MicroRentals provides managed IT services and business IT support in Cairns, with our own technicians based in Far North Queensland — not sent up from Brisbane when something breaks. We have been supplying and supporting Australian business IT, from our own equipment fleet, since 1987.
Yes, we have technicians in Cairns
Ask any Cairns business what goes wrong with IT providers and you will hear the same answer: the good ones are in Brisbane. Several of the firms currently competing for Cairns IT work publish a Cairns page and a Melbourne address, or no address at all.
Our technicians are based here. They attend sites across Cairns City, Edmonton, Gordonvale, Smithfield, Trinity Beach and Redlynch, and out through Port Douglas, Mossman, Mareeba, Atherton and Innisfail. When something needs hands on it, someone local goes.
Remote response within 1 business hour. On-site attendance scheduled to suit your site — with a real window given when you log the job, and an honest travel time for sites outside the Cairns urban area rather than a blanket promise.
What is included in managed IT services
One monthly agreement instead of a stack of separate invoices:
- Helpdesk and desktop support — remote first, on-site when it needs to be.
- Monitoring and maintenance — remote monitoring across servers, endpoints and network, so faults surface before your staff report them.
- Security — endpoint protection, firewalls, phishing protection, patching and vulnerability assessment, worked to the ACSC Essential Eight as a framework.
- Network and server management — setup, configuration, VPN and ongoing management.
- Cloud and Microsoft 365 — migration, licensing, tenancy management and support.
- Backup and disaster recovery — configured, monitored, and restore-tested. In this part of the country that is not a formality.
- Asset and licence management — what you have, where it is, what it costs.
Wet season, power and business continuity
Far North Queensland loses power. Storms, cyclones and the wet season are ordinary operating conditions here, not edge cases, and an IT plan written for a Sydney office does not account for them.
That means backup power on the equipment that matters, backups that are tested rather than assumed, failover that has actually been rehearsed, and a documented plan for running the business when a site is unreachable. We would rather have that conversation in September than in February.
The part most Cairns providers cannot offer: the hardware
Every IT provider in Cairns will manage your devices. Almost none of them own any.
MicroRentals runs a rental fleet of over 2,000 laptops. The hardware and the management sit under one agreement — laptops, desktops, monitors and servers on a monthly cost per device, configured to your standard operating environment before delivery, replaced from stock on failure, and collected, wiped and rebuilt at end of term.
In a regional market that matters more, not less. Sourcing a replacement machine in Cairns at short notice is harder than it is in a capital, and a provider who has to order one is a provider who cannot help you this week. This is Device as a Service, and it is why a rental company running managed services behaves differently from a managed service provider reselling somebody else’s hardware.
One honest note on regional logistics: equipment is dispatched within 24 hours, but final delivery to Far North Queensland is completed by courier and transit times vary. We quote a realistic date for your location rather than a national average.
Who we work with in Cairns
Cairns supports more than 14,800 registered businesses across a regional economy Cairns Regional Council values at $11.46 billion. Healthcare and social assistance is the largest single contributor at around 19% of the economy; construction accounts for more local businesses than any other industry; and tourism, marine services, agribusiness, education and aviation make up much of the rest.
The segments we are built for are medical and allied health practices, construction and engineering firms, professional services, tourism and hospitality operators with multiple sites, and marine and logistics businesses. What they have in common is staff who need working devices, systems that cannot be down for a week, and no appetite for managing IT internally.
We work with businesses, not home users
MicroRentals is a business managed service provider. We do not do home computer repair, consumer virus removal or residential callouts.
This is worth stating plainly in Cairns, because much of what ranks for local IT support is consumer repair work. If you are a business, you are choosing between a very small number of providers who actually do what you need — and a page that promises to fix your laptop for a flat fee is not one of them.
How it works when you engage us
1. Assessment. We audit devices, servers, network, licences, backups and security posture, and tell you in writing what is actually wrong.
2. Proposal. A scope and a monthly cost with the inclusions listed. Hardware, if included, is priced per device per month alongside it.
3. Onboarding. Documentation, monitoring agents, security configuration and a handover, worked to a defined plan rather than an open-ended transition.
4. Steady state. Monitoring, helpdesk, patching, reporting and scheduled reviews. Devices refresh on a cycle instead of when one finally dies mid-wet-season.
Frequently asked questions
Do you actually have technicians in Cairns, or do you send someone from Brisbane?
We have technicians based in Far North Queensland. They attend sites across Cairns City, Edmonton, Gordonvale, Smithfield, Trinity Beach, Redlynch, and out to Port Douglas, Mossman, Mareeba, Atherton and Innisfail. On-site work is done locally.
How far out of Cairns do you travel?
Regularly to Port Douglas, Mossman, Mareeba, Atherton and Innisfail. Further afield we will quote travel honestly rather than pretend distance does not exist — if a site is genuinely too remote for the response time you need, we will tell you before you sign, not after.
How quickly do you respond?
Remote response within 1 business hour. On-site attendance is scheduled with a window given when the job is logged, allowing realistic travel time for sites outside the Cairns urban area.
What does managed IT cost in Cairns?
Pricing is set per agreement, driven by the number of users and devices, how much of the environment you want covered, your security requirements, and whether hardware is included. We quote a fixed monthly figure with the inclusions listed rather than an hourly rate.
Can you supply the hardware as well as manage it?
Yes, and almost no other provider in the region can. MicroRentals owns a rental fleet of over 2,000 laptops. Devices are supplied on a monthly cost per device, configured, supported, replaced on failure and collected at end of term, under the same agreement as the managed service.
How quickly can you get replacement equipment to Cairns?
Stocked configurations are dispatched within 24 hours. Final delivery to Far North Queensland is completed by courier, so transit time varies by location and we quote a realistic date rather than a national figure. Where a fast swap matters, we can discuss holding spare devices on site.
Do you handle wet season and cyclone continuity?
Yes. Backup power for critical equipment, tested backups, rehearsed failover and a documented plan for operating when a site is unreachable. It is a standard part of how we scope work in this region rather than an add-on.
Can you work alongside our existing IT person?
Yes. Co-managed arrangements are common for businesses with one internal IT person who needs leave cover, project depth and somewhere to escalate. We scope what we own and what stays in-house.
Is there a lock-in contract?
No. Managed services run month-to-month with 30 days’ notice. There is no minimum term and no exit fee. We would rather keep the account by doing the work properly than by making it difficult to leave — which in a regional market, where switching providers feels risky, is worth saying plainly.
Do you support businesses with multiple sites across FNQ?
Yes. Multi-site is common here — practices, operators and contractors running several locations across the region. Monitoring, standard operating environments and asset management are handled centrally so every site is configured the same way.
How long have you been doing this?
MicroRentals has operated since 1987 — nearly four decades supplying and supporting business IT across Australia. Our engineers hold Cisco and Microsoft certifications.
Talk to us about IT support in Cairns
Tell us how many staff and sites you have and what is currently breaking. We will tell you what we would fix first.
MicroRentals · Managed IT services and equipment rental across Cairns and Far North Queensland
1300 790 650 · [email protected] · Monday to Friday, 8:30am – 6:00pm
Head office: 7-9 Underwood Road, Homebush NSW 2140. Cairns service delivered by FNQ-based technicians.
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