring full-time is the right move. Some co-managed engagements stay open at reduced scope (project work only) even after a full-time hire arrives, which can be useful for major redesigns or surge capacity.
Project work: fixed-fee per project. Engineering retainer: flat monthly rate, typically $1,500–$5,000/month depending on hours and complexity. Full co-managed operations: $3,000–$15,000/month based on sites, devices, compliance scope. Real numbers come out of the assessment; we will not quote against an unknown environment.
Within one business hour for standard support engagements during business hours, and within a contractually defined window for after-hours and emergency support — defined in the service agreement. Because the engineer is named and senior, “response” means actual investigation, not a tier-1 acknowledgment that gets escalated.
Start the Co-Managed Engagement
Whether you ultimately want a one-shot project, an engineering retainer, or full co-managed operations, the starting point is the same: a senior engineer reviews your current environment end-to-end and delivers a written report. From there, we structure the engagement to fit your team and your scope.
Response from a senior engineer within 1 business day.
A direct conversation — no sales team, no runaround.
An honest assessment of whether we are the right fit.
Clear next steps if we are — no pressure if we are not.
