Managed IT services in Asheville and Buncombe County, North Carolina
Our service hub is just south in Laurel Park, Henderson County, and we cover Asheville and every town in Buncombe County from there. Most of the work is remote, and on-site visits are booked ahead.
Asheville, and the county around it
Asheville is the county seat and where most of the county's businesses are, from downtown and the River Arts District out to the Biltmore Village and Tunnel Road. Around it sit Weaverville and Woodfin to the north, Black Mountain, Montreat and Swannanoa to the east, Biltmore Forest, Arden and Skyland to the south, and Candler, Enka and Leicester to the west. We cover all of them.
We do not have a location in Buncombe County. Our nearest service hub is in Henderson County, in Laurel Park, about half an hour south of downtown Asheville, and Buncombe County is covered from there.
The businesses we are built for are the same in all of them: five to fifty people, too small for an IT department and too dependent on their systems to leave them alone.
Every town in Buncombe County
Incorporated: Asheville, Black Mountain, Weaverville, Woodfin, Biltmore Forest and Montreat.
Unincorporated communities: Arden, Skyland, Royal Pines, Avery Creek, Fairview, Swannanoa, Candler, Enka, Leicester, Alexander and Barnardsville.
All of them get the same on-site cover, the same rates and the same agreement. We are in Laurel Park, North Carolina and in Florida, and we go on site wherever a client is.
What being in the county actually changes
Honestly, less than you might expect, and that is the point. Nearly everything a managed IT provider does is remote by design: monitoring, patching, helpdesk, account and device management. Being local changes the remaining cases. A failed switch, a machine that will not boot, a conference room that needs someone standing in it, a new office being cabled. For those, we book a visit.
When you can reach someone
Tickets and alerts are taken 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and worked every day, weekends included. On-site visits run Monday to Friday between 3pm and 8pm Eastern, and at weekends by arrangement. A P1 (the office cannot work) gets a best-effort reply within two hours at any hour. That is a target reported on every month, not a staffed night shift.
What it costs
The published rates apply here. Watch is a flat $149 a month for up to ten devices. Support is $45 per user each month with a $195 monthly minimum. Manage is $79 per user each month with a $395 monthly minimum. Operate is $129 per user with a $995 monthly minimum and up to three servers. Onboarding and the audit are free during the beta, project work is $95 an hour, and third-party licences are passed through at cost. Founding clients keep the beta rate for 24 months and can leave on 30 days' notice. Minimums and worked examples are on the pricing page.
What you would still handle yourself
Four things are in production and available today: the helpdesk and ticketing system, remote support with device management, monitoring and alerting, and the client portal at portal.sentinelgrid.us. Backups, single sign-on inside client environments, and reporting in the portal do not exist yet. Until backups ship as a service, protecting your data stays with you. There are three founding client places, so if you need a provider with a bench of engineers on call tonight, that is a fair reason to look elsewhere, and the build status will help you judge.
Buncombe County questions
Which Buncombe County towns do you cover on site?
All of them: Asheville, Black Mountain, Weaverville, Woodfin, Biltmore Forest and Montreat, plus Arden, Skyland, Royal Pines, Avery Creek, Fairview, Swannanoa, Candler, Enka, Leicester, Alexander and Barnardsville. Buncombe County is covered from our service hub in Laurel Park, just to the south, and on-site visits are booked ahead. SentinelGrid has a service hub in Laurel Park, next to Hendersonville, and on-site visits are booked ahead.
Do you have a location in Asheville?
Not yet. Our nearest service hub is in Laurel Park, Henderson County, about half an hour south of Asheville. Our team in North Carolina is small, so some on-site visits are staffed from our larger hubs such as Central Florida. Either way, the person who answers is named in your agreement before any work starts. You are told by name who has access to your environment.
What does managed IT cost in Buncombe County?
The same published rates as everywhere else: Watch at $149 a month flat for up to 10 devices, Support at $45 per user per month with a $195 monthly minimum, Manage at $79 per user per month with a $395 monthly minimum, and Operate at $129 per user per month with a $995 monthly minimum. There is no per-incident billing. On-site visits here carry a travel charge, quoted before the visit. Our team in North Carolina is small, so a visit may be staffed from one of our larger hubs such as Central Florida, and the charge reflects that. Beta rates are held for 24 months from your start date.
How quickly can someone be at our office?
Tickets and alerts are taken 24 hours a day, seven days a week. On-site visits run Monday to Friday between 3pm and 8pm Eastern, and at weekends by arrangement. A P1, meaning the office cannot work, gets a best-effort reply within two hours at any hour. Most work is done remotely, so a visit is for jobs that need hands on the equipment.