Companies used to be wary of managed services. They worried that outsourcing technology services would cause them to lose control of data and applications or put their in-house IT staff’s jobs at risk.
Instead, service providers can augment an organization’s IT department, becoming part of the team. The provider can take over mundane housekeeping tasks, freeing your staff to focus on more exciting work related to business strategy and innovation.
Today, managed services are showing the steady growth that comes from acceptance. Scientect predicted that the managed services market will reach $262.5 billion by 2023.
If your company hasn’t looked at managed services in a while, now is the time to explore options and the resulting business benefits, such as time savings, expertise, and around-the-clock service.
Here’s an overview of 3 great managed services and what they can bring to your business:
1) Server Management
If you host your servers in the cloud, server management provides much more than a place to house and run it. A server management provider will also help you configure the server, as well as install and manage the correct software.
The server management provider handles the management of the server while allowing your company to maintain a desired level of control. A control panel will be provided for you to handle basic tasks when necessary.
Server management services also include maintenance and support. The provider uses its technical expertise to troubleshoot issues with the server. If the server experiences problems, the MSP can step in to fix them.
2) Server Monitoring
Server monitoring is a 24/7/365 task. Servers need to be monitored to guarantee availability and optimum application performance for your business. To deliver the necessary level of monitoring, at least one of your IT staff members would need to be dedicated to the task every minute of the day and night.
Server monitoring from an MSP gives your company access to an entire staff of people who are experts at server administration. Server monitoring services help your company gain insights that can be used to identify and mitigate server issues and detect abnormal activity that could be an indication of a security threat, as well as to plan for capacity and network utilization.
With server monitoring, your business can receive alerts about emerging and escalating server and application issues. Real-time dashboards make it easy to visualize server performance. Reports can be generated to help with capacity planning, load balancing, and problem resolution.
3) Security Operations Center as a Service
Most organizations do not focus on security, so it’s logical that their IT staff members would not be security experts. Instead, your company’s IT staff has other areas of expertise related to your industry. That’s why Security Operations Center as a Service (SOCaaS) is such a great managed service option.
SOCaaS delivers all the expertise, processes, and tools your company needs to detect and prevent security threats. SOCs are staffed around the clock by highly experienced security professionals.
This security team is armed with data collection and analytic tools that can identify threats and their root causes. With SOCaaS, your company can take a proactive approach to security, identifying advanced threats and stopping them in their tracks.
More Than a Managed Service Provider
Working with an MSP for server management, monitoring, or SOCaaS can be a transformative experience. The partnership helps your team become more productive and can give you access to tools and know-how that might not otherwise be within reach.
However, your company needs to work with the right MSP. Some MSPs provide services, but they rely on other technology companies for their resources.
FirstLight not only provides managed services, but we own our cloud, data center, and network resources. All our services are supported by our extensive fiber optic network.
Our managed service offerings include server management, 3 tiers of server monitoring, SOCaaS — through our partnership with Trustwave — and many others, such as managed edge. These managed services are available through a cost-effective pay-as-you-grow model.
Get more details on FirstLight’s Server Monitoring service. Read our solution brief.
