MicroRentals provides managed IT services and business IT support in Canberra, with our own technicians based in the ACT — not flown down from Sydney when something breaks. We have been supporting Australian business, from our own equipment fleet, since 1987.
Yes, we have technicians in Canberra
It is the first thing Canberra businesses ask an IT provider, and they ask it because so many of the firms competing for this work are national brands running a Canberra landing page from an office somewhere else.
Our technicians live here. They work across Civic and Braddon, Fyshwick, Mitchell and Hume, Phillip and Woden, Belconnen, Gungahlin, Tuggeranong and the Airport precinct. When something needs hands on it, someone local attends.
Remote response within 1 business hour. On-site attendance scheduled to suit your site and your people — we will give you a window when you log the job rather than a vague promise of “same day” that gets quietly missed.
What is included in managed IT services
One monthly agreement covering the things that otherwise arrive as separate invoices and separate phone calls:
- Helpdesk and desktop support — remote first, on-site when it needs to be, for the people actually trying to do their jobs.
- Monitoring and maintenance — remote monitoring and management across servers, endpoints and network, so problems are found before somebody reports them.
- Security — endpoint protection, firewalls, phishing protection, patching, and vulnerability assessment. We work to the ACSC Essential Eight as a framework; more on that below.
- Network and server management — setup, configuration, VPN, and ongoing management of the infrastructure the rest of it sits on.
- Cloud and Microsoft 365 — migration, licensing, tenancy management and support.
- Backup and recovery — backup configuration, monitoring, and tested restores.
- Asset and licence management — knowing what you have, where it is, and what it costs.
The part most Canberra providers cannot offer: the hardware
Every managed service provider in Canberra will manage your devices. Almost none of them own any.
MicroRentals runs a rental fleet of over 2,000 laptops. That means the hardware and the management can sit under one agreement — laptops, desktops, monitors and servers supplied on a monthly cost per device, configured to your standard operating environment before delivery, replaced from stock when they fail, and collected, wiped and rebuilt at end of term.
The practical difference shows up on the ordinary days. A machine dies on a Tuesday and a replacement is dispatched rather than ordered. You take on four new staff in a fortnight and the devices are already built. A project ends and the equipment goes back instead of accumulating in a store room. This is Device as a Service, and it is the reason a rental company running managed services behaves differently from a managed service provider reselling somebody else’s hardware.
Who we work with in Canberra
Canberra is not only a government town, and the numbers make that plain. The Canberra Business Chamber reports 36,315 private sector businesses in the ACT, 91% of them turning over less than $2 million, only 3% employing more than 20 people — and the private sector generating 64% of the Territory’s jobs. Meanwhile the Australian Public Service share of the ACT workforce fell from 31% in 2011 to 24% in 2021.
That is who we are built for: professional services firms, engineering and consulting practices, law firms, associations and not-for-profits, medical and allied health practices, and the government-adjacent businesses that sell into agencies and inherit their security expectations without being agencies themselves.
To be direct about what we are not. We do not hold security clearances and we are not DISP members. If your requirement is accredited work inside a government department, we are not the right provider and we will tell you that on the first call rather than the third. If you are a Canberra business that needs its IT to work properly and its security posture to stand up to a client questionnaire, that is squarely what we do.
Essential Eight, without overclaiming
Several of the ACSC Essential Eight mitigation strategies are ordinary managed IT functions in practice — patching operating systems, patching applications, application control, restricting administrative privileges, and multi-factor authentication all depend on knowing and controlling your endpoints.
We work to the Essential Eight as a framework and can report against it. What we will not tell you is that engaging us confers a maturity level. Essential Eight maturity is an assessment of your organisation, not a badge a supplier hands over, and any provider implying otherwise is overselling.
Co-managed IT: working alongside the person you already have
With only 3% of ACT businesses employing more than 20 people, a great many Canberra firms run their entire technology function through one internal IT person. That person is usually competent and usually stretched — they cannot take leave without something slipping, they have no one to escalate to, and every project competes with the day job.
Co-managed is not a smaller version of full outsourcing. It is a split of responsibilities agreed in writing: which systems we monitor and which they own, who holds which credentials, what we escalate to them and what they escalate to us, and who is on point when something breaks at 4pm on a Friday. Done properly it keeps the institutional knowledge in-house and adds the depth, tooling and after-hours cover that one person cannot provide alone.
Done badly it creates two teams who each assume the other is watching. The difference is entirely in how carefully the boundary is drawn at the start, which is why we scope it explicitly rather than leaving it to goodwill.
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. Everything on this page is built around organisations with staff, systems and an operational dependency on both working.
That matters when you are choosing a provider, because a firm splitting its week between home callouts and business contracts is not building the same capability.
How it works when you engage us
1. Assessment. We audit what you have — devices, servers, network, licences, backups, security posture — and tell you what is actually wrong with it, in writing.
2. Proposal. A scope and a monthly cost, with the inclusions listed explicitly. If hardware is part of it, that is priced per device per month alongside.
3. Onboarding. Documentation, monitoring agents, security configuration, and a handover so your people know who to call. We work to a defined onboarding plan rather than an open-ended transition.
4. Steady state. Monitoring, helpdesk, patching, reporting, and a scheduled review. Devices refresh on a cycle rather than when something finally dies.
Frequently asked questions
Do you have technicians based in Canberra?
Yes. Our Canberra technicians are based in the ACT and attend sites across Civic, Braddon, Fyshwick, Mitchell, Hume, Phillip, Woden, Belconnen, Gungahlin, Tuggeranong and the Airport precinct. On-site work is done by someone local, not someone travelling from Sydney.
How quickly do you respond?
Remote response within 1 business hour. On-site attendance is scheduled rather than promised same-day, and we give you a window when the job is logged so you can plan around it.
Do you hold government security clearances?
No. We do not hold security clearances and we are not DISP members. We support Canberra’s private sector and government-adjacent businesses. If your work requires accredited personnel inside an agency, we are not the right fit and we will say so early.
What does managed IT cost in Canberra?
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 that varies with how bad a month you have had.
Can you work alongside our internal IT person?
Yes. Co-managed arrangements are common, particularly for Canberra firms with one internal IT person who needs cover for leave, depth on projects, and someone to escalate to at 4pm on a Friday. We scope what we own and what stays in-house so nothing falls between the two.
Can you supply the hardware as well as manage it?
Yes, and this is the part most providers cannot do. MicroRentals owns a rental fleet of over 2,000 laptops. Devices can be 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.
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 — and if you are currently locked into an agreement elsewhere, that is worth knowing before you renew it.
What happens to our data if we leave?
Your data and your documentation are yours. On exit we hand over environment documentation, credentials and asset records to you or your incoming provider. Rental equipment is collected, wiped and rebuilt with a fresh operating system install before it returns to the fleet.
Do you support Microsoft 365?
Yes — migration, licensing, tenancy configuration, security settings and day-to-day support. Email migration is one of our established professional services.
How long have you been doing this?
MicroRentals has operated since 1987 — nearly four decades of supplying and supporting business IT across Australia. Our engineers hold Cisco and Microsoft certifications.
Talk to us about IT support in Canberra
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 Canberra and the ACT
1300 790 650 · [email protected] · Monday to Friday, 8:30am – 6:00pm
Head office: 7-9 Underwood Road, Homebush NSW 2140. Canberra service delivered by ACT-based technicians.
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