Frequently asked questions
Plain answers to the questions organizations ask before hiring Engineer Austin, a licensed engineering firm in Georgetown, Texas, for managed IT and network engineering. If your question is not here, ask us.
Pricing and the Managed Service Program
How is the Managed Service Program priced?
One program, no tiers. The monthly fee is built from what is actually under management: workstations and laptops, servers, network devices, storage devices, users and mailbox-only users, plus an included allotment of combined remote and on-site hours. Counts are reviewed monthly, so the fee moves with you, and a spare machine left unmanaged costs nothing.
What is not included in the monthly fee?
Hardware; software subscriptions and licenses; major projects such as server replacements, migrations and redesigns; after-hours and emergency work; structured cabling and electrical work; printer repair and consumables; vendor-managed line-of-business applications; and formal compliance attestations. Each is quoted separately in writing before work starts. Connectivity help for printers is included.
How are contract terms handled?
Terms are set out in a written agreement that you review before anything starts. The program is billed monthly. Project work carries no ongoing commitment; it ends when the work is done.
How do hardware and license purchases work?
Nothing is ordered before you approve a written quotation. We can procure, configure and deploy hardware and licenses for you, or you can buy direct. Microsoft licensing comes through our Cloud Solution Provider relationship, bills monthly and remains your property. License options and their trade-offs are explained before you choose.
How are projects priced?
Project work is quoted as a fixed fee, with travel included, or billed time and materials, portal to portal; we recommend whichever works best for the job and your budget. A fixed fee is not contingent on buying hardware from us. We stand behind our work and correct our own mistakes at no charge.
Response and support
What are your support hours?
Monday to Friday, 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM Central, excluding firm holidays. Automated monitoring and alerting run continuously, and scheduled maintenance is arranged in advance with notice. After-hours, weekend, holiday and emergency work is available by arrangement and billed at premium rates outside the monthly fee.
What does two-hour response mean, and what if the problem needs a visit?
A covered request received during business hours gets a technician engaged within two hours, with non-critical issues targeted for same-business-day resolution. If remote work cannot fix it, an on-site visit is scheduled within one business day and performed within five, sooner by agreement. Warranty hardware ships with a prepaid label we arrange, and a configured spare is left as a loaner where the assessment allows.
Do you offer after-hours or emergency IT support?
Yes, by arrangement. After-hours and weekend requests receive a callback within four hours. Emergencies such as a critical outage or a security incident receive a response within one hour and continuous effort until service is restored. Both are billed at premium rates and are not drawn from included hours. We do not promise blanket 24/7 coverage.
How are requests logged? Do we have to use a portal?
Every request is logged in our internal work records and tracked to resolution, and the technician confirms directly with you when it is closed. We do not impose a client-facing ticketing portal on small offices. You call or email the support mailbox, and the record is kept on our side.
Ownership and exit
Who owns the Microsoft 365 tenant, the domain and the administrator credentials?
You do, at all times. The tenant, the domain registration, Global Administrator credentials, configuration records and documentation stay in your name. We hold administrative access so renewals are not missed and work gets done, but nothing we deploy locks your data or accounts to Engineer Austin. Our own scripts, templates and custom configurations remain our intellectual property, licensed for your use while you are a client.
What documentation do we receive?
Device inventory, IP addressing, network diagrams and configuration records are maintained as part of the program. Assessments produce a written report with a disposition for every device, health checks produce a numbered findings register and a risk register, Microsoft 365 builds come with the complete security configuration in writing, and backups come with a one-page restore procedure tested live with your staff.
What happens if we leave, and is there any lock-in?
On request, data, credentials and administrative access are returned promptly, and hardware and licenses you bought remain yours. Because the tenant, domain and documentation were yours all along and we build on standard platforms, a transition is a handover of data, documents and passwords, not a rebuild. Further transition help is available if you want it. Our proprietary scripts and custom configurations are not licensed for use after the service ends.
Security
What security controls are in place from day one?
MFA is enforced from account creation on every Microsoft 365 tier, with an authenticator app as the primary method and a second method for recovery. Legacy authentication is blocked, every managed machine is encrypted, and SPF, DKIM and DMARC are configured during onboarding. Endpoint protection, either Microsoft Defender for Business or a third-party EDR license, and remote monitoring go on every managed workstation and server.
How is patching handled?
Operating-system and security patches for workstations and servers, supported third-party application updates and firmware on managed network gear are applied in scheduled windows with advance notice. Disruptive changes such as firewall firmware upgrades are done after hours. Non-disruptive staging happens during the day, and a backup of the configuration is taken before any change.
Do you provide security awareness training?
We coordinate it. Texas local governments are enrolled in the state-certified, no-cost annual cybersecurity training, and completion is tracked for the required reporting. Other clients can add an enhanced platform with simulated phishing by written approval. Training is one control among several, alongside MFA, endpoint protection and patching, and it is coordinated under the Managed Service Program.
Can you make us HIPAA, CJIS or PCI compliant?
We help you meet those requirements, as advisory assistance: segmentation, hardening, documentation and coordination with your auditor or payment processor, and a Texas SB 2610 cybersecurity program aligned to NIST CSF or CIS Controls under a separate scope. We do not issue attestations, certifications or legal opinions, and we say so in writing before the engagement begins.
Public entities
What terms do public entities receive?
Texas public bodies receive terms written for public-entity requirements, set out in a written agreement. We send them with the proposal so your attorney and governing body can review them before the vote.
How do you handle Public Information Act requests and records retention?
