All contemporary firms must frequently manage ongoing IT duties. They must maintain all equipment in good working order, make ensuring cybersecurity safeguards are in place and current, host and monitor apps, among a variety of other tasks.

To manage their IT activities efficiently in-house, small and middle-sized firms may not have the resources or capacities that larger enterprises do. The many kinds of managed services can be useful in this regard.

Managed services provide a variety of remote IT products and responsibilities, ranging from targeted on-demand assistance to 24-hour coverage of IT obligations.

Businesses can employ the various managed service kinds to lessen the workload of their internal IT staff and fill in any gaps in existing IT responsibilities and expertise. On-site IT and private cloud storage both offer these options.

What are Managed Services?

Managed services make it possible for companies and organizations to contract out IT work on a subscription basis. These services can be used by businesses to reduce the strain of their internal IT teams, to supplement teams that can’t handle the demand, or to completely replace internal employees.

Managed service providers (MSPs) provide specialized knowledge and skills while assisting in ensuring 24-hour coverage of IT responsibilities.

These services can save internal expenses while also enhancing regulatory management and the company’s IT productivity.

However, businesses must make sure that possible MSPs uphold data protection privacy standards and adhere to other pertinent laws in order to assure compliance with industry, national, and international regulatory obligations.

Managed services encompass many duties and responsibilities but typically include:

  • Remote management and monitoring of hardware and infrastructure
  • Security services like monitoring, threat hunting, penetration testing, and incident response
  • Communications support such as IP telephony services
  • Configuration, management, and monitoring of cloud services. They can render these responsibilities within or without managed cloud services

Five Types of Managed Services

Every form of managed IT service offered by MSPs integrates with your IT infrastructure to streamline your workflow for maximum productivity and efficiency. A managed IT services provider offers a wide range of services in accordance with the demands and specifications of your firm.

Here are the top five categories of managed services:

1. Managed IT Support

Beyond specialist services, staff services can be used to implement IT support. It is a particularly important field because issues of varied degrees of severity arise every day. It might not be able to solve every issue right away, depending on the size and capacity of your current staff model.

Existing solutions can occasionally lack long-term stability.

Managed IT support services, however, can be beneficial. Similar to other managed service types, these support services are implemented by MSPs, but with one important distinction: the help is provided at the employee level.

The ability of managed IT assistance to bridge employment gaps in businesses is one advantage. However, there are a lot of additional benefits to using these services that go beyond employment. These consist of:

  • MSPs have a wide range of knowledge and experience from IT experts and career specialists. It means that they can deploy strategies and solutions to elevate performance across the board.
  • Cost savings is another benefit of managed IT support. Since the company does not hire, train, and maintain a traditional staff, it can cut its operational costs.
  • The proactive addressing of IT problems before and when they arise reduces performance issues and downtime and increases efficiency.

2. Managed Cloud Services

These services cover everything from a company’s relocation to optimization and security, including the management and control of a cloud platform. The four categories of cloud computing services are listed below:

  • Infrastructure as a service (IaaS)
  • Software as a service (SaaS)
  • Platform as a service (PaaS)
  • Function as a service (FaaS)

Because more cloud business models are being adopted and require maintenance, the demand for managed cloud services is rising. While using the cloud, these services follow a similar paradigm to managed IT support.

Managed cloud services provide remote assistance with a variety of tasks, including network construction, data monitoring, cybersecurity, and IT troubleshooting. Businesses can add personnel and infrastructure where it is needed while supporting their foundation with a proactive attitude.

For instance, the business can track its bandwidth usage with the aid of a cloud-managed service that handles data monitoring. This managed service type is in high demand due to the cloud environment’s increasing growth and evolution.

3. Managed Network Services

Managed network services are networking tasks, programs, and offerings that businesses contract with MSPs to manage, administer, and maintain remotely.

These services range from basic LAN and WAN connections and network access and transport services to advanced software-defined WAN connections and virtual network services.

Managed network services go beyond network access or transit services to include:

  • WAN optimization
  • Network administration
  • Unified messaging
  • Virtual private networks (VPNs)
  • Managed security firewalls

MSPs host virtual network operations in addition to managed network services in their data centers.

They often provide these services in conjunction with service-level agreements (SLAs), which are legal agreements that specify the performance standards and quality benchmarks for managed network services that the MSP will give to clients.

The following are some benefits of managed network services:

  • Minimizing operational risk: Companies transfer much of the risk to an MSP who has access to the latest technologies. It also reduces the risk of investing in expensive tech and service personnel.
  • Reduce and control expenses: MSPs give companies a breakdown of their expenses based on their IT needs, giving them a measure of control and prediction and turning them into fixed cost expenses.
  • Enhance security: Theywork with experts to strengthen network security.
  • Streamline productivity: The most significant advantage of working with an MSP is that it allows business leaders and IT teams to focus on other critical areas.

4. Managed Communication Services

Managed communication service providers (MSPs) combine voice, video, and data services into a single IP network.

Email, VoIP, and unified communications are all included in these services. It implies that a business’s conventional call center may include other functions including phone, instant messaging, the web, fax, and email.

