Switching IT Providers in Phoenix, With Managed Hosting Close to Home

Signs it is time to switch IT providers

• The same problems come back every month.
• You do not have the admin passwords for your own Microsoft 365, domain or firewall.
• No one can show you a current network diagram, asset list or backup restore test.
• Security (MFA, patching, backups) feels like an add-on rather than part of the service.
• Your business added people, locations or software, and your provider did not keep up.
• You have to chase your provider for answers or for a plan.
• Your servers sit in a hot closet, and summer heat is a risk to the equipment.

Use your next project as the switch point

Many businesses switch at a natural moment: an office move or new location, a Microsoft 365 or server migration, a Windows 11 refresh or a firewall that has reached end of life. BTI can run the project and take over support in one plan. See IT Projects: relocation and expansion location IT, Microsoft 365 migration, server and cloud migration, network upgrade.

How a BTI transition works

Handoff checklist: what you need from your current provider

Everything is put in your company's name, so you are never locked out again.

Two ways to work with BTI after the switch

Retiring IT person or a one-person IT department? Co-managed IT keeps them involved while their knowledge is documented, and fully managed IT takes over when they leave.

Managed data center hosting in Phoenix

A switch is a good time to move servers out of the office closet. BTI offers managed data center hosting at its Phoenix office inside the Iron Mountain AZP-1 facility:

• Smart hands. BTI engineers on site power-cycle, swap, cable and install equipment, so your team does not have to travel.
• Co-managed monitoring and support for your network. BTI watches your hosted equipment and network and works with your IT team through co-managed IT.
• Any platform, your hardware or ours. Hosting can run any platform. Customers supply servers and storage from their own vendors or buy them through BTI.
• Disaster recovery failover. Critical systems can fail over to the Phoenix data center when your primary site is down, with failover tested before you need it.

The facility (Iron Mountain). Power and internet reliability at the Iron Mountain AZP-1 facility are best in class: 41 MW of power capacity, 2N+1 generator redundancy, N+1 cooling, a design built to Tier III standards, 40+ on-site network providers and direct cloud on-ramps to AWS, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud. It is a very high security site with badge and iris biometric access to the data floor, and Iron Mountain holds SOC 2 Type II reports, ISO 27001 certification, PCI DSS and HIPAA compliance and FedRAMP authorization for the facility, per Iron Mountain's AZP-1 page. Facility specifications and certifications belong to Iron Mountain. BTI provides the managed hosting, smart hands, monitoring, support and failover. Details: managed data center hosting in Phoenix.

Switching IT providers in Phoenix and Tucson

BTI supports businesses across the Phoenix metro, with the same help desk number and 24/7 NOC/SOC across every location.

The Phoenix and Tucson business landscape. The Phoenix metro is a fast-growing business region. Semiconductor and advanced manufacturing investment in the north and west Valley, data center construction around Mesa and Goodyear, a large healthcare and senior-care sector, manufacturers and suppliers serving aerospace and defense, and a steady flow of companies relocating from California all shape the market. Professional offices fill central Phoenix, Scottsdale and Tempe, while Chandler and the West Valley keep adding offices and distribution sites. Tucson adds a second market to the south, with its own offices, clinics and suppliers. When a business grows quickly, IT is often set up in a hurry: accounts in a former employee's name, a network closet nobody has documented, and backups no one has tested. A planned switch fixes that.

Who BTI supports in Arizona. BTI's Phoenix team supports medical groups, PACE programs, pharmacies and dental groups; CPA and insurance firms; manufacturers; and public agencies. Public sector buyers can work with BTI as a GSA contract holder (47QTCA21D00BA).