We respect your open-records obligations, the entity owns its data and documentation outright, and records are retained to your adopted schedule. Microsoft 365 retention policies are configured to that schedule; until your own is adopted, we apply the Texas State Library and Archives Commission local schedule for your type of entity rather than inventing a period of our own. We cooperate with auditors and with staff responding to requests.
Do you file Form 1295 and complete a conflict of interest questionnaire?
Yes. Form 1295 is filed with the Texas Ethics Commission before the governing body votes on the contract, and a Form CIQ is completed on request. Certificates of insurance and a W-9 are available on request. The firm is registered in SAM.gov and makes the standard Chapter 2252 and Chapter 620 affirmations.
Do you check TX-RAMP status for cloud services?
Yes. We confirm the TX-RAMP status of cloud services such as Microsoft 365 when your entity requires it, and we ask whether any data needs a government-cloud tenant before committing to commercial.
Working with us
What area do you serve?
On site within driving distance of Georgetown, roughly 200 miles and farther for projects, and remotely anywhere in Texas, the United States and abroad. See our service area. On-site visits are scheduled, and equipment is preconfigured at our office and shipped, so a remote client typically needs one visit rather than several. Travel for on-site program work is portal to portal, with no mileage or per diem.
Why do you start with an assessment?
Because physical condition, cabling, Wi-Fi and hardware state cannot be judged remotely. The assessment inventories every device, assigns each one of six dispositions (Retain, Upgrade, Reassign, Repurpose, Replace, Retire), fixes what can be fixed on the same visit with your sign-off, and produces a written report that is yours to keep whether or not you buy anything.
Is most work remote or on site?
Most day-to-day work is remote: monitoring, patching, Microsoft 365 administration and helpdesk. Assessments, installations and hardware changes are on site. Changes to a live network are made only with your sign-off that day and with the as-found configuration saved first, so any change can be reversed. Our remote access is tightly restricted and protected by MFA.
What makes an engineering firm different from an IT company?
Engineer Austin is Texas Registered Engineering Firm F‑15739. A licensed Professional Engineer sets the standards our team works to. Assessment findings and modernization plans are prepared and checked by our team to standards set by our licensed engineer; designs and documentation are built on engineering principles and held to a professional standard of care; and one accountable firm stands behind the outcome, with a team that knows your systems rather than a rotating queue.
How do you keep costs down without cutting corners?
By choosing platforms that do not charge you every year for what you already own. MikroTik routers and Ubiquiti UniFi and UISP equipment carry their licensing for the life of the device, and we manage them from our own servers instead of a per-device cloud subscription. Mature open-source software, such as Linux servers, replaces a paid license where it is well supported.
None of that lowers the bar: every platform is hardened, patched and documented to the same written standard. Where a subscription is worth paying for, such as Microsoft 365 or endpoint protection, we recommend it and explain why.
Do you resell hardware, or can we buy direct?
Both. We procure hardware and licenses for you, preconfigure and ship them, and coordinate warranty claims. You may buy direct instead. If you buy direct, we are glad to help deploy what you bought; renewals, warranty claims and vendor support for those items stay with the seller.
AI and how we work
How do you use AI in your work?
We use AI assistants inside the engineering workflow: drafting and checking configurations and scripts, analyzing logs and inventories, writing and cross-checking reports and runbooks, building internal software, and researching vendor documentation. For you that means faster turnaround on assessments, reports and migrations, more thorough documentation at the same price, and checklists that are executed rather than remembered. Our team's time goes to judgment, not typing.
Can an AI tool change our systems on its own?
No. Every AI-assisted change is reviewed by a person, logged with a timestamp and a rollback, and approved before it runs. The tooling we operate is approval-gated: it can propose, and a named person decides. Nothing on your network is modified without a person approving it, and a named member of our team signs off on the result exactly as for any other change.
Is our information kept out of public AI tools?
Yes. Client secrets, credentials and documents are never pasted into public AI tools. Work is done in controlled sessions with access limited to what the task needs, and those sessions are logged. Our handling of your data is governed by our written agreement with you, including HIPAA business associate terms where they apply, and the firm's written AI use policy sits inside those terms.
Can you help us adopt AI in our own organization?
Yes, as a scoped advisory service we call AI readiness and automation: an AI use policy and governance for your organization, evaluation and rollout of Microsoft 365 Copilot where it pays off, with licensing through our Cloud Solution Provider relationship, data readiness (what must be cleaned, labeled or locked down before AI touches it), automation with human review, and staff training on safe use. It follows the same assess-first, written-approval process as everything else we do.
Keeping current
How do you keep your standards current?
Our house standards are written documents, and they are revised after every job: each pitfall is recorded with the outage or mistake that taught it and designed out of the next build. The platforms we build on are re-evaluated yearly, staff train on what changed, and new capabilities such as Wi-Fi 7, LTE and Starlink failover, immutable backups, Microsoft 365 security baselines and AI-assisted engineering are added as the field moves. When an earlier diagnosis was wrong, we say so in writing.
Will our systems be kept up to date, or frozen at what was installed?
Kept up to date. The quarterly business review carries what changed to you: controls that have become standard practice, platforms we re-evaluated, and firmware or licensing that needs a decision. The annual infrastructure assessment re-plans the next three to five years rather than re-reading the last plan. Changes that cost money still wait for your written approval; nothing is bought because it is new.
Start with a written assessment.
Tell us what you have and what is not working. Someone from our team, not a salesperson, replies within one business day by email or phone, and brings in our engineer when your request needs one. The assessment report is yours to keep whether or not you buy anything.