Built on grit: How NEXTGen IT turns challenges into comebacks

For Trevor Hardy, running an MSP has always been about people first and technology second.

Based in Phil Campbell, Alabama, NEXTGen IT has been serving businesses since 2009, helping local companies find peace of mind through reliable, human-centered IT support. From day one, Trevor built the business on values his grandfather taught him: respect, honesty and hard work. “Our clients count on us to keep their businesses running,” Trevor says. “We answer the phone fast — usually within three minutes — and we talk like people, not machines.”

That commitment has shaped everything from their 24/7 monitoring to their 100% satisfaction guarantee. As Trevor puts it, “What we really sell is peace of mind.”

Trevor and his wife, Lakin, started NEXTGen in a single room with a few loyal clients and a lot of late nights. “There were times we ate rice and beans,” Lakin laughs. “But we believed in what we were building.” Today, their reach extends across the U.S. and the Bahamas, but they haven’t lost that community-first approach.

Still, as the company grew, disconnected systems and manual workflows started holding them back. “We were spending more time managing tools than managing our clients,” Lakin says. “We needed a single platform that worked as hard as we did.”

The search for efficiency led NEXTGen to Kaseya 365, unifying ticketing, endpoint management, documentation and backup under one connected ecosystem. “With Autotask PSA, Datto RMM, IT Glue and Datto BCDR all talking through Kaseya One, we finally had visibility across our entire stack,” Trevor says. “When I make a change in one place, it updates everywhere. That’s a game changer.”

NEXTGen standardized every client on two internal service packages — “core” and “advanced” — each designed to deliver a full suite of security, documentation, and automation tools. “We stopped asking which clients had what,” Trevor says. “Everyone’s protected, period.”

That standardization unlocked major gains. Automation now handles routine patching, ticket routing and alerts, cutting initial response times from 20 minutes to under three.

In IT, it only takes one event to change everything.

Trevor learned that lesson firsthand when a ransomware attack crippled the nearby city of Florence, Alabama. “Their 911 calls weren’t coming through, traffic lights failed, payroll systems froze — the whole city was down for 31 days,” he recalls. “They paid over $300,000 just to get their data back, and it still didn’t bring them online.”

Soon after, NEXTGen received a Datto EDR alert about one of their clients, Alliance Packaging, who had clicked on an infected invoice tied to the same ransomware strain. “Their server was screaming, millions of invoices and accounts encrypted,” Trevor says. “He was panicking because he thought he’d have to pay the ransom — but we were ready.”

NEXTGen’s systems had already kicked in. Datto EDR automatically isolated and locked the infected server, while Datto BCDR restored operations from a recent backup.

For Trevor, preparation is everything. He drills his team and clients regularly, simulating attack scenarios so everyone knows exactly how to respond. “You have to practice,” he says. “If you wait until something breaks, it’s too late. Preparedness removes panic.”

Ask Trevor what defines NEXTGen IT, and he won’t point to a product or platform. He’ll tell you about the three rules his grandfather taught him:

1. Lead with respect. Treat people the way you’d want them to treat your grandmother.
2. Keep your word. Do what you say you’ll do, come hell or high water.
3. Never quit. The price of victory is high, but so are the rewards.

Those lessons carried NEXTGen from a single rented room in the back of a thrift store to an international client base — all without borrowing a dollar. “We’ve built this company on grit, honesty and the right technology,” Trevor says. “That’s why our clients stay. Because when the worst happens, they know we’ve got them — every single time.”