MSP glossary

Co-managed IT

Co-managed IT is a delivery model where an MSP works alongside a client's in-house IT staff — sharing tools, tickets, and responsibilities — rather than fully replacing them.

Written by the Current MSP team
Last updated July 18, 2026

In a traditional fully-managed relationship, the MSP owns IT end to end. In co-managed IT, the client keeps internal IT people and the MSP augments them — taking overnight and overflow tickets, owning a specialty like security or cloud or projects, or providing tooling and process the internal team lacks.

Why it's growing

Internal IT teams are stretched, and hiring specialists is hard. Co-management lets a company keep the institutional knowledge of its own staff while renting the MSP's depth and after-hours coverage. For MSPs, it's a way into larger accounts that would never fully outsource.

What it demands from your tooling

Co-management only works when both sides can see the same work — without the MSP exposing everything. That means shared project visibility and ticket collaboration, but strict boundaries around financials and internal data.

Current's partner portal is built for exactly this: a client's internal team sees project name, status, timeline, tasks, and shared documents and can comment, with financial data isolated at the database layer — not just hidden in the interface.

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