Managed services has a built-in assumption: the people doing the work are sitting in an office. The runbooks assume two backup ISPs. The compliance frameworks assume a known physical location. The on-call rotation assumes the engineer can drive to the customer site.
I've been running CLIMB IT Solutions as a full-time RV traveler since March 2024. Here's what I've actually learned.
What works
Starlink + a fallback cellular link is non-negotiable. I run Starlink as primary and a cellular hotspot as failover, with a small travel router that handles the cutover. The combined monthly cost is comparable to a single business-class cable line in most South Florida markets, and the redundancy is meaningfully more reliable than either link alone. I've had genuine outages on each independently — never both at once.
Asynchronous-by-default communication with the team and with clients. I made a deliberate decision early: the only thing that requires me to be at a screen in real time is a planned client call. Everything else flows through our work tracker, Slack threads, and email. The handful of clients who pushed back on this either accepted it or self-selected out — and the practice runs better because of that filter.
Periodic batched client visits. I fly back to South Florida on a regular cadence, do a stretch of in-person meetings, sit in on a couple of strategic reviews, and head back out. It costs less than I expected and the visits are notably more productive than the weekly drop-ins they replaced.
What breaks
Surprise hardware failures. If a client's firewall dies on a Tuesday and I'm two time zones away, I can't drive there. I solved this by getting more aggressive about (a) recommending spares-on-shelf for any single-point-of-failure device, and (b) building deeper bench strength locally so I have hands I trust to deploy a replacement.
Compliance frameworks that assume a fixed office. Some attestations literally want a physical address with cameras on the doors. I've had to be more selective about which engagements I take on — anything that lands in serious HIPAA / PCI / DFARS territory wants a more traditional setup. That's fine; I'd rather pass than half-do it.
Time zones. Living on the road means my timezone shifts every couple of months. I publish a "where I am this week" status to the team's Slack so we don't end up in awkward 11pm meetings, and I block my calendar harder than I used to.
What nobody warned me about
Cellular dead zones in national parks are real. Print everything before you leave the trailhead.
If you're considering doing this — happy to compare notes. [email protected].
— Manuel