DataStrike COO on H-1B Visa Concerns & Building Domestic Staff

As H-1B visa costs skyrocket due to recent federal action, many companies are reconsidering their talent sourcing heading into 2026. We spoke with Rob Brown, president and COO at database and cloud services provider DataStrike, about his company’s decision to retain domestic talent and where the market for onshore teams is heading.

Why service providers should consider building domestic talent instead of offshore resources

DataStrike calls itself North America’s leading provider of fully onshore data infrastructure managed services.

At one point that domestic talent was a differentiator for the provider, but increasingly, American companies are beginning to revisit the potential benefits of onshore teams.

“When you look at the sort of business culture that’s being driven by government attitudes in the U.S., it’s more of a hire here first mentality, and that is shifting a lot,” said Brown.

To Brown, onshore teams provide efficiencies in management and productivity that he can’t see replicated to the same degree with an offshore team. The ease of working with teams in similar timezones, for example, can translate to faster time to delivery and a more cohesive workflow.

Brown also emphasizes the cultural differences around approaches to work vary greatly by country and region, and he highlights the importance of building a team that can self-start and feel empowered to step in to handle work whenever necessary.

“Most IT spend is similar to the billable hours model, ultimately,” Brown said. “Onshore talent is more expensive upfront, but I think you make up for that very quickly in efficiency gains and now, with concerns about visa costs.”

H-1B visa tax impact on employee cost-benefit analysis in 2026

Those visa-related costs are changing the economics around international talent.

In September, U.S. President Donald Trump announced changes to the H-1B visa process, including a $100,000 fee for new applicants. While this has been challenged by various entities and soem wonder how long the policy will stand, companies pursiung visas for international workers do now face a steeper cost for that talent.

“There have always been areas where offshoring made sense, and many people have built their teams with this talent for several reasons,” Brown said. “Now, that’s changing from a cost perspective.”

“It’s really becoming a no-brainer,” he continued. “Large organizations are going to have to decide what to do in terms of resourcing and how they spend. The visa fees alone are higher, and then many typically will also offer things like housing to some degree, so the total cost looks different. It’ll be very interesting to see what happens over the course of the year.”

How DataStrike supports enterprise clients with skilled staff

DataStrike’s 100 percent onshore model has emerged as a solution, providing 24/7/365 support from a team of U.S.-based experts who work within the same time zones, regulations, and communication standards as their clients. 

The provider grew that model by 137 percent this year as the market begins to favor onshore, domestic talent for the reasons outlined above.

For its customers, such as 84 Lumber, DataStrike’s onshore model leads to secure migrations and higher overall satisfaction.

“We were looking for help to upgrade our legacy databases. We wanted onshore support and flexible, scalable expertise,” said Mark Caplan, the VP of infrastructure, operations, security, and risk at 84 Lumber. “DataStrike had a solid implementation process and proven track record. As a team, we established clear objectives and collaborated with stakeholders. Their team made it easy to migrate over to DataStrike for our DBA services. Now our databases are faster and more secure than ever.”

Brown says the demand for fractional support services isn’t going away any time soon, and companies like DataStrike will continue to augment internal teams as they target digital transformation and other key initiatives.