MicroRentals provides managed IT services and business IT support to Wollongong and Illawarra organisations, delivered on site by Wollongong-based technicians and backed by a fleet of over 2,000 laptops held at our Homebush warehouse — ninety minutes up the highway. We have been supplying and supporting business IT since 1987.
Close enough to be served properly
The Illawarra gets treated as regional by providers who are themselves an hour away. Sydney firms quote the region as a travel job, on-site attendance becomes a negotiation, and the practical answer to anything urgent is a remote session and a promise.
Two things make us different here. Our technicians in the Illawarra are based in the Illawarra. And our warehouse is at Homebush — around ninety minutes from Wollongong — which means the hardware half of the problem is genuinely close, not notionally national.
Remote response within 1 business hour. On-site attendance scheduled to suit your site and your people — with a window given when you log the job, rather than a vague promise of “same day” that gets quietly missed.
A managed service provider that owns hardware
Nearly every managed service provider serving the Illawarra manages devices they do not own and cannot replace from stock. When a laptop dies, they raise a purchase order with a distributor and you wait.
We hold the fleet ourselves — over 2,000 laptops, plus desktops, monitors, servers and AV equipment, at Homebush. A failed device is replaced from stock rather than ordered in, dispatched within 4 hours, and for Wollongong and the northern Illawarra it can often go on one of our own vehicles rather than a courier. We confirm that per job rather than promising it in advance, because it depends on the day and the load.
This is Device as a Service — from $79 per device per month ex GST — and it is why a rental company running managed services behaves differently from a managed service provider reselling somebody else’s hardware.
And if you would rather own the equipment than rent it, we procure it for you. Laptops, desktops, servers, networking and peripherals, bought on your behalf and configured to your standard operating environment. Rent it, buy it, or run a mix; the management is the same either way.
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.
- Hardware procurement and asset management — buying the equipment on your behalf when you would rather own it, and knowing what you have, where it is, and what it costs.
Who we work with in the Illawarra
Professional services firms in Wollongong and along the coast. Engineering, contracting and industrial services businesses around Port Kembla and the industrial precinct. Medical and allied health practices. Not-for-profits and associations. Education and research organisations. Businesses that have relocated from Sydney without relocating their client base.
Typically between ten and two hundred staff — large enough that IT failure costs real money, small enough that a full internal team is hard to justify.
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.
Industrial environments, and the Sydney-facing business
Two patterns come up repeatedly in the Illawarra, and they pull in different directions.
The first is industrial. Workshops, site offices, plant and port-adjacent operations, where equipment takes physical punishment that office equipment never sees and where a failed device is a person standing idle rather than a person working from a laptop in a cafe. Replacement rather than repair matters here more than anywhere, because a repair queue is just a longer outage.
The second is the Sydney-facing professional business — a firm based here whose clients, auditors and partners are all in the city, and whose systems therefore have to look and behave like a Sydney firm’s while costing what an Illawarra firm can justify. That is an entirely reasonable requirement, and it is mostly a scoping problem: knowing which controls genuinely matter to the people assessing you, and not gold-plating the rest.
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.
Worth noting: the parts of the Essential Eight most providers find hardest are the ones that depend on knowing exactly what hardware exists and controlling what runs on it. That is considerably easier when the devices came from us in the first place, built to a known standard operating environment.
Co-managed IT: working alongside the person you already have
A great many 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
Where are your Illawarra technicians based?
In Wollongong. On-site attendance across the Illawarra is carried out by our locally based technicians. Our head office and warehouse are at 7-9 Underwood Road, Homebush — around ninety minutes up the highway — which is where the equipment fleet is held.
If a laptop fails in Wollongong, how fast is the replacement?
A replacement for a stocked configuration is dispatched within 4 hours, and for Wollongong and the northern Illawarra it can often travel on one of our own vehicles rather than a courier. We confirm that per job rather than promising it in advance, because it depends on the day and the load.
Do you support industrial and site environments?
Yes. Workshops, site offices and port-adjacent operations put equipment under stress that office environments do not, and replacement rather than repair matters more there than anywhere. Tell us the environment during the assessment so specification and spares are scoped for it.
Our clients and auditors are in Sydney. Can you meet their expectations?
That is a common Illawarra requirement and it is mostly a scoping exercise: working out which controls the people assessing you genuinely care about, meeting those properly, and not gold-plating the rest. We can report against the Essential Eight as a framework, with the caveat above about what that does and does not mean.
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.
What does managed IT cost in Wollongong?
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. Where hardware is included, Device as a Service starts from $79 per device per month ex GST.
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.
Can you supply the hardware as well as manage it?
Yes, either way you prefer. We can rent it to you from our own fleet of over 2,000 laptops — supplied on a monthly cost per device, configured, supported, replaced on failure and collected at end of term. Or we can procure it for you to own outright: laptops, desktops, servers, networking and peripherals, bought on your behalf, configured to your standard operating environment and managed under the same agreement. Most providers can do neither well, because they hold no stock and treat procurement as a favour rather than a service.
Can you work alongside our internal IT person?
Yes. Co-managed arrangements are common, particularly for 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.
Do you hold government security clearances?
No. We do not hold security clearances and we are not DISP members. We support the 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.
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.
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 only work with businesses that rent from you?
No. Plenty of our managed service clients own their equipment outright, including equipment they bought before they met us. Renting is an option, not a condition.
How long have you been doing this?
MicroRentals has operated since 1987 — nearly four decades supplying and supporting business IT. Our engineers hold Cisco and Microsoft certifications, and we are the official IT solutions partner of the Sydney Roosters.
If we only need equipment and not management, can you do that?
Yes. That is IT equipment rental in Wollongong, which stands on its own.
Talk to us about IT support in Wollongong
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 for Wollongong and the Illawarra
1300 790 650 · [email protected] · Monday to Friday, 8:30am – 6:00pm
Head office and warehouse: 7-9 Underwood Road, Homebush NSW 2140. Illawarra on-site support by our Wollongong-based technicians.
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