Remote Network Administration

A monthly retainer makes sense when the workload does not justify a full-time hire but is too consistent to handle on a break-fix basis. Subnet Works provides ongoing remote oversight from the same engineer who knows the environment, with a defined response window and no recurring onboarding cost.

Common reasons businesses move to a retainer

• The network was just built or assessed and the business wants someone watching it
• The previous IT person left and coverage needs to continue while hiring
• There is recurring infrastructure work (patching, renewals, monitoring, changes) that nobody is owning
• The business has had an incident and wants proactive oversight going forward
• IT decisions are being made ad hoc with no one accountable for the outcome

What retainer coverage includes

Proactive monitoring

• Infrastructure uptime monitoring with alerting on device or service failure
• Interface and link utilization tracking on Cisco switches and routers
• Syslog review for error patterns, STP topology changes, and authentication failures
• Disk, CPU, and memory utilization monitoring on servers

Routine maintenance

• Monthly OS and firmware patching on servers and network devices
• TLS certificate renewal before expiration
• Backup job verification: confirming jobs completed successfully, spot-checking restores
• DHCP scope and DNS record hygiene

Network change management

• VLAN additions, port moves, ACL updates, and firewall rule changes
• Device configuration changes documented and backed up after every modification
• Change windows coordinated with the business before anything touches production

Incident response

• First response on network or server incidents within the agreed response window
• Root cause analysis and documented resolution for recurring issues
• Escalation support if a failure requires on-site intervention

Quarterly reviews

• Capacity review: utilization trends and upcoming headroom concerns
• Security review: open ports, stale credentials, aging hardware
• Documentation update: keeping the topology and configuration records current

Representative scope examples

Post-buildout retainer. After completing a network buildout for a 30-person company in Jersey City, Subnet Works continued on a monthly retainer. The retainer covers patching, backup verification, certificate renewals, and a committed four-hour response window for network incidents. The business has a single point of contact who already knows the environment.

Coverage during staff transition. A company in Brooklyn lost their in-house IT person to another job. Rather than immediately hiring a replacement, they retained Subnet Works for six months while the search continued. During that period Subnet Works handled two switch failures, a server disk replacement, and a VPN reconfiguration for new remote workers, and handed back full documentation to the incoming IT hire.

No internal IT, ongoing coverage. A 15-person company in Hoboken has no internal IT staff. Subnet Works handles all network and server infrastructure on a retainer: patching, monitoring, configuration changes, and incident response. The business owner has one number to call and one engineer who knows every device on the network.