Why Municipalities Are Turning to MSPs for Help
Hard work and clear communication keep municipalities running. The last thing any municipality needs is technology slowing them down.
Unfortunately, many municipalities have a tech problem, with some lacking dedicated IT staff entirely. From tight budgets to talent gaps, town administrators may find themselves overwhelmed with today’s complex IT infrastructure.
That’s why many have turned to managed service providers (MSPs) for help.
For over two decades, MSPs have been bringing managed IT to towns and cities overwhelmed by IT demands. In this blog, we’ll detail how an MSP makes all the difference.
Why a Managed Service Provider?
The surface-level answer: MSPs act as that municipality’s internal IT department.
The deeper answer: alignment.
Both municipalities and MSPs operate best when they’re proactive. Municipalities plan for public projects and maintain critical infrastructure, while balancing day-to-day operations. Meanwhile, MSPs maintain systems and resolve technical issues before they become disruptions. In both cases, the goal is to stop problems from happening in the first place.
This shared mindset makes MSPs a great fit for municipalities. But there’s far more to this partnership than a shared philosophy.
Here’s what to expect when you partner with an MSP:
1. Always Available
Municipalities don’t just “turn off” when the day’s over—especially emergency services and utility divisions. If there’s an outage at the police department, for example, you’re going to need a fix and fast.
That’s why many MSPs offer 24/7/365 support. This constant availability, combined with consistent monitoring, means that when something goes wrong, you already have your MSP working on a fix before you even have to call them.
2. Improve Cybersecurity
When municipalities are overwhelmed or understaffed, security gaps are more likely to go unnoticed.
And these attacks aren’t rare. For example, the cyberattack in Foster City, California, left the city under a state of emergency without working emails or phones.
MSPs live on the frontlines of cybersecurity. They both monitor evolving cyberthreats while constantly looking for ways to strengthen their client’s security environments. Tools like multi-factor authentication add extra levels of account protection, network encryption keeps your activity private, and zero-trust polices help control who has access to your systems.
But cybersecurity is about much more than tools and antivirus software. When 95% of cybersecurity incidents involve human error, training your team is just as critical. That’s why MSPs offer ongoing cyber awareness training to help staff recognize and respond to cyber threats before they become a problem.
3. Disaster Recovery
Even the most prepared municipality will experience some kind of downtime. Maybe it’s a power outage, damage from a storm, or ransomware, whatever the cause, the end result is the same: downtime. In municipalities, downtime creates serious public risk by halting critical services (water, finance, emergency dispatch) and understandably upset citizens. Downtime can also cause departments to miss critical deadlines while leading to regulatory compliance fines.
MSPs help municipalities create clear, focused, and efficient disaster recovery plans. Each recovery plan will be different for every municipality (and their individual departments), but the general idea is to outline your most important systems, and prioritize what you need up and running first. When combined with backup systems, which help recover potentially damaged or lost data, these recovery plans can drastically reduce downtime and money wasted.
4. Satisfy Regulatory Compliance
Regulatory compliance is not a one-size-fits-all. Each municipal department must adhere to its own set of regulations. Water and utility departments may fall under environmental frameworks like the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA), law enforcement must comply with Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS) requirements, and all municipal workplaces must follow Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) standards. And these frameworks aren’t set in stone, with many new requirements and updates introduced on a regular basis.
MSPs provide visibility into complex systems through tools like endpoint management, monitoring, and reporting. This allows municipalities to better understand where they stand regarding regulatory frameworks and better prepare for future audits.
Beyond that, MSPs often look to the future, preparing municipalities for evolving regulations and making necessary changes to meet new requirements.
5. Software Management
Different departments rely on different software systems. Whether it’s court software, records management, or police & fire software, everything must be kept up-to-date and compatible with existing systems.
Skipping a software update means far more than missing out on new features. Many updates are designed to close known security gaps, better securing your software and your environment. If left unattended, cybercriminals can use these openings to compromise your systems.
MSPs can use monitoring tools to track what software needs updating and when. By scheduling these updates during off-hours, they can keep updates running smoothly without disrupting daily operations.
6. Replace Outdated Technology
Roughly one-third of government agencies rely on decade-old systems (known as legacy systems) that are incompatible with modern standards. While these systems struggle to satisfy modern standards, the bigger danger is the holes they leave in your security environment. Manufacturers stop creating security updates once a product has reached its listed end of life. If these systems are still in use, any potential vulnerabilities will never be fixed with future updates. This leaves old systems extremely vulnerable to cyberattacks.
MSPs can help replace old hardware with budget-friendly upgrades. Whether that’s moving old storage services onto the cloud, installing newer computers, or replacing unsupported software. MSPs can bring municipal IT infrastructure up to current standards, improving security and operations, while satisfying compliance in the process.
The Budget Question
The big question comes down to cost: how can already tight budgets afford outsourcing to an MSP?
The reality is that many municipalities can’t afford not to have one.
Relying on a single internal IT staff member, or neglecting dedicated IT support altogether, can lead to unplanned downtime, critical security gaps, and delayed services.
MSPs understand the struggle. That’s why many, like The 20 MSP, offer a predictable pricing model so municipalities can work IT costs into their budget.
When an unplanned disaster can set you back by months, partnering with an MSP means, if not avoiding those disruptions outright, minimizing their impact on your systems, your citizens, and your budget.
Technology Made Easy
Whether it’s installing new computers for the town hall or maintaining CJIS-compliant systems at the police department, MSPs bring managed IT to overwhelmed municipalities.
At The 20 MSP, we understand the IT issues faced by local government. We have years of experience helping municipal departments achieve peace of mind with IT. Thanks to our predictable, flat-rate fee, you can better plan your budget with confidence.
So, if you’re ready to stop stressing about IT and instead focus on serving your community, contact us today!
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About The 20 MSP
As a leading provider of managed IT services, The 20 MSP serves thousands of businesses nationwide, including single and multi-location organizations, delivering white-glove service, secure and streamlined IT infrastructure, and 24/7/365 support. We believe in building lasting relationships with clients founded on trust, communication, and the delivery of high-value services for a fair and predictable price. Our clients’ success is our success, and we are committed to helping each and every organization we serve leverage technology to secure a competitive advantage and achieve new growth.
