Every business owner knows that a new hire’s first few weeks set the tone for their entire career with the company. While you’re busy teaching them the ropes of their new role, there is something else just as vital to cover: keeping your company data safe.
Building a security-first culture doesn’t have to be intimidating. Here is how to navigate the first 30 days to ensure your new team members start off on the right foot.
Chances are pretty good that you know someone—a coworker, friend, or relative—who seems pretty confident that they know their way around technology. Maybe it’s your niece, who was the one to set up your Wi-Fi and spends her time on her self-constructed gaming PC. It kind of makes sense to lean on her for some tech advice for the office, too… doesn’t it?
The short answer: absolutely not.
While your niece may have a bright future ahead of her in the IT industry, there are numerous reasons why relying on her in lieu of a professional is a terrible, self-destructive idea.
A business owner says, "We already have an IT person, so we're good." And quietly, that single sentence is costing some of those companies far more than they realize. Co-managed IT services for Fraser Valley small businesses are solving a problem that most owners don’t even know they have, until something goes seriously wrong.
Hiring an in-house IT person feels like the responsible move. You have someone on-site. You know their name. You can call them directly. It makes sense, especially when your business is growing and technology is becoming more central to how you operate every day.
But no single person can be an expert in everything.
Modern IT demands expertise in cybersecurity, cloud infrastructure, compliance, networking, backup and disaster recovery, vendor management, and strategic planning. Expecting one employee to cover all of that, often while also handling everyday helpdesk requests, is not a strategy. It’s a gamble.
And the odds aren’t in your favor.
According to a 2024 report from ISC2, 67% of organizations reported some form of shortage of cybersecurity professionals. Even organizations that have IT staff on payroll aren’t immune to this gap.
The Fortinet 2024 Cybersecurity Skills Gap Report found that 58% of companies say that insufficient skills and a lack of properly trained IT and security staff are among the prime causes of breaches.
Read that again. More than half of companies that experienced a breach pointed to their own team's skill gaps as a contributing factor. Not a lack of technology. Not a lack of budget. A lack of expertise that one generalist employee simply can’t fill on their own.
Here are the specific coverage gaps that emerge most often when small businesses rely on a single IT person:
Your IT person is likely talented and hardworking. That’s not the issue. The issue is scope. One person was never designed to cover all of this alone.
There’s another dimension to this that rarely surfaces until it’s too late.
42% of tech workers say they’re considering leaving their jobs within the next six months. In the IT industry specifically, burnout isn’t a fringe concern. 82% of employees in the tech industry feel close to burnout.
When your entire IT operation depends on one person, you’re not just managing a skills gap. You’re managing a retention risk.
What happens the day your IT person resigns? Or gets sick for two weeks? Or burns out and simply stops performing at the level you hired them for? If your answer involves a lot of uncertainty, that is exactly the vulnerability that co-managed IT services for Fraser Valley small businesses are designed to eliminate.
Your business should never be one resignation away from an IT crisis. But for many Fraser Valley companies right now, that is precisely where things stand.
Co-managed IT isn’t about replacing your internal IT person. It’s about surrounding them with everything they can’t be on their own.
Think of it this way. A general contractor is excellent at their trade. But on a large job, they bring in electricians, plumbers, and specialists. Not because the general contractor is failing, but because the project demands it. Co-managed IT works the same way.
Here is what a co-managed model typically adds to your existing IT team:
Your internal IT person handles the day-to-day. The co-managed partner handles the depth, the breadth, and the after-hours coverage they simply can’t provide alone.
One of the most common objections Fraser Valley business owners raise is cost. Co-managed IT is an added expense, and when you already have someone on payroll, it can feel redundant.
But consider what you’re actually paying for when you rely exclusively on a solo IT employee.
Every hour your systems are offline has a measurable impact on productivity, customer experience, and revenue. Managed IT services offer round-the-clock monitoring, ensuring 99.99% network uptime and proactive issue resolution. A single IT employee working business hours simply can’t match that coverage window.
Two-thirds of organizations face additional risks because of cybersecurity skills shortages. When your only IT resource lacks deep security expertise, that gap becomes an open door for attackers. Fraser Valley businesses aren’t exempt from this risk. Ransomware and phishing attacks don’t discriminate by geography.
Technology doesn’t stand still. Cloud platforms evolve. Security threats change. Compliance requirements shift. 95% of organizations have at least one or more cybersecurity skills needs, with AI security and cloud security topping the list. Keeping one generalist employee current across every area of modern IT is nearly impossible without external support.
This isn’t a niche concept. The market is moving clearly in this direction.
Almost 90% of SMBs currently use a managed service provider to handle some of their IT needs or are actively considering it. Businesses across North America have recognized what Fraser Valley companies are beginning to discover: combining internal staff with external expertise produces better outcomes than either option alone.
Approximately 49% of businesses outsource at least some IT functions, allowing key personnel to focus on core business activities while benefiting from specialized skills such as cybersecurity and disaster recovery.
The companies leading in their industries aren’t choosing between in-house IT and a managed partner. They’re choosing both.
Not every managed IT firm is built for co-managed relationships. Some are designed primarily for fully outsourced IT, and they may not have the tools or mindset to partner well with your existing team.
Your internal IT person needs a partner, not a competitor. The right co-managed provider will work alongside your employee, share knowledge openly, and fill in the gaps rather than undermine the person already doing the job.
Cybersecurity is non-negotiable. Look for a partner that brings enterprise-grade tools to the table: SOC monitoring, multi-factor authentication, phishing simulations, endpoint protection, and DNS filtering built into every plan, not treated as optional add-ons.
Co-managed IT shouldn’t just be about fixing things when they break. Quarterly Business Reviews and technology roadmaps ensure your IT infrastructure is actively supporting your business goals rather than just keeping up with them.
A co-managed partner should have documented and verifiable response time commitments. Ask for specifics. "We respond quickly" isn’t a performance standard. Ask what their average emergency response time is and how they measure it.
If your business is growing, your IT environment is getting more complex. If you handle any sensitive client data, your compliance obligations are real. If your current IT person is stretched thin, the risk is already accumulating.
Co-managed IT services for Fraser Valley small businesses are not a last resort for companies whose IT has failed. They’re the structure that forward-thinking business owners put in place before something goes wrong.
The Fraser Valley business community is competitive. Legal firms, accounting practices, construction companies, and professional services organizations across Langley, Surrey, and Abbotsford are all making technology decisions right now that will determine how well they perform over the next three to five years.
The question isn’t whether you need more than one person managing your IT. The question is whether you’re willing to wait for a crisis to prove it.
Sources:
Misplacing a file can be annoying and stressful, especially if that file is important. On complex networks, it could potentially be in multiple different locations, perhaps on a local network device or somewhere in the cloud. In moments of dire need, knowing how to locate such important files makes you a standout (and standup) employee, so let’s explore ways to find “lost” files, even if they’ve seemingly disappeared into the ether.
If you run a business in Surrey and have been putting off a technology refresh, the window to act wisely is closing fast. IT hardware shortages affecting Surrey businesses in 2026 are no longer a forecast or a warning buried in industry reports. They’re happening right now, and the companies that wait will pay for it in ways that go far beyond a higher invoice.
This is the most severe supply chain disruption the technology industry has faced in over a decade, and your competitors who act first will have a significant advantage over those who don’t.
To understand what is happening, you need to understand one core shift: the explosive growth of artificial intelligence has completely redirected global chip manufacturing.
The three largest memory manufacturers in the world, Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron, have pivoted their production capacity toward high-bandwidth memory used in AI systems. That is the memory powering the massive data centers behind ChatGPT, Google Gemini, and every other AI platform growing at breakneck speed.
The problem is that manufacturing capacity is finite. Every chip allocated to an AI data center is a chip not available for the laptop, server, or storage device your business needs.
According to research from Tom's Hardware, data centers are on track to consume 70% of all memory chips produced in 2026. That leaves the remaining 30% to be divided among every business, school, hospital, and consumer on the planet.
Gartner projects a 130% surge in combined DRAM and SSD prices by the end of 2026. That translates to PC prices rising 17% compared to 2025 levels. Dell has already warned partners to expect price increases of up to 30%. TrendForce projects Q1 2026 brought a record 90% to 95% quarter-over-quarter jump in PC DRAM contract prices alone.
This isn’t a temporary blip. IDC has warned the shortage could persist well into 2027.
IT hardware shortages affecting Surrey businesses in 2026 are showing up in real ways right now. The hardware you could have purchased six months ago at a predictable price is now significantly more expensive, harder to find, and coming with longer lead times. The following categories are being hit hardest:
For a Surrey business that planned a hardware refresh for Q3 or Q4 of this year, the cost of waiting is now measurable and significant.
Most business owners focus on the price increases and miss a second threat entirely: security exposure from aging hardware.
IT hardware shortages affecting Surrey businesses in 2026 are forcing many owners to delay upgrades, which stretches device lifecycles well past their intended limits.
Gartner's research confirms that PC lifetimes are expected to increase by 15% for business buyers in 2026 as companies hold off on upgrades due to rising costs. While that might sound like a reasonable response, it creates a serious security problem that your IT provider needs to address head-on.
When employees are running systems beyond their optimal lifecycle, those machines fall behind on hardware-level security features, driver updates, and compatibility with the latest security patches. Cybercriminals actively target businesses running outdated infrastructure because the vulnerabilities are well-documented and easier to exploit.
For Surrey businesses in professional services, legal, accounting, and construction, client data and compliance obligations are on the line. Stretching a hardware lifecycle out of financial necessity is one thing. Doing it without a proactive security strategy in place is another.
The cruelest part of this shortage is that it punishes smaller firms most severely. This isn’t an equal-opportunity disruption.
According to reporting from Tom's Hardware, the memory market has effectively split into two tiers. On one side are roughly 100 top-tier buyers, including Apple, Samsung, Google, and major cloud providers. These companies have the leverage, the cash, and the long-term supplier relationships to secure priority allocation and resist the worst price increases.
On the other side are over 190,000 small and mid-size companies fighting over whatever supply remains.
That means Surrey businesses are competing for scraps of a market being controlled by the largest technology companies on earth.
The following factors are making it worse for smaller firms specifically:
Surrey businesses that don’t have a purchasing strategy in place for the next 12 to 18 months are operating without a plan in one of the most volatile technology procurement environments in recent history.
The good news is that IT hardware shortages affecting Surrey businesses in 2026 are entirely manageable with the right approach. Business owners who act with intention over the next 90 days will be positioned far better than those who react when a crisis forces their hand.
Industry experts, including analysts at Arraya Solutions and BIC Magazine, are recommending the following proactive steps for businesses facing this environment:
The difference between a Surrey business that weathers this well and one that takes an unexpected budget hit in Q3 or Q4 often comes down to having a plan in place today.
If your business is already in the middle of a hardware refresh or has planned purchases scheduled in the coming months, IT hardware shortages affecting Surrey businesses in 2026 mean pricing and availability can shift before you’re ready to act.
Quote validity windows have shortened dramatically. Pricing confirmed today may not be honoured in 30 days. If you have outstanding hardware quotes, treat them as urgent and verify their validity before assuming the numbers still hold.
If your refresh was planned for later in the year, pull that conversation forward immediately. The cost of acting now is predictable. The cost of acting under pressure in six months isn’t.
This is exactly the environment where having a trusted managed IT partner in your corner makes a measurable difference. Coleman Technologies has been helping businesses across the Lower Mainland, Fraser Valley, and Greater Vancouver navigate procurement challenges, technology planning, and infrastructure decisions for years.
This environment demands a partner with vendor relationships, procurement insight, and the ability to evaluate alternatives on your behalf. You should never be navigating this blind.
A proactive managed IT provider will help you:
Coleman Technologies offers Quarterly Business Reviews to every client, which is exactly the kind of proactive planning conversation that helps Surrey businesses stay ahead of market disruptions like this one rather than reacting to them after the damage is done.
IT hardware shortages affecting Surrey businesses in 2026 are not going away in the next quarter. With Gartner forecasting 130% price increases in combined memory and storage costs by year-end, and IDC projecting shortages persisting into 2027, the time to act is now.
Businesses that move quickly will have access to inventory, predictable pricing, and a technology roadmap that works. Those that wait will face higher costs, longer delays, and the compounding security risk of running outdated hardware without a plan.
The smartest move you can make today is to have a conversation with your IT provider about what is in your environment, what needs to be replaced, and how to sequence your investments before prices spike again.
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Coleman Technologies is a managed IT and cybersecurity partner for growing businesses that can’t afford downtime, breaches, or guesswork. For over 25 years, we’ve helped organizations across British Columbia run stable, secure, and scalable technology environments—backed by 24/7 support, enterprise-grade security, and clear accountability. We don’t just fix IT problems. We take ownership of them.
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