What is a Managed Services Provider and Why Should You Use One?

Find out why using MSP is advantageous & how these types of businesses work. Learn about key services offered by MSPs & how they differ from traditional IT consulting agreements.

What is a Managed Services Provider and Why Should You Use One?

Managed services are the practice of outsourcing the responsibility to maintain and anticipate the need for a range of processes and functions, apparently for the purpose of improving operations and reducing budget expenditures. You may have read the term “MSP” and wondered what it means. The abbreviation stands for “managed service provider”, which is a concept in which companies outsource certain services to specialized companies. Outsourcing has long been understood as a cost-cutting movement. But why should you use a managed service provider (MSP)? Find out why using MSP is advantageous and how these types of businesses work.

A managed service provider is a third-party company that remotely delivers a specific set of IT processes on behalf of its customers. These processes can include networking, security, applications, mobility, and infrastructure. For example, Metal Toad was hired to develop a digital marketing platform for a veterinary company. The team used Amazon's artificial intelligence and machine learning framework for the entire software build.

Aligned Technology Solutions acts as an outsourced IT support partner for a non-profit organization. They are responsible for addressing and resolving any IT-related concerns at all levels of the organization. SugarShot provided managed IT services for a food wholesaler. They helped the customer migrate to a new hosting platform and create new servers due to a ransomware attack. Electric is the mobile device management management partner of a technology startup.

Their team manages workstations, provides support and pushes updates for software, including Jamf and Kaseya. Vertical Computers Manage a Healthcare Personnel Company's IT Network. Their job involves updating and monitoring the company's servers. They also replaced computers and installed equipment and software. Key services offered by MSPs include data center management, network management, mobility management, infrastructure management, backup and recovery management, communications management, and security management. Many modern managed service providers take a more proactive approach to maintenance and management, which may include patch management and predictive maintenance. The pandemic last year also saw an increase in demand for cloud-based solutions and a greater push to accelerate digital transformations, with customer demand for “core services”, systems integration and help desk services for remote work, support and cybersecurity moving away, according to a recent Acronis survey of managed service providers. Managed service providers structure their businesses to offer technology services cheaper than it would cost a company to do it on its own, with a higher level of quality and with more flexibility and scalability.

Managed service providers remotely access networks and implement solutions for any IT problem outside the company. However, managed service providers come in all sizes, with MSPAlliance, an international association of managed and cloud service providers, estimating around 150,000 MSPs worldwide. Demonstrating compliance with SLAs used to be a headache and source of contention between an MSP and its customers. For example, they have four employees who offer a suite of managed IT services, cybersecurity solutions and cloud computing. They are experts in managed IT services, IT strategy consulting, and IT consulting for small and medium-sized businesses in various industries such as manufacturing, business services, and financial services. Managed IT services are tasks managed by a third party, often in the context of business information technology services. Managing daily transportation processes and reducing related costs represent significant burdens requiring the expertise of providers of managed transportation services (or managed transportation services).

However, it will make you highly dependent on the availability of reliable, high-speed Internet service. Founded in 1998, its team of approximately 30 employees provides services including managed IT services, cybersecurity solutions and headcount growth. They offer several IT services such as increasing customer Internet speed or upgrading hardware. Managed services also differentiate from traditional IT consulting agreements in that consulting is generally project-based while managed services are ongoing subscriptions.

Oscar Collari
Oscar Collari

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