Managed communication services are used by businesses to provide them a competitive edge in their sector. They also benefit from a zero-cost edge in terms of tech infrastructure upkeep. Other advantages are:

  • MSPs design the services to assist companies in deploying advanced technologies with lower costs and less risk
  • Offers extensive communication capabilities designed for all types of businesses – independent of scale
  • Connects people instead of devices
  • Closely integrates communications with business processes
  • Delivers presence and preference information and helps to ensure that business communications reach recipients quickly and effectively

MSPs link communication tools (like phones and PCs) and software tools (like calendars or videoconferencing) to allow businesses access whenever and wherever they need it. They also allow open interfaces so that other kinds of programs can be added.

5. Managed IT Security Services

Managed security services cover all aspects of online safety and security. Protection against malware, patching and upkeep, and program compatibility are some of these services.

Depending on the client company’s preference, the managed security service provider (MSSP) can carry out these tasks and more either locally or remotely.

MSSPs offer outsourced security system and device administration and monitoring. These are the services they provide:

  • Managed firewall
  • Intrusion detection and prevention systems
  • Vulnerability and compliance management
  • Anti-virus
  • Virtual private network
  • Security Incident Event Management (SIEM) tools
  • Incident response and event investigation
  • Security intelligence

Businesses employ MSPs to unload the arduous task of daily monitoring and handling a large number of security incidents and events from their IT departments. Businesses can choose between co-managed and completely managed security services.

The former is ideal for firms on a tight budget that don’t have the internal capacity to understand and administer the most recent security technologies.

Companies who own a wide range of the newest security technology but lack the internal security (human) resources necessary to administer these solutions around-the-clock might consider co-managed security services.

WHY Managed IT Services?

Technology is essential for businesses to function well. The ability to support IT should increase annually along with the use of it. Unfortunately, many firms (especially small and mid-sized ones) lack the resources necessary to successfully manage their networks’ constant expansion and change.

The sheer amount of effort required to maintain everything operating efficiently, securely, and to date can easily overwhelm small IT teams.

As a result, it’s simple to fall behind on crucial items like backups, patches, security, and upgrades, greatly increasing the likelihood that the firm will have IT outages and other problems that will have a negative impact on their business.

Imagine the severe productivity and financial losses that would ensue if a company’s email server, finance system, CRM system, or network went down.

The various managed service options also alter an organization’s overall technology management strategy. They move away from break-fix repair cycles, which rely on holding off on fixing important devices until servers, systems, networks, or other components break.

Businesses using managed services put more of an emphasis on prevention than reaction. They keep an eye on things and take care of problems before they affect management, workers, or clients.

Managed Services Benefits for Small- and Medium-Sized Businesses

Businesses can survive or perish in today’s technologically advanced world depending on how reliable and effective their IT infrastructure is.

Only a few (if any) people manage entire businesses entirely electronically, and few (if any) wouldn’t suffer enormous losses if their IT systems and networks experienced a serious problem.

The advantages of using managed services are listed below:

  • Freed-up resources and renewed emphasis on core business. Business owners and internal IT staff are better off focusing on revenue-generating and enhancing tasks like creating cutting-edge apps and services or product development. MSP services handle routine maintenance and monitoring tasks, freeing IT staff to do other things.
  • MSPs are true partners sharing risks and responsibilities. They deliver contracted services and measure, analyze, report, and optimize IT service operations to support business growth and sustainability.
  • MSPs give clients access to expertise, world-class tools and technologies, and best practices.
  • MSPs offer the benefits of a fully-staffed, full-time IT team at a fraction of the cost.
  • With managed services, businesses no longer need to worry about data losses or system problems.
  • Managed service providers decrease a company’s overall IT support costs.

Wrapping Up

The modern organization is driven by technology, thus investing in IT is crucial. Due to the fact that even the smallest networks require some level of help, IT support is an essential business role. However, getting IT support is not always simple for a variety of reasons.

Fortunately, MSPs are available to provide organizations with the essential infrastructure and different managed services they require to maintain the security of their data and the efficiency of their systems and networks.

If you have not yet embraced IT support for your business, it’s never too late to implement IT best practices with the help of a reliable services provider like ITX Tech Group.

As a top managed IT services company in Madison, WI, we are happy to help businesses like yours achieve healthy operational postures through our range of support services. Connect with us today.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the Types of Managed Services?

Managed IT support, managed cloud services, managed network services, managed communications services, and managed IT security services are the five primary categories of managed services.

What is Managed Services in IT Industry?

Managed services are provided when a company contracts with a managed service provider (MSP) to handle some of its IT-related tasks. The functions that are outsourced span the gamut from simple tasks like maintaining IT equipment to hiring an entire IT workforce.

What is the Difference Between Outsourcing and Managed Services?

Managed services are a longer-term option in which a business contracts with an outside entity to provide all-inclusive IT assistance. When a business outsources, it implies it temporarily hires a person to solve a particular problem.

What Does Managed Services Include?

Managed IT solutions provide many services, including:

  • Remote and onsite management and support of hardware and infrastructure 24/7/365
  • Networking and infrastructure
  • Security and compliance
  • Cloud services
  • Communications support
  • Disaster recovery

Why Do We Need Managed Services?

Companies and organizations must expand their capabilities and resources to support IT as its use grows. Unfortunately, many firms might not have the time, money, or resources to successfully manage their changing networks and systems.

Therefore, businesses choose to work with a managed services provider (MSP) to prevent IT outages, data losses, and other problems affecting routine business operations rather of taking the chance of falling behind on crucial items like backups, updates, patches, or security.