If your Seattle software development firm is still juggling IT headaches in-house, you’re already behind. Why? Seattle’s fast-paced software sector is a hotspot for high-tech, with the industry generating an estimated $134 billion locally in 2023. You can’t afford to fall behind.
In a competitive and volatile vertical, small and midsize businesses (SMBs) in tech come and go faster than you can say, “startup.” Yet many local development teams still struggle with underperforming infrastructure, avoidable downtime, or reacting to cybersecurity threats after the fact. That’s not just risky — it’s expensive.
The rewards are there for agile companies. A high-tech hub, the Seattle area ranks above Silicon Valley, Boston, and Austin for the highest concentration of skilled tech workers. Tech companies specializing in everything from social media to virtual and augmented reality are based here, with more than 1,400 startups founded in 2024.
Your secret weapon? Managed IT services built specifically for Seattle software companies. Their support can give you a competitive edge by stabilizing your infrastructure, strengthening your security, and freeing your team to focus on what they do best: shipping code and scaling products.
In this post, we’ll explore how Seattle-based software firms are leveraging managed IT partnerships to:
- Avoid IT bottlenecks that delay product releases.
- Build more secure and scalable environments for development.
- Reduce costs without sacrificing tech support quality.
Whether you’re a startup CTO or the operations lead at a scaling development firm, managed IT can supercharge your growth.
The Seattle Tech Landscape
According to Greater Seattle Partners, the city’s ecosystem of innovation and invention in IT is driven in large part by:
- Research institutions.
- More than 100 engineering centers that attract and retain talent.
- Committed venture capitalists, angels, mentors, incubators, and accelerators.
- Workspaces to support rapid prototyping and growth.
The region is focusing on many emerging technologies, including generative AI, 5G, cloud computing, smart manufacturing, semiconductor, aerospace, satellite broadband, healthcare, maritime, and clean technologies.
Successful Seattle software development companies are focused on the ability to grow in a profitable and efficient way, without the need for additional investor dollars. Keeping operations reliable and costs low with managed IT services is a great way to stay on track.
Challenges Software Companies Face in IT Management
Smaller Seattle software development companies must compete with giants like Microsoft and Amazon. Innovative offerings alone aren’t enough to get ahead. SMBs, especially those in the high-tech industry, must also be ready to grow or scale when the opportunity comes to grab market share. It can be difficult to manage infrastructure — hardware, software, and services — as software development teams grow. Ideally, development teams will scale instead; that is, increase their output without adding new employees. In either case, SMBs must manage access, security, and processes as their needs change, whether for new employees, processes, products, or team configurations. These efficiencies keep productivity and agility levels high.
But traditional systems and processes can’t always accommodate increased demands for functionality and performance. Software development companies need IT infrastructure that is flexible and can adapt to newer tech models, prompting strategies, guardrails, and tools.
SMBs need to maximize their uptime and productivity to support innovation and agile development sprints. This means staying on top of IT system management and maintenance, such as applying updates and patches.
Those are also good practices for ensuring robust cybersecurity to protect sensitive data, including intellectual property (IP), source code, algorithms, and client data. Because the technology industry is central to the nation’s security, economy, public health, and safety, CISA.gov recognizes that safeguards and data protection are vitally important.
How Managed IT Services Help Software Development Companies
MSPs are pros at supporting software development companies with tailored IT services to deliver business benefits that support scalability and reduce costs. These include:
- Reliable IT infrastructure for on-demand scalability and cloud integration. MSPs offer services designed to improve IT quality, efficiency, and reliability. These include IT audits to identify and address vulnerabilities, ecosystem support and integration to maximize performance and seamlessly add new solutions, and managed cloud services for flexible apps with high uptime.
- Proactive maintenance to minimize downtime. Monitoring and testing can catch issues like poorly configured databases, network instability, and outdated software before they lead to system downtime or data breaches. MSPs can also minimize downtime related to natural disasters, hardware failure, and cyberattacks with data backups, disaster recovery, and business continuity solutions. This is crucial considering that ITIC research showed that the hourly cost of downtime exceeded $300,000 in 2022 for 91% of SMBs and enterprises.
