Data fuels the growth of modern business. However, with technology undergoing rapid changes, the IT requirements are continually evolving, not to mention the growing security threats to this data and downtimes that can disarm any business. This is where partnering with a managed service provider becomes important. It doesn’t just help you smoothen out different processes on the cloud but also manage cost and security challenges efficiently and in a continuous manner.
Irrespective of whether your cloud environment is multi-tenant or hybrid, the companies offering cloud-managed services have the requisite knowledge and infrastructure to manage things from A to Z. That’s why more and more fast scaling businesses are signing up with cloud managed IT, service providers. According to a report on managed cloud services , the cloud-managed services market size is projected to grow from $27.15 billion in 2017 to $53.78 billion by 2022, at an expected Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 14.6%
So if you are wondering why use managed services, let’s take a closer look at how a Managed Service Provider is beneficial and how they serve as the cornerstone of these predictions.
Here are 10 Reasons why your business needs a managed service provider
1. Cost savings
Maintaining infrastructure and networks in-house can result in huge cost overheads, especially if you are running a small or medium-sized business with limited resources. Essentially, you are spending on acquiring tools in bulk that you may or may not need at present to manage your cloud infrastructure. But a managed service provider is solely responsible for managing cloud infrastructure for clients.
So when you hire services of a managed service provider, you only pay for what you use and when you use it. The service provider already has the set of tools required to set up an infrastructure on the cloud and the workforce required to maintain it. This way you reduce operational costs, lower IT expenses, and also conserve capital budget so you can concentrate on business strategy rather than spending the time of planning infrastructure handling.
Another challenge that switching to MSPs addresses is decreasing OpEx spending. With the Pay-as-you-go model, you can procure cloud services that don’t eat up a large chunk of your IT budget. For small and medium businesses this spells huge cost savings.
2. Robust infrastructure
The infrastructure required for running networks involve a lot of moving parts, and for all those parts to function smoothly and robustly, you need quite a number of processes in place as well as continuous injection of funds to keep the quality up.
Sharing the network management responsibility helps you offload not just expenses but also a ton of infrastructure responsibilities, which further leads to more cost savings. This gives businesses more room to diversify and be agile.
Additionally, managed cloud service providers provide 24/7 infrastructure management services to keep the network infrastructure in a robust state throughout. This makes it easy to monitor and scan for security aspects as per the standards, to ensure that infrastructure is reliable and functioning at an optimal level. Integrating existing business practices into the cloud infrastructure is a complex task made simple by MSPs, in a manner that they coincide with your enterprise goals and faster Go-To-Market strategy.
3. Simplification of complex processes
Agility is the key to handling every single process and task that is a part of cloud infrastructure management, and for your organization to deliver results, you need diversity in the workforce, flexibility in operations and be able to pay special attention to factors such as infrastructure compliance and change management.
So, one small decision to manage a single aspect of your organization internally results in managing a multitude of complex and ever-growing in number processes at the infrastructure level.
A trusted managed service provider has all the processes, infrastructure and manpower in place to handle the most complex of problems on a daily basis. As experts in the field, they focus on every single aspect while having contingency plans for the possible challenges that may lie ahead.
4. Disaster management and data recovery
For the enterprises that have their IT infrastructure on-premise, a disaster or a critical server failure may leave them in a mess that may adversely affect their day-to-day business operations. They risk losing data that is vital to their business processes and overall growth. Now keeping data recovery processes and tools operational all year round is another overhead that your business will end up taking.
If you are storing all your data on the cloud, even potentially the most catastrophic situation can be just another day at the office. You will experience minimal to zero downtime, which is a big advantage considering that an hour of downtime costs a small business about $8000 and large business an approximate $700,000.
Even in the event of a host failure, you have stand-by cloud servers to fall back upon, and because everything is up there on a virtual platform, hardware failure risks are almost eliminated. This is one of the biggest reasons in the list of why to use managed services on the cloud.
5. Automatic upgrades
As the IT landscape evolves, there is a new trend popping up every hour. More often than not, you need to either make small tweaks here and there or rather go for major upgrades to keep up with the changing requirements and stay on the upward growth curve. Moreover, on-premise servers are a huge cost burden for enterprises. Maintenance and security costs are a fixed expenditure that organizations need to spend for servers to remain functional.
An MSP – managed service provider lends you with the flexibility and scalability to adapt and evolve by enabling customizations to the existing services or introducing new processes/tools to the existing milieu. All without disturbing your current business processes.
6. Better response time
Whether a new requirement arises, or a network issue pops up, having a quick response time is imperative so that a small anomaly does not cascade into a technological catastrophe. If you are signed up with a reliable MSP, you are assured that any unexpected development that needs attention will be addressed on priority and in the quickest turnaround time.
Managed cloud service providers offer constant enterprise-level monitoring and scrutiny, thus not just helping prevent a problem from growing, but also detecting deviations that might otherwise pose security threats and compliance issues
7. Easy access to a contingent workforce
MSPs give a major boost to the contingent workforce program, thus ensuring you have access to the right and certified talent at the right time. As per the Talent Trends research conducted by Randstad Sourceright in 2018, 57% of the business leaders and decision makers say that in their efforts to onboard the right skills, they are expected to shift more roles to contingent status more often.
Now, these right skills in a worker are a mixture of certifications and experience. A managed service provider with a positive reputation in the market has this talent either in-house or has direct and quick access to a variety of skills that it can deploy for your projects.
In addition, your MSP can also help you partner with human resource outsourcing companies that have a pool of talent readily available.
8. Round the clock management
To ensure smooth operations for any Cloud infrastructure, you need 24/7 supervision. Your agreement with the MSP can dictate that they scan and monitor the infrastructure at all times and take care of different requirements, such as the application of required patches along with compliance and security audits.
Managed servers also ensure that the compliance requirements are adhered to at all times while integrating your existing business strategies and policies so that everything is in sync with your organizational goals.
9. Focus on core business
Top managed service providers free up company resources, manpower, and infrastructure from an array of responsibilities. This way you can remain focused on core business activities like sales and growth.
Experts provide 24/7 support, keeping a check on the smooth functioning of all your IT systems hosted on the cloud. You never will have to worry about infrastructure or network failure with proactive professionals deployed on the cloud front. Updates and maintenance can be handled from anywhere, with sufficient protection against outages. So you can relax and totally focus on what’s the core of your business.
Choose a vendor who can help you create the perfect blend of private and public cloud, as well as on-premise IT such that it is efficient to generate value for your specific business. Having the appropriate mix will ensure that you are easily able to innovate with your products and services.
10. Centralized network
A managed service provider (MSP) uses a central data center within the cloud network for managing all servers and applications deployed on them. This gives remote network users easy access to the centralized data on the network. In addition, the cloud enables you to have storage and backup reside on the centralized network, as well. This goes a long way when it comes to enhancing your infrastructure availability.
But in the end, it all comes down to choosing the right managed service provider for your business.
Grow your business with Rapyder
Rapyder is a premium cloud managed service provider that aims at providing cost-effective services and solutions. The experts at Rapyder offer services including real-time monitoring, continuous automation, quick on-boarding, backup monitoring, incident support, monthly security audits, automated ticketing, database monitoring, monthly reviews, and monthly cost audits. All while you focus on your core business competencies.
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