Managed IT Services in Great Falls, MT
You've probably known for a while that your IT support isn't working. Tickets sit. Nobody can explain what broke. The backup has never been tested.
We fix it in a set order: document first, then monitoring and backup, then the helpdesk, then admin access. Across 50+ transitions, no client has lost a working day.
The first assessment is free, and the findings are yours either way.
“They take the time to understand how a town operates and recommend security measures that are practical, effective, and make sense for a small municipality.”
★★★★★
Technology support built for the Great Falls market
Four industries, four directions
No single industry leads here. Four do, and each pulls technology a different way, so we build around the mix.
Malmstrom and Sentinel
Sentinel keeps construction and engineering work flowing into the 2030s. Those subcontracts carry security clauses, and CMMC questions arrive fast.
Central Montana's healthcare hub
Clinics, dental offices and therapy groups near Benefis and the Great Falls Clinic carry the same HIPAA obligations as a hospital, usually with no internal IT.
Healthcare IT in Great Falls
Distance and drive time
Satellite offices in Fort Benton, Choteau and Lewistown sit two hours out, and a January storm can close US 87.
IT support for Great Falls
More than a ticket queue: a team that keeps day to day technology stable and cuts the risk that stops work.
Your people
Getting help, getting set up
Remote help desk
Answered by an engineer, not a dispatcher.
Onsite in Great Falls and Cascade County
Spare hardware kept at each office.
Microsoft 365 user lifecycle
New hires ready day one, leavers removed the same day.
Your systems
Keeping everything running
Device management and patching
Kept current without waiting on users.
Network, Wi-Fi and firewall
Including multisite and low bandwidth locations.
Vendor coordination
Your EHR, ISP and phone vendors, handled.
Your plans
Deciding what comes next
IT planning and budgeting
A hardware and renewal roadmap your board can read.
Co-managed IT
Tooling, after hours support and escalation behind your own IT person.
Cybersecurity built into IT support for Great Falls orgs
Eight controls in layers, from the people attackers target first to the data they want.
People
Where most attacks start
Security awareness training
Plus the written policy your insurer asks for.
Email security and phishing defense
Built for impersonation emails aimed at accounting.
Access
The keys to everything else
Identity hardening
MFA, conditional access and a Microsoft 365 review.
Vulnerability and risk assessment
Ranked by what's reachable from outside.
Devices
Where attackers try to hide
Managed endpoint detection and response
Monitored around the clock.
Logging, alerting and incident readiness
So you know what was actually accessed.
Recovery
What gets you back open
Ransomware resilience
Backups restored and tested before you need them.
Cyber insurance control readiness
A renewal questionnaire answered with evidence.
Backup, recovery & ransomware protection in Great Falls
An untested backup is a guess. We plan all three stages because the last two decide whether you can reopen on Monday.
01
Before
What has to be true beforehand
Servers, endpoints, Microsoft 365 and network settings all backed up.
Immutable offsite copies an attacker can't delete.
Restores tested against real data.
02
During
The hours it is happening
Daily jobs monitored, with failures flagged the same day.
Containment from an engineer who has done it before.
A restore order agreed in advance, not under pressure.
03
After
Recovery, and proving it
Systems back in the order you agreed.
Forensic scoping of what was actually accessed.
Evidence ready for your insurer and counsel.
With a second site in Fort Benton or Lewistown, recovery can't depend on a drive, so we design for remote restoration first.
Three questions you should be able to answer today
What is backed up and what isn't?
A one page list of every system backed up, plus anything excluded and why.
When was the last restore test?
A date and a result, not an assurance that jobs run nightly.
What do we do in the first hour?
A printed downtime card: who to call, what to stop, and what runs on paper.
Industries we support in Great Falls and Central Montana
HIPAA
Healthcare and independent clinics
Practices, dental offices and behavioral health groups near Benefis and the Great Falls Clinic, with full HIPAA obligations and no IT staff.
Healthcare IT support in Great Falls
CMMC and NIST 800-171
Defense contractors and industrial suppliers
Firms supporting the base, Sentinel construction and AgriTech Park manufacturing, where security clauses arrive faster than staff.
