IT Management Service
Managed IT services offer a wide range of remote Hybrid IT , with responsibilities ranging from specific on-demand response to 24/7/365 coverage of IT duties. Organizations can leverage managed IT to reduce in-house IT workload or fill gaps left by existing IT roles and skills.
What services are most commonly used?
- Remote monitoring and management of hardware and infrastructure.
- Security services, including monitoring, penetration testing, threat hunting, or incident response.
- Configuration, monitoring, and management of cloud services. These can be rendered in cooperation with or outside of managed cloud services.
- Communications support, including IP telephony services.
Managed IT services offer a wide range of remote Hybrid IT , with responsibilities ranging from specific on-demand response to 24/7/365 coverage of IT duties. Organizations can leverage managed IT to reduce in-house IT workload or fill gaps left by existing IT roles and skills.
What services are most commonly used?
- Remote monitoring and management of hardware and infrastructure.
- Security services, including monitoring, penetration testing, threat hunting, or incident response.
- Configuration, monitoring, and management of cloud services. These can be rendered in cooperation with or outside of managed cloud services.
- Communications support, including IP telephony services.
Managed IT Service Benefits
There are numerous benefits that organizations can gain from the right managed IT service provider. These benefits often include:
Contractual terms
Managed services enable you to set contractual terms for IT tasks that include service level agreements (SLAs). This means you don’t have to spend time recruiting, hiring, or training IT staff. This enables you to pay only for the coverage or services you need and avoids the associated costs that come with maintaining full-time employees.
Efficiency
Outsourcing IT tasks to managed services can free your teams to focus on revenue-generating tasks. These providers can also often provide guidance or recommendations to help you optimize the performance of your infrastructure. This can lead to increases in productivity and improved ROI.
Better management of uptime
Managed IT service providers are not tied to the same schedule as your other employees. This means providers are often able to perform system updates and maintenance during off-hours. When MSPs have flexible schedules to work around your own, you see greater uptime and fewer workflow disruptions.
Considerations for Managed IT Services Providers
Holding providers accountable
when choosing a provider you should make sure they have clearly defined and actionable SLAs. Contracting your IT tasks is to a provider that you cannot hold accountable results in frustration and losses. This accountability should include clear reporting of services rendered and system performance. If a provider is unwilling to provide metrics or share system data with you, they should be avoided.
Getting strategic IT planning
managed IT providers should help you strategically plan infrastructure upgrades, configuration changes, and additions. If they don’t, you won’t be able to derive full value from managed services. This means providers need to not only understand your current infrastructure but make efforts to manage it with respect to your business goals and objectives. Planning should extend beyond the immediate future into the next year or two.
Finding a provider with a good track record
not all providers are created equally. When considering a provider, you need to verify their track record with other organizations in your industry and scale. Reliable MSPs should let you know which comparable organizations they are working with. They can also often help set up opportunities to talk with someone from that company. If a provider is not willing to share proof of value, they are a poor choice of investment.