Managed Services and Its Benefits to Business


The demand for services in the information technology market is traditionally high. To improve enterprise efficiency, customers use cloud services to reduce IT infrastructure costs. But it is not enough to deploy the cloud IT infrastructure – to ensure its smooth operation you need to maintain it, monitor critical indicators, and prevent failures. To do this, you can either hire designated IT staff to take care of all your technology needs or outsource the service. According to the latest statistics, the second option is becoming more and more popular. 

The global managed services market is forecast to reach more than 200 billion U.S. dollars in size in 2020. Over the next few years, revenue from the managed services market is set to grow to more than 300 billion U.S. dollars.

The need to entrust responsibilities to the provider is mainly caused by the inability of organizations to manage all tasks related to the clouds on their own. This ultimately led to the trend of cloud-based managed services. In this article, we explain what is included in managed services and why they are attractive to businesses.

What Is Cloud Managed Services?

Managed Services in the cloud suggests that companies can completely abandon their own IT department, as they delegate their systems administration to a third-party organization. Sometimes MSP (Managed Services Provider) can act as an extension of the IT department, taking care of routine infrastructure monitoring and management. They help organizations manage their computing, storage, networking, and operating systems, as well as the complex tools and application. 

Simply put, MSP becomes for clients a service provider, an integrator, and an outsourcer, while guaranteeing the agreed service level in accordance with the SLA. MSPs contribute their expertise, technology, and experience to achieve clients' specific business objectives. By outsourcing routine infrastructure management to an experienced managed services professional, you will be able to focus on running a business with fewer interruptions due to IT outages.

Under the conditions of SLA, managed service providers charge a fixed fee for the provision of their services over a certain period. The SLA defines precisely which services will be executed and to what extent, and the metrics to measure the success of these services.

Types of Managed IT Services

Managed services are in demand in all segments, including small businesses and SMB. While small and medium companies, as a rule, entrust the entire infrastructure to outsourcing, large enterprises use managed services selectively. 

Small companies need a minimal set of software – accounting system, e-mail for business and office applications, CRM system, etc. Obviously, it is more convenient and cost-effective for them to go to a provider and get a ready-made infrastructure than staffing a full-time IT department.

Why subscribing to managed cloud services makes sense. Here are challenges managed services can help you resolve:

IT infrastructure support. The provider's specialists monitor all physical and virtual infrastructure components: servers, storage, networks, DBMS, etc., and applications, help to prevent and fix failures. Also, provider administrators can perform periodic tasks, for which it is not profitable to hire full-time specialists.

System design and upgrade. Providers of managed services must understand the goals and objectives of the organization. Within this context, they must keep up with emerging trends to ensure the customer’s systems remain up-to-date. 

Cloud migration. Adopting the cloud helps to ease the burden on an in-house IT staff, but the cloud does not mean your IT team will not have a job. An unfamiliar environment can be difficult to support. And here MSP comes in handy – cloud experts will prepare the infrastructure for the migration, support the process of migration to the cloud, and train the company's employees.

Backup and disaster recovery. These tasks are necessary, but they are kinds of routine operational tasks that no one enjoys. In addition, often there is not enough time to focus on backup and disaster recovery, which means that you will not know that they do not work properly until you really need them. Delegating this task to MSP ensures an effective process and provides the necessary support in case of a crisis. 

Choosing a Managed Service Provider 

The complexity of IT systems means that organizations are facing more challenges than ever keeping it all up and running. However many of these challenges can be easily resolved by a reliable third-party contractor. Managed services allow companies to save on IT infrastructure maintenance, reduce risks, and ensure uninterrupted operation of IT systems, and free up company resources for business development. 

At Cloud4U, we are committed to helping businesses get the most out of their cloud solutions. As a cloud service provider, we design, manage and protect a cloud environment so you can focus on growing your business.



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author: Yusuf Ozturk
published: 10/16/2020
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