Managed It Services: Benefits, Definition and Model

Just about every modern business has ongoing IT tasks that need to be managed on a regular basis. Managed IT services allow businesses to delegate their IT operations to an expert third-party organization that specializes in handling these responsibilities. These third-party organizations, known as managed service providers (MSPs), are responsible for the entirety or portions of a business’ IT systems, as agreed upon in a Service Level Agreement (SLA). IT equipment is typically procured by the client, and depending on the SLA, MSPs may provide round-the-clock monitoring, issue resolution and reporting, and more. More and more organization are going for managed IT services model instead of outsourcing specific IT activities to reduce their IT risk and be future ready in terms of technological disruptions. An IT managed services brochure outlines the assistance offered by the service provider and helps understand what is managed IT services.

What is Managed IT Services?

Managed IT service is when a company outsources certain IT functions to a third-party provider, referred to as a Managed Service Provider or MSP. These outsourced functions may be as basic as keeping IT equipment and other services functional all the way up to full IT team outsourcing.

Benefits of Using Managed IT Services

Managed IT Services helps you operate your infrastructure more efficiently and securely. Whether customers are just getting started, migrating a data center, or building optimized solutions in the cloud, ongoing operational excellence is a critical component to success in the cloud. Managed IT Services can help augment your cloud operations skills and experience as a short term accelerator or long term solution; letting you focus on transforming your applications and business in the cloud. Managed IT Services provides you operational flexibility, enhances security and compliance, and will help you optimize capacity and take action on identified cost savings. Managed IT Services provides a consistent operating model for you to leverage detective guardrails, monitoring, security, and incident management best practices for both traditional and modernized workloads. 

The managed IT services model

There is a broad range of IT expertise to resolve issues efficiently. Managed IT Services can employ the latest processes and software to proactively monitor endpoints, keeping systems up-to-date and preventing issues before they arise. These services are also available 24/7/365, allowing end users to take nights and weekends off while the MSPs do the heavy lifting on tasks and processes done after hours.

Managed IT Services are typically offered at a flat recurring rate in tiered levels, offering a greater level of automation and a higher degree of management at higher levels based on the specified service level agreement. End users only pay for the services they require, and can increase or decrease their tier based on business needs and demand.

As with other necessary business functions like utilities, the end user pays for services provided offsite, such as remote monitoring and management, help desk solutions, backup and disaster recovery, and more. These services become essential operating expenses to maintain core functionality, rather than additional expenses applied during exceptional issue resolutions with break/fix models.

However, Managed IT Services do not necessarily make the enterprise IT professional obsolete; for the end user, an IT professional can act as an endpoint liaison that manages the relationship, provides feedback and analyzes the reports provided by the MSP. Because the majority of routine work is being completed by the MSP, the IT professional is capable of greater efficiency and has the flexibility to tackle larger, more complex projects they would otherwise not have the time or capacity to take on.

Most Common Types of Services

The number and type of services a company needs from a MSP usually depend on the company's internal IT capabilities. However, the most common services companies need support on are:

Data Backup

IT backup services protect and retain your data and allow you to recover data as small as single files or as large as entire databases.

Help Desk Solutions
Many companies who use managed IT services have little or no IT resources of their own. MSPs often offer help desk solutions as a way to give their customers access to an on-call IT specialist who can help them troubleshoot their issues either remotely or on-site.
IT Support Services
IT support services are really useful when you need a combination of IT support and guidance. The MSP is responsible for proactively managing and patching your devices while providing insight into how your system works and how it should work. 
Managed Network Security
This service helps free up your IT resources by outsourcing tasks like network intrusion detection and prevention, virus and spam eradication, content filtering and traffic analysis through a traditional or next generation firewall.
Storage
General data storage comes in several tiers. The provider generally works with the customer to find and use the type of storage that will give them the optimal efficiency and the lowest cost. 
Systems Management
This type of outsourced IT allows your MSP to monitor your servers, applications and network. They'll interpret the data and real-time metrics in order to proactively identify and solve issues before they cause downtime and impact your business.  
Consulting
A consulting relationship works well for companies that have some internal IT resources but need strategic guidance for new projects or future growth. The MSP can perform all the functions they would in the basic relationship as well as help the company with more strategic initiatives, like creating a plan to scale up.