Fractional CIO leadership, without the full-time hire.
I'm Nicholas Salem, founder of multiple MSP and cybersecurity firms. Leadership teams in Boston, MA, Grand Rapids, MI, and Sarasota, FL bring me in to own technology strategy, spend, and risk at the executive level.
Most companies have IT support. Almost none have IT leadership.
An MSP keeps the lights on. But nobody is deciding what to build, what to retire, where the security gaps are, or whether your technology spend matches where the business is going. That gap shows up as reactive spending, tools nobody uses, audit findings, and technical debt. It widens every year it stays open.
Fractional CIO, in practice.
IT strategy & roadmap
A practical plan tied to business milestones, written to be executed rather than filed.
Vendor & budget oversight
Your MSP, ISP, and SaaS stack held accountable, with spend matched to what the business actually uses.
Security posture
Assessments, remediation priorities, and board-ready reporting before an incident forces the issue.
AI & automation strategy
A right-sized path to AI that fits where you are today, from someone who runs his own companies on it.
Engagements: advisory retainer · interim IT leadership · project-based assessment.
When you engage me, you get me, not a rotating bench of consultants.
I don't advise on AI from the sidelines. I run my company on it.
My managed services firm operates on systems I built: a custom service platform, AI agents that triage and research support tickets, and automation across onboarding, security, and reporting. That has been how the business runs every day for years now, not a pilot program.
That matters to you for one reason: when I tell you what AI and automation can actually do for your operation, and what is still hype, it comes from production experience rather than a slide deck.
Founder of multiple MSP and Cybersecurity firms.
I learned this trade by building an IT department from scratch as the IT director of a Boston nonprofit, where the job was as much budgets and forecasting as it was servers. In 2015 that experience became Boston Managed IT, and later Southwest Florida IT.
Today those firms serve organizations in biotech, insurance, legal, nonprofit, and veterinary care, from ten-person offices to companies with global footprints. Fractional CIO clients get the same infrastructure, security tooling, and team that backs those firms.
Strategy with me. Execution by my teams.
Both firms operate under The Cyber Harbor Group, a consortium of private owners rather than a private equity fund, formed so independent managed IT firms can compete with the PE-backed national providers without running their clients off a template. I lead acquisitions there.
Boston Managed IT
Managed IT, security, and cloud for New England organizations.
Southwest Florida IT
AI-first managed IT and security for Southwest Florida businesses, Tampa to Naples.
Recent essays
- IT support is not IT leadership
Most companies buy IT support and assume leadership comes with it. It doesn't, and the gap costs more every year it stays open.
- Boston, Grand Rapids, Sarasota: the three places I work from
A job took me to Boston, a pandemic took me to a lake in northern Michigan, and family brought me home. How the year got split three ways, and why it works.
- Nobody owns your IT budget, and your vendors know it
Vendors price for the buyer in front of them. When no one on your side owns the technology spend, you are the easy account, and the renewals prove it.
Start the conversation.
The first call is thirty minutes, and it is mostly me listening. I will ask what led you to start looking, we will get to the real pain points, and I will tell you honestly whether I am the right fit. Sometimes I am not, and I will say so. If you would rather write first, use the form. I read every message.
Or email [email protected] directly.