managed services
AzureTech Zone

How managed services can boost your business in 2021?

5 Mins read

Finally, we stepped into another new year!

The year 2020 brought many challenges and possibilities for businesses around the world, and we are hopeful that 2021 will be the year that will advance your team and take your business to the next level.

Looking back, one thing that grew rapidly in 2020 was the need for IT professionals. In fact, due to remote work, the need for IT professionals has become more necessary than ever, and even more complex.

Given the current situation, it would not be wrong to say that the need for IT professionals will remain in motion even this year.

This article is aimed to provide early insight to help you understand why you should consider managed services before finalizing your 2021 business plan to boost your business productivity. Let’s get started!

Why businesses need managed services?

All businesses, at different points in time, struggle with few major issues, like:

  • Maintaining acceptable performance of IT infrastructure systems
  • Managing the risk of overrunning costs – going over budget
  • Necessity to adopt new technologies to keep oneself competitive

In addition, there are other ongoing problems like redundant system entries, updation and patching of software and more that eat up the time of IT team in an organization. They are left with no time to innovate or focus on the clients to help the business grow. To catch up with the changing trends and overcome IT-related hassles, IT professionals need additional support.

And, this is how managed services walk in…

What are managed services?

managed services

Managed services are outsourcing of several non-IT and IT related processes like cloud, IT infrastructure and IT security to specialist third parties having expertise in that domain. With managed services, clients are able to obtain the same benefits of large IT infrastructure, without maintaining or purchasing that amount in-house. Managed services help organizations to distribute resources optimally and augment overall profitability. In addition, managed services help:

  • Improve operational efficiency
  • Improve customer service skills
  • Reduce operating expenditure
  • Drive innovation
  • Helps businesses focus on their core competencies.

According to a research by CompTIA, the reduction in IT expenditure can exceed 45 percent when using managed services. 

Managed service providers (MSPs) lend critical IT workforce and services to the organizations to help manage their networks, IT infrastructure and cover a multitude of other things. They monitor the entire operating system, resolve problems in your devices, and optimize the infrastructure and associated costs. They also help manage information security and data center operations.

Types of managed services

As per Gartner, Managed Services is structured around three main areas:

  • Delivery Platforms, including SaaS, Cloud or locally hosted
  • Technology Maintenance, including maintaining technology and delivering content
  • Security Operations, including outcome-based delivery

Depending upon the MSP, they may be expert in only one type of service or a variety of services. Following are the different types of managed services that are available:

  • Managed Cloud Infrastructure Services: Managed cloud service providers are in a better position to manage cloud services effectively as they are the experts in the cloud solutions, they know all about remote management and monitoring. Thus, as an organization, the greatest return will come from moving all or majority of your workloads to a managed cloud service provider.
  • Managed SaaS (Software as a Service): With this type of service, the managed service providers may offer a software platform, mainly subscription-based and centrally managed, that your company can access when your SLA is in effect. The MSP will assist you in installation, customization, and troubleshooting, to ensure that your service remains at an optimal level and that your employees focus solely on business needs.
  • Managed Security Services: Managed Services also provide various services for remote security infrastructure. It covers everything from antivirus, anti-malware, patch management, and other security services.
  • Managed Networks and Infrastructure Services: In this type of service, MSPs take responsibility for the entire network functions. This includes wireless network management, as well as cloud network infrastructure management – which is monitored remotely by your MSP. This type of service also provides backup and storage management options.
  • Managed Support Services: Managed services usually include providing IT support services around the clock. This is an important part of any service offering as staff members must have the ability to contact the remote support center at any time for guidance to fix the issues that they come across.
  • Managed Communication Services: Managed service providers sometimes include a communications service, so that companies can easily communicate internally as well as with their customers. Managed communications typically include video calling, Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), instant messaging technology, and email services.
managed services

Now, let’s understand how managed services evolved to fulfil the needs of an organization, and what lies in the future.

Managed services – the state today and the future

The IT industry is no stranger to change. Change is vital when you deal in technology, which by itself develops at a rapid pace and extends in new, and sometimes, unexpected directions. With the advent of the cloud and digital transformation with advanced technologies, IT environment of the organizations is becoming more complex day-by-day with scalable features, demanding continuous optimization of the business, and regular maintenance.

The rise of managed services is a result of this change – a change in the approach when it comes to how IT resources should be managed and consumed. As per a report by NTT Communications, the most outsourced technologies are security, cloud infrastructure, and IT systems’ management.

managed services

Demand for managed services has increased speedily in recent years. The global managed services market was $ 185.98 billion in 2019 and is expected to reach $ 356.24 billion by 2025 – according to a report by Statista.

A business, small or large, needs technology and automation to grow, streamline processes, and compete in the market. In the coming years, technological advancements like cloud computing, big data and mobility services will drive the growth ahead for managed services.

In addition, businesses will go for managed services to improve their profit margins and meet the needs of this dynamic business environment. MSPs help organizations chart their future growth strategy with expert advisory services and keeping the factors in mind, like market demands, customer requirements, available resources and more. Thus, MSPs are a requisite for enterprises who wish to grow.

How to choose the right managed service provider?

You should look for some qualities before partnering with a managed service provider:

  • Must have a defined service-level agreement to ensure compliance and clearly state the expectations from the start.
  • Must offer a flexible platform that can allow your workload (whether on-premises or on cloud) to connect, share data, and integrate with other critical applications.
  • Must have certified skills such as managing change, managing multiple network technologies, high availability, security, cloud technologies, virtualization, and more.
  • Must offer advanced services including sophisticated technologies like advanced analytics, prioritization, automated incident response, and remediation.
  • Must have experience working with multi-vendor, multi-cloud environments.
  • Must have global delivery capabilities.
  • Must have goals that can align with your future business model.
  • Must have a robust backup and disaster recovery strategy.
  • Must offer capabilities to manage latest technologies. Businesses trust ZNetLive for outsourcing their IT infrastructure and operations because we manage advanced services like Azure DevOps, Azure Media Services, and Azure Kubernetes.

    Azure DevOps: Get complete DevOps toolchain to balance your application development process.
    Azure Media Services (AMS): Use AMS to build, stream, and deliver premium video content.
    Azure Kubernetes: Get Managed Kubernetes to simplify the development and deployment processes.

If your MSP is capable of meeting these needs, then you can rest assured that your systems are with the right partner.

Wrapping up

I hope this blog helped you recognize the importance of managed services for your business. Now you know why and how the demand for managed services is rising and what you should expect in the future. Let me know your feedback in the comments section.

Read Next: Is multi-cloud infrastructure the right fit for me? Should I switch to it?

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About author
Priyanka Dadhich – a content writer, can usually be found reading books. She likes to write about technology, healthcare, travel and fashion. Priyanka loves coffee and listens to music in her free time. She spends her free time with her family.
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