Managed IT Services
Owing to numerous benefits and paybacks of managed services, various IT companies prefer to leverage or outsource IT Services that are known as managed services. A managed IT service fundamentally refers to the virtual hiring of a technological service delivered by some other company or resource against a monthly subscription. So, handing over the duty of establishing, maintaining, and forestalling the need for improvement of functions and processes with an intention to cut down costs through indirect use of resources is well-known as the practice of managed services.
Managed IT service model follows the subscription model in which the client or consuming body possesses or directly oversees the system or organization under management. While the body providing the managed service is known as a managed service provider (MSP). In short, the client and MSP are bonded through an agreement that is basically based on quality and performance-based metrics.
Advantages of Managed Services
Managed service has become famous as an alternative to on-demand outsourcing over a period of time because of its innumerable benefits.
The foremost significant advantage of the concept is that it lets organizations or companies emphasize and excel in their core competencies instead of wasting resources on managing services they are not experts in or unable to accomplish. Moreover, it saves the companies from the complexity of managing their in-house IT departments and also cuts the cost.
As managed services unburden the organization from managing their services and offloading the tasks to other resources or companies, they both get benefits. The managed service client gets to reduce and cut the cost and improve the quality of service being consumed as they always have an option to switch. Furthermore, they mitigate various risks like the risk of under-performance or unreliability by subscribing to managed services, and they can fill the void of skill-set that is not available in their organization. Contrary to that for MSPs, opportunities are also created, and pertinent skills are used to establish and maintain particular services.
Types of Managed Services
Managed IT services can vary from all-purpose to explicit, depending on the company’s needs. Existing services comprise monitoring and upkeeping of equipment, network monitoring, remote monitoring and management of servers, IT systems management, and other support services.
On account of the advantageous nature of managed services, this notion has spread its light in various IT domains. Different kinds of managed services are available in the IT market for organizations and companies which want to outsource or subscribe to a service instead of developing and maintaining their own particular department or service. Following are some types of managed services that are enlisted and elaborated.
End User Services
End-user Services refer to IT support channels and manuals or methods that a company or an organization provides to support its employees or customers. It can be in the form of an IT help desk or IT service desk, where clients/users can get IT or technical support. This support is given through a set of expert IT administrators in order to resolve the issues of clients. Problems can be in the form of issues in operating systems, connectivity issues, application installation or upgradation, and other helpdesk-related services. So, some companies do not have the space or resources to establish their helpdesk or IT support system; rather, they outsource it to focus on their expertise while providing support to the users.
Managed Networks and Infrastructure
Managed Network and Infrastructure is a service that is used for networking-related tasks to make networking cost-effective, secure, and high-performant. Networking includes the founding and maintenance of WAPS, LAN, WAN, IP VPN, and numerous connectivity patterns for an organization. MSPs that provide Network and Infrastructure services usually provide storage and backup options, which helps in outsourcing your organization’s data center.
Managed Security
The MSPs that provide managed services present solutions related to antivirus, patch management, malware protection, and various other security options. They also provide completely remote updates. Hence this service is about remote security infrastructure and keeping it efficient and updated in real-time in order to prevent data loss and malware attacks that are business-wide to avoid damaging scenarios.
Managed IT Support
In managed IT support, the services are given via staff. This domain holds a critical value in terms of problems and issues occurring daily with a range of severity levels. Although all of the risks for the problem of varying nature can not be mitigated completely but with the staff which aims to provide managed IT support, many problems can be solved, and long-term stability can be gained in the domain of IT.
Data Analytics
Data Analytics is the field of monitoring services for managing and analyzing data that can become useful for businesses and organizations to excel. This kind of service includes business intelligence in order to target explicit trends and create analytical results that can be important for business performance. This can be of great importance to businesses as the analytical services provide insight to the businesses and pin-points the room for improvement. While looking into the business insights and analytics, businesses can work on their weak areas and target the more productive areas in terms of profit and excellence.
Managed Cloud Infrastructure
Cloud service is an on-demand service that is web-based, and it supports data storage, file sharing, and secure and remote access to the network of a company. Nowadays, cloud services have become a requirement for organizations to keep up with the changing business environment. Cloud services can help businesses to scale their services and avail of the services as mentioned above in a cloud environment where their resources are not being used. Instead, businesses avail the services in a web-based platform and perform their daily tasks involving file sharing, data storage, and much more. The most significant benefit to the businesses is that their employees and workers can access the network of a company remotely and can be productive from anywhere. Some examples of cloud-based MSPs are Google Cloud, AWS, and Azure.
Managed Software as a Service (SaaS)
These applications are branches of cloud services. SaaS is a complete application in the sense that its model of consumption is relatively easier than cloud services. SaaS application is easier to use. MSP, which provides SaaS, provides software for the organizations, and that software can be subscribed for unlimited access for a whole year until the SLA (Service Level Agreement) expires. The provider makes the SaaS available and manageable to organizations, making all patches, updates, and upgrades remotely available and installed. Optimal and efficient service is promised by MSP providing SaaS.
Managed Communication Services
In this kind of service, MSP provides services related to voice, video, and data in the form of a managed contact center. The call center is associated with a business and provides call center services along with integrated services like phone, email, fax, web, instant messaging, and other forms of communication. In short, MSP can operate as a third-party call center.
Managed Print Services
In this kind of service, MSP provides a managed service that remotely handles data management and file management, and infrastructure. Some organizations have excess file management requirements due to the large amount of data that is being managed in a file. Mainly print services are provided remotely, and the organization’s management structure in the form of documentation is managed by MSP.
How to Choose the right services from amongst so many options
From broad types of options, managed services are available, and there would be many providers available for these services. So, it might be a little confusing for one to decide which type and provider to choose from.
For this, we have a team offering free technology consulting and strategies. We take the time to identify what suits your requirements, processes, and needs best. And from there onward, we work on a customized, result-oriented relationship.