What makes a Phoenix switch different

• Heat. Heat is the local risk for network closets and server rooms, so cooling and power are checked during the switch. Summer heat that regularly passes 110°F puts real stress on network closets, rooftop equipment and on-premises servers, so discovery includes temperature, ventilation and UPS health in every closet.
• Monsoon season. From June through September, monsoon storms bring dust, power fluctuations and lightning that can take out circuits and unprotected equipment. During the switch, BTI checks surge protection and UPS batteries at each site and confirms a second internet path where the business needs one.
• Growth and new sites. If you are opening an office in Chandler or a distribution site in the West Valley, the switch is the moment to set one standard for circuits, firewall, switching and Wi-Fi, so every new location is built the same way and supported from the start.
• Moving from California. If your company is moving from California or adding an Arizona office next to a Los Angeles one, BTI's Los Angeles and Phoenix teams work from one plan, one help desk number and one set of tools.
• The data center corridor. Data center construction across the Valley makes Phoenix a natural place to host servers. As part of the switch, you can decide whether servers stay in the office or move into the managed hosting described above.
• A metro that spreads out. The Valley stretches across many cities, from Goodyear and Surprise in the west to Mesa and Queen Creek in the east, so drive time between sites adds up. The switch plan sets which locations get scheduled on-site time, which are supported remotely, and who answers when a branch goes offline in the middle of a summer afternoon.
• Tucson. On-site help in Tucson is delivered through contractors, planned and managed by BTI, with the same help desk and NOC/SOC as your Phoenix sites.

Why a local team makes the switch easier. BTI's Phoenix office is inside the Iron Mountain AZP-1 facility near Sky Harbor, with central Phoenix, Scottsdale and the East Valley within easy reach. The engineers who plan your switch also provide smart hands for hosted equipment, so the team that knows your office network can rack, cable and power-cycle your servers in the data center too, backed by 400+ engineers and BTI's 24/7 NOC/SOC. To talk through a switch, call the Phoenix team at 480-272-8728.

Related Phoenix pages: managed IT in Phoenix and Tucson, outsourced IT in Phoenix and Tucson, IT infrastructure consulting in Phoenix, cybersecurity in Phoenix and network installation in Phoenix and Tucson.

Also switching in another metro? See switching IT providers in Los Angeles and switching IT providers in Chicago.

Pair the switch with a project, and finance it

If the switch comes with new servers, storage, firewalls or a move into hosting, the project can be financed. BTI can arrange 3.99% vendor financing for 100% of the project, including equipment, labor and consulting, for qualified buyers, subject to credit approval. Many bank loans run 10% or more today and ask for far more collateral. Our vendor financing is secured by the new equipment itself.

Ask About 3.99% Financing

Glossary: the terms in this page, spelled out

MSP (managed service provider)

an outside company that runs some or all of your IT for a monthly fee. Examples: "Our MSP handles the help desk and patching." "We are switching MSPs after the move."

Co-managed IT

a shared model where your internal IT staff keep control and an outside provider adds tools, people or after-hours coverage under a written split of duties. Examples: Your IT manager keeps projects and vendors; BTI takes password resets and overnight alerts. A two-person IT team adds 24/7 monitoring without hiring a night shift.

Global admin (global administrator)

the top-level administrator account in Microsoft 365 that can change every setting. Examples: Two named global admins owned by the business, plus a break-glass account. "Who holds global admin today?"

Registrar (domain registrar)

the company where your domain name (yourcompany.com) is registered and renewed. Examples: The domain is registered at the registrar under the owner's email. A lapsed registrar login is a common surprise during a switch.

DNS (Domain Name System)

the internet's address book that turns names like btigroup.com into server addresses. Examples: "Who controls our DNS, the old IT company or us?" Email and website records live in DNS.

RMM (remote monitoring and management)

software agents an IT provider installs on PCs and servers to monitor, patch and support them remotely. Examples: The old provider's RMM agent is removed after the new one is installed. RMM alerts when a disk is almost full.

Asset list

an inventory of every device, license and service, with owner, location and support dates. Examples: The asset list shows 42 PCs, 3 servers and the firewall. "Is the copier on the asset list?"