Rural sites
Agriculture, food processing and logistics
Spread out rural sites where downtime at harvest is lost revenue. We focus on connectivity, shared shop machines and backups that survive an unreachable site.
FTC Safeguards Rule
Professional services
Law, CPA and advisory firms targeted by email compromise at tax time and closing. We lock down Microsoft 365, enforce MFA and support the written programs the FTC Safeguards Rule and insurers expect.
Nothing breaks while you're watching
We document your environment before we change a single setting. Across 50+ transitions, no client has lost a working day.
Your handover plan
Document everything
Week 1
Every system, device, license and vendor mapped
We change nothing yet
If you leave in two years, the documentation goes with you
Take over core systems
Week 2
Monitoring, backup and endpoint protection move first
These are what hurt if they fail during handover
Your existing provider still runs day to day work
Move support to Big Sky
Week 3
Your staff get our number, a named engineer and an account manager
We overlap with the outgoing provider
Nobody loses support midweek
Close out access
Week 4
Credentials, domain, DNS and licensing transferred
Vendor accounts verified
Old access revoked and documented in writing
About four weeks, start to finish
Handover complete, week 4
C.M. Russell's log cabin studio, Great Falls
Why Great Falls organizations work with Big Sky
Montana based engineers with statewide service delivery
Not a national operations center that has never heard of Cascade County.
Security practice informed by forensics and incident response
We've handled the aftermath, and it changes how we set things up.
Cybersecurity is not an upsell
MFA, endpoint protection and tested backup are standard, not an add-on tier.
We work with internal IT, not around it
Co-managed is a first class option, not a consolation offer.
Practical compliance support
HIPAA, insurance controls and NIST 800-171, turned into a task list.
Named accountability
A named account manager, direct access to the owners and a clear escalation path.
Ask for Great Falls references on the first call. We'll give you names, not logos.
The Big Sky Guarantee and Service Warranty
For certified clients, The Big Sky Guarantee is our commitment to do the response work ourselves, at no additional cost, within defined service limits. The Big Sky Service Warranty is a separate written warranty on our managed services, with eligible payments made directly to your organization, up to $500,000 per covered incident, depending on your plan.
Eligibility requirements, service limits and exclusions apply. Full terms are provided for your review before you sign. Neither is an insurance policy, and the warranty does not replace cyber insurance.
How the guarantee and warranty workFrequently asked questions
Do you provide onsite IT support in Great Falls?
Yes. Most issues are fixed remotely. For hands on work we come onsite: same day for contract clients, and scheduled same day for everyone else where availability allows.
Do you support businesses outside Great Falls, in places like Fort Benton, Choteau, Conrad or Lewistown?
Yes. Remote management handles most support, and onsite work is scheduled into planned routes rather than billed as a spontaneous drive.
We already have one IT person on staff. Does that rule us out?
No. Co-managed IT adds security tooling, after hours support, patching and escalation, so one person isn't the whole recovery plan.
How quickly can we transition from our current IT provider?
About four weeks, in the order above, with administrative access moved last.
What does it cost?
From $75 per device per month, with every price published. You'll get a number on the first call.
We're a Great Falls clinic. Can you help with HIPAA?
Yes: technical safeguards, access control, encryption, logging, backup and the evidence for your risk analysis.
Our contract now mentions CMMC. Can you help?
Yes. Scoping first, then remediation against NIST 800-171 and documentation for your assessor. We prepare you for assessment; certification comes from an accredited third party. Big Sky is not a C3PAO.
Tell us what you run and where your sites are.
The assessment is free. Thirty to forty-five minutes onsite, at a time you pick, and the findings are yours either way.
Great Falls office: 600 Central Ave, Suite 311, Great Falls, MT 59401.
“We transitioned from an in house server to a cloud based server and it has been seamless and absolutely no down time in the transition.”
Tera R., Google review
Big Sky Cybersecurity provides managed IT and cybersecurity services throughout Great Falls and Cascade County, including Black Eagle, Belt, Cascade, Sun River, Vaughn, Simms, Fort Shaw, and Ulm, plus Central Montana communities including Fort Benton, Choteau, Conrad, Dutton, Augusta, Stanford, Geraldine, Highwood, and Lewistown.