For resource-constrained IT organizations, a key benefit of the cloud is offloading IT maintenance responsibilities. But the public cloud addresses only part of a business’s IT burden. While storage and applications can be whisked off to the cloud provider’s data center, many IT functions and related infrastructure—such as networking, voice, and conferencing—must remain at least partially on the company premises. Even cloud-centric businesses must retain teams of specialists to procure, install, configure, and maintain specialized hardware for such non-core (if essential) functions. If businesses are able to offload their critical applications to the cloud model, why not more mundane IT functions?

That’s where TenFour comes in. The New Jersey-based IT services company has developed a unique cloud-like business model to deliver IT infrastructure as a utility service. For a single monthly fee, TenFour procures, implements, and manages necessary premises-based infrastructure. Unlike traditional data center management or outsourcing services, TenFour requires no term or volume commitments, allowing customers to make changes at any time, and only pay for the services they use.

In this report, we look at TenFour’s business model, and consider how it meets customer needs.