What is a managed IT service?

With two-thirds of businesses using managed services, learn about what managed IT services are and how they’re being used

The rise in the number of companies attempting to both digitally transform their operations while simultaneously reducing expenditure has led to a surge in the managed services industry, whether that's hardware, software or a combination of the two.

It's now believed that more than two-thirds of businesses have already partnered with at least one managed service provider to handle their IT infrastructure - a strategy which is quickly becoming the norm.

The reason is fairly simple. A dedicated managed service provider is able to take on the responsibility for the day-to-day running of systems and leave their customer free to focus on innovation.

Managed services are an evolution of the traditional break/fix model, in which businesses would hire third-party specialists to repair, upgrade or install systems on an ad hoc basis. Instead, a managed service model tends to be subscription-based, with companies typically agreeing to pay a fixed amount each month in exchange for ongoing system management.

What that management entails can vary considerably depending on your needs and the provider's skill set. Most managed service providers (MSPs) are able to offer a basic package of daily support, as well as more sophisticated deals that include disaster recovery.

Managed services are an excellent option for those businesses that want to scale but don't have the resources available to support the necessary infrastructure, or simply want to focus their attention on changing business strategy rather than fighting fires in their systems.

Service level agreements (SLAs) are important when outsourcing services, as this states the expectations for the minimum level of service the customer should receive

Managed IT services can cover a range of business functions, from network, application, system, payroll, server, and backup/recovery solutions to workstation and printer management.

One of the most common examples of managed IT services at present is cloud services, where SMBs lacking expertise and resources can use a managed service provider (MSP) who may provide in-house cloud services or act as brokers with cloud services providers.

Another growing area in managed IT services is security. With the ever-growing risk of a malicious attack, some companies find it more efficient to outsource their security to a specialist managed security service provider (MSSP) who will handle the day-to-day security workload as well as patch management, backup, and responses to any breaches.

The specific advantages and disadvantages of managed IT services depend in part on the type of service, but there are some more general factors which may influence a business’ choice to outsource a function to an MSP.

Advantages of managed IT services include:

• Expertise: For smaller businesses in particular, being able to outsource knowledge and expertise can be an enormous help, as well as having experienced technical support available
• Predictable costs: Rather than incurring large expenses for an IT issue, businesses can instead account for potential problems within a predictable monthly fee
• Maintenance and upgrades: Organisations no longer have to worry whether the software is up-to-date, as all this is taken care of by the provider. They can also get access to newer technologies which they may not have been able to afford by themselves
• Time savings: Outsourcing management of services like security and cloud reduces the amount of time that in-house departments have to spend on it.

Disadvantages of managed IT services include:

• Control: If there’s an outage or an incident, there’s little a business reliant on managed services can do. Theoretically, a good MSP will be able to address issues much more quickly than an internal IT team, but it can be frustrating to not have visibility of serious problems and progress in dealing with them in-house.
• Flexibility: In general, managed IT service providers will have a standard offering which is available to all their clients. They may be able to modify this, but it will usually be less flexible than having a solution that is customised to business needs.
• Reliability: Should anything happen to the service provider, customers could be left trying to find alternative solutions in a short space of time.

Whether businesses decide a managed IT services provider is the right route for them, it’s not a market that is going away any time soon. In fact, it's the market is expected to be worth approximately $258 billion by 2022, up from $152 billion in 2017, according to Markets and Markets.

As the number of offerings and the capability of existing offerings grows, there is no doubt that we will see companies of all sizes making use of managed IT services for varying parts of their business.

Credits: https://www.itpro.co.uk/business-operations/31711/what-is-a-managed-it-service