Ratchet Industries is a Darwin-based managed service provider with a different philosophy. We believe technology should create genuine value for the people who use it—not generate recurring revenue for vendors or lock customers into ecosystems they can’t escape.
Our Philosophy
We’re inspired by a simple principle: focus on creating value for customers, and everything else follows. This means we don’t push solutions based on what’s profitable for us—we recommend what actually serves your needs. If that’s a self-hosted open source stack, great. If Windows or a cloud platform genuinely makes more sense for your situation, we’ll tell you that too.
The traditional MSP model often creates perverse incentives: vendors profit from complexity, lock-in, and ongoing subscriptions rather than from solving your problems efficiently. We want to be different. We succeed when you succeed, not when you’re dependent on us.
Why Open Source?
We specialise in open source technologies because they embody the values we believe in:
- Transparency: The code is available for anyone to inspect. No hidden functionality, no black boxes.
- Freedom: You’re not locked into a single vendor’s ecosystem or pricing decisions.
- Community: Problems get solved by thousands of contributors worldwide, not a single company’s roadmap.
- Longevity: Open source projects don’t disappear when a company decides to discontinue them.
That said, we’re pragmatic. Open source isn’t always the right answer for every situation, and we won’t pretend otherwise. Our job is to give you honest guidance, not to be ideological about technology choices.
Why NixOS?
We use NixOS because it embodies reproducibility and transparency—values we care deeply about. Your entire system configuration exists as readable code. There’s no mysterious state, no “works on my machine” problems, no undocumented tweaks. When we set up infrastructure, you can see exactly what we’ve done and why.
- Reproducible: Build the exact same system anywhere, every time
- Transparent: Configuration is code you can read and understand
- Reliable: Atomic upgrades mean you can always roll back if something goes wrong
- Documented: Your infrastructure is self-documenting by design
What We Offer
- Self-Hosted Solutions: File sharing, collaboration tools, databases, and web applications under your control
- Linux Infrastructure: Desktop and server deployments tailored to your workflow
- NixOS Deployments: Reproducible, transparent infrastructure you can trust
- Windows & Cloud Support: When they’re genuinely the right choice for your situation
- System Maintenance: Updates, patching, monitoring, and support
- Backup & Recovery: Comprehensive data protection
- Honest Guidance: Including insights from our own career experience in the industry
We serve everyone from individuals to enterprises across Darwin and the Territory. Whether you need a single workstation or company-wide infrastructure, we’ll help you find solutions that create real value—not just generate invoices.