BOSTON and NEW YORK, Nov. 3, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — Harbor IT, a national provider of cybersecurity and IT services, has acquired New England Network Solutions (NENS), a Greater Boston-based managed service provider known for its operational maturity and advanced expertise in healthcare and life sciences.
Harbor IT began in cybersecurity with a mission to bridge the gap between cybersecurity and IT operations. Today it delivers a security-led managed services platform for regulated and complex environments, giving clients a single, accountable partner for secure, compliant, and mission-critical IT operations.
The acquisition of NENS, Harbor IT’s eighth and largest to date and its third in New England, expands the company’s Northeast presence, strengthens its healthcare specialization, and adds two of the MSP industry’s most respected operators, Michael Kourkoulakos and Josh Oakes, former CEO and President of NENS, to its executive leadership team. By integrating NENS’s Boston-based team, Harbor IT preserves what clients value most: trusted local leadership supported by national-scale security, compliance, and infrastructure resources.
Proven Leaders Driving Disciplined Growth
Founded in 1993 in Lowell, Massachusetts, NENS has spent more than three decades serving regulated sectors such as healthcare and life sciences, with advanced cybersecurity and compliance capabilities including HIPAA and CMMC. Under the leadership of Kourkoulakos and Oakes, the company has grown more than fifteenfold over the past fourteen years, earning a reputation for reliability, proactive security, and disciplined service delivery.
“Josh and Mike are the best operators we’ve seen in the MSP space—they’re a step above,” said Johnny Lieberman, CEO of Harbor IT. “When I asked ten industry leaders who they considered the strongest operators, four named Josh and Mike. No other person or pair came up more than once. Bringing them into Harbor raises the bar for execution and accountability across our platform and for the industry.”
“What drew us to Harbor was how closely their culture aligns with ours: a genuine commitment to people, AI, cybersecurity, and operational excellence,” said Michael Kourkoulakos, CEO of NENS. “For more than 30 years, we have built NENS around accountability, trust, and doing right by our clients. Harbor IT shares those same values and brings the scale and resources to help us do it even better. Together, we can deliver what we call intimacy at scale: maintaining the close relationships and responsiveness our clients expect while expanding the depth, speed, and capability of everything we do.”
Building a Unified, Operator-Led National Platform
Harbor IT is purpose-built around complementary specializations across both practice areas and industry verticals. The company integrates SOC/MXDR, compliance and vCISO advisory, cloud and infrastructure, network engineering, and unified communications, delivering deep expertise in hard-to-serve, regulated, and mission-critical environments, including healthcare, life sciences, financial services, private equity, critical infrastructure, and oil and gas, where uptime and audit-readiness are non-negotiable. Harbor’s level of operational and systems integration goes beyond industry norms, enabling faster execution and measurable outcomes across every service line.
With the addition of NENS, Harbor IT now employs over 300 people across 29 states, operates offices in 9 cities, and serves more than 1,500 clients nationwide.
“We chose Harbor IT because it represents a true merger of experienced, owner-operated service providers, not a typical private equity rollup,” said Josh Oakes, NENS President. “Our combined teams understand the unique needs of small and mid-sized organizations across diverse industries. By leveraging broad technology expertise and proven practices, we’re committed to delivering measurable results for our clients. NENS is excited to contribute to this shared vision and drive meaningful outcomes together.”
Backed by a permanent holding company funded by entrepreneurs and family business owners, Harbor IT applies patient capital to forge enduring leadership in cybersecurity and IT, guided by operators who have built, scaled, and protected mission-critical environments.
About Harbor IT
Harbor IT is a cyber-first managed service provider delivering integrated IT, cybersecurity, and cloud solutions for mission-critical and compliance-driven organizations nationwide.
For more information, visit harborit.com.
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Worklyn Partners
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SOURCE Harbor IT