Network diagram

a drawing of how internet lines, firewalls, switches, Wi-Fi and servers connect. Examples: The diagram shows the VLANs and the second internet line. A current diagram speeds up every repair.

Ticket history

the record of past support requests and how they were resolved. Examples: Ticket history shows the same printer issue every month. "Can we get an export of our ticket history?"

MFA (multifactor authentication)

signing in with a second proof, such as an app prompt, on top of a password. Examples: MFA blocks most stolen-password sign-ins. Turn on MFA before the migration, not after.

NOC (network operations center)

a team that watches networks, servers and internet circuits around the clock and responds to outages. Examples: The NOC sees a branch internet circuit drop at 2 a.m. and opens a carrier ticket. The NOC flags a failing server drive before it fails.

SOC (security operations center)

a team that watches security alerts around the clock and responds to threats. Examples: The SOC isolates a laptop that opened a malicious attachment. The SOC investigates a sign-in from an unusual country.

Help desk

the first point of contact for user IT problems and requests. Examples: Password resets and printer issues go to the help desk. "Escalate this ticket from the help desk to an engineer."

RACI (responsible, accountable, consulted, informed)

a chart that says who does, owns, advises on and hears about each task. Examples: The co-managed RACI shows BTI is responsible for patching and your IT lead is accountable. A RACI settles "who does this?" before go-live.

Smart hands

on-site, hands-on help inside a data center: an engineer who can power-cycle a server, swap a drive, move a cable, check a light or install equipment for you. Examples: Smart hands reseat a failed drive at 2 a.m. "Ask smart hands to check the link light on port 12."

DR failover (disaster recovery failover)

switching your critical systems to a second site when the primary site is down, then switching back when it is fixed. Examples: The file server fails over to the Phoenix data center during an outage at the office. A failover test proves the second site works before you need it.

Colocation

renting rack space, power and cooling in a professional data center instead of running your own server room. Examples: BTI's Phoenix office is colocated inside the Iron Mountain data center. A firm moves its servers to colocation to retire a closet.

Tier III design

a data center design standard in which power and cooling can be maintained without shutting down the equipment they serve (concurrently maintainable). Examples: Iron Mountain says AZP-1 is built to Tier III standards. A generator is serviced while the data hall stays powered.

N+1 / 2N+1

redundancy levels: N+1 means one spare beyond what is needed; 2N+1 means a full second set plus one more spare. Examples: N+1 cooling: one extra cooling unit beyond the load. 2N+1 generators: two full sets of generators plus one spare.

Cloud on-ramp

a direct private connection from a data center to a cloud provider, such as AWS Direct Connect, Azure ExpressRoute or Google Cloud Interconnect. Examples: Hosted servers reach Azure over ExpressRoute instead of the public internet. A backup copy moves to the cloud over a direct connection.

SOC 2 Type II (System and Organization Controls 2, Type II)

an independent report on how a service organization's security controls operated over a period of time, under AICPA standards. Examples: Iron Mountain publishes SOC 2 Type II reports for its AZP-1 facility. A customer's auditor asks the data center for its latest SOC 2 Type II report.

ISO 27001 (International Organization for Standardization 27001)

the international standard for an information security management system. Examples: Iron Mountain lists ISO 27001 certification for AZP-1. A security policy, risk register and internal reviews are part of an ISO 27001 program.

PCI DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard)

the security standard for organizations that store, process or transmit payment card data. Examples: Iron Mountain lists PCI DSS for AZP-1. A retailer hosting card systems asks for the facility's PCI DSS documentation.

HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act)

the US law that sets privacy and security rules for protected health information. Examples: Iron Mountain lists HIPAA compliance for AZP-1. A medical group checks that its hosting facility supports HIPAA requirements.

FedRAMP (Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program)

the US government program that authorizes cloud and hosting services for federal agency use. Examples: Iron Mountain lists FedRAMP authorization for AZP-1. A government contractor looks for FedRAMP authorized facilities.