3 Reasons to Use an MSP for Remote Server Monitoring
Is your IT department overworked and outstretched?A Managed Services Provider (MSP) can provide cloud-based remote server monitoring to reduce workloads free up your IT resources. In today's business environment, keeping a network running smoothly is never easy, especially when one IT department is trying to manage every project. Here are three reasons to use a Managed Services Provider for remote server monitoring:
1) Cut costs
With options like Pay-As-You-Go, a cloud-based remote server monitoring can save you money while allowing you to scale your company up and down as much as you'd like. In addition, you won't need to hire expensive, highly specialized IT administrators to run your networks. A Managed Services Provider can do all this for you, making outrageous IT expenses a thing of the past.
2) Managed on-the-go
Get alerts and real-time updates about your network from your MSP. So now while you are on the road to a business meeting or conference, you can check on your network's activity without missing a beat. Stay in the loop no matter what by viewing your network at a glance from your mobile device. Just don't check your network and drive.
3) No-hassle setups
It only takes a few minutes for each workstation or server to be up and running with cloud-based server monitoring. Even better, there is no user downtime throughout the whole process, so your business can keep on running while everything is being setup. Worry-free installations can give you time to focus on your business while still having peace of mind that there won't be any software compatibility or vulnerability issues.
Every business is busy - creating unavoidable opportunities for mistakes. Many departments can get overlooked, including IT. The problem is, even if you don't quite realize it, your IT department is the very foundation of your entire business. All your company data, communication tools, and service platforms are reliant on a sturdy IT department.
IT departments can be tricky, with a lot of difficulty in hiring the right people and avoiding turnover. That's where a Managed Services Provider (MSP) comes in. Whether you completely outsource your IT department, or simply collaborate and combine your IT with an MSP, having managed services can completely transform your business, without a lot of work on your end.
Worry-free Reliability
A managed services provider will never leave you in times of need. With an outside IT department, there will always be an IT professional available to help manage your business needs. No need to worry about who will take over while your only IT guy is on a week-long cruise in Hawaii.
Growing Expertise
An MSP has IT professionals with incredible experience. Working with multiple clients and industries, you can be sure they have dealt with the latest technology and the best practices for each different business. Having an experienced professional working with your business can allow you to make knowledgeable decisions about your software and hardware, as well as other business practices and techniques.
Reduce Risk
If an individual employee has complete access to your IT, but ends up not working out, are you sure they won't create problems with your IT when they leave? An MSP allows you to have more than just one or a few individuals manning your company data, meaning you can protect your company no matter who stays or goes. Reduce the risk of company damage by using an outside IT department to protect your company.
Managed Solution is a full-service technology firm that empowers business by delivering, maintaining and forecasting the technologies they’ll need to stay competitive in their market place. Founded in 2002, the company quickly grew into a market leader and is recognized as one of the fastest growing IT Companies in Southern California.
We specialize in providing full managed services to businesses of every size, industry, and need.
Learn more about managed services provided by Managed Solution
In