In the world of technology, many people think that they easily understand the term “managed services”, but when you are prompted to define it, it’s difficult for them to do so. What does managed services mean?
Managed IT services enable companies to transfer their IT operations to an external expert organization that specializes in fulfilling these responsibilities. These external organizations, called managed service providers (SMEs), are responsible for all or part of the company’s IT systems, in accordance with a Guaranteed Service Level Agreement (SLA).
Need assessment
Currently, IT managers are under considerable pressure to meet the performance requirements, operational expectations and security of the company, while trying to reduce costs. Most financial experts would suggest in these conditions a transition to a predictable cost model, such as a managed service. The company providing such services is called Managed Service Provider (MSP). The best time to consider talking to SMEs is to set future strategic goals or implement new services in an IT environment. Many times, existing company staff may not have experience with new technology or with the maintenance of new services or applications. Hiring contractors to provide the service can be more expensive and provide less value in supporting your company’s ever-increasing performance goals, given the asthmatic or decreasing budget. This often applies to both small, medium and large companies.
Managed service models have evolved over time, and experienced suppliers have perfected their delivery. It is very effective for a company that:
- It relies on its IT infrastructure to properly handle everyday business processes
- You do not have enough trained personnel or time to formally deal with proper maintenance, updates and repairs
- You want to pay a monthly flat fee for services to ensure a high level of service quality for your business
What services are most commonly used?
Remote monitoring and management of servers, desktops and mobile devices is a common type of managed IT service. Remote monitoring and management is often the basic, basic service for a managed service provider. Because many companies managing service providers offer this service, there is a lot of competition and pressure on margins.
The modification of basic managed services forced managed service providers to diversify their offer. Managed security services are one of the popular directions. Customers increasingly require IT security service providers. Therefore, service providers develop practices in managed security services or work with security providers to provide cybersecurity services.
With the emergence of cloud computing, managed IT services have evolved and include cloud services. For example, service providers can focus on infrastructure as a service (IaaS), providing managed public cloud services in conjunction with cloud providers such as Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google and Microsoft. Service providers can also launch a managed platform as a service offer (PaaS) or collaborate with software providers as a service (SaaS), such as Salesforce in the CRM space and ServiceNow in the service management market.