- Enhanced cybersecurity with real-time threat monitoring and mitigation. Cyber threats evolve constantly, and MSPs can provide multi-layered security with 24/7 system monitoring, regular patches and updates, and solutions for detecting vulnerabilities and threats. Advanced security services from MSPs ensure that your endpoints, servers, network, and apps are protected from hackers. Security controls, such as encryption, firewalls, zero-trust anti-malware, and intrusion detection systems, are also available.
- Compliance support for industry standards. MSPs can manage Seattle software development companies’ critical infrastructure, including servers, networks, and storage, to help ensure they comply with industry standards. This includes regular audits, continuous monitoring of IT systems, and supplying compliance documentation during external audits. Common software-industry standards include ISO 27001, FedRAMP, SOC 2, and CMMC. Many MSPs also offer Virtual Chief Information Security Officer (vCISO) services, providing strategic cybersecurity guidance, risk assessment, and long-term planning. Paired with vulnerability management services, which deliver continuous scanning, risk evaluation, and hands-on remediation, these offerings ensure a proactive and comprehensive approach to compliance and cybersecurity.
- Help applying for cyberinsurance policies. With cyberattacks so common and costly, it’s wise to be prepared. Carrying a cyberinsurance policy is great protection, and the processes involved are in line with good security and compliance practices.
- Cost efficiencies around IT skills and systems. MSPs are staffed with experts on all aspects of IT, and they offer services on demand. SMBs don’t have to find and hire new IT staff; instead, they can access specialists for each project or service as needed. For strategic perspective on IT initiatives, SMBs can engage virtual CIOs to guide their IT strategies. Along with savings on IT expertise, managed IT services offer access to technology and tools that might otherwise be cost-prohibitive. MSPs often use shared, multi-tenant systems (like cloud platforms, backup solutions, and security tools), which lowers the per-client cost. They can also purchase software licenses, hardware, and cloud services in bulk, passing the savings on to SMBs.
Tips for Choosing the Right Managed IT Services Provider in Seattle
When looking for an IT partner in the greater Seattle area, choose an MSP who is familiar with Seattle’s business landscape and regulatory environment. Locally headquartered companies are your best bet, especially those that are well-established. Potential MSPs should have a history of serving clients in the software development industry.
Before talking to candidates, look at their websites to see if they provide 24/7 IT support, customized solutions, and clear service level agreements (SLAs) for these services. SLAs lay out timelines for a response from the MSP and covers metrics on quality, availability, and responsibilities involved in their services.
Questions to ask potential providers include:
- Is your team experienced at working with developers and technology experts?
- How many years have you been doing business in Seattle?
- Do you have other software development company clients we can talk to?
- How will you scale your services if we experience exponential growth?
- What is your SLA for core services?
- Are you required to meet compliance standards by any of your clients?
- What are your escalation procedures for support incidents?
- Do you provide support 24/7 to remote or contract staff?
- How do you charge for your services, and what does that look like? (Make sure that you understand clearly what each service includes and why your company needs it.)
- Tell me about your cybersecurity expertise.
- If needed, could you help us apply and adhere to a cybersecurity insurance policy? (MSPs should be experts in this process, and since they’ll be thoroughly acquainted with your IT environment, they’re in an ideal position to help.)
- What kinds of solutions can you help us integrate? (These could include unified communications solutions, Microsoft 365, VPNs, and remote access tools.)
After asking these questions, take note of how clear and thorough each potential MSP’s communication and policies are. This will give you an idea of what it’s like to work with them.
What BlackPoint IT Services Can Do to Help
At BlackPoint IT Services, we help small and midsize software development companies in Seattle and other locations with expertise and resources to stay ahead of cyberthreats. Let our IT security experts guide you toward a future-proof IT infrastructure. Schedule a consultation today to start improving your IT infrastructure so your employees can focus on their core skills without worrying about downtime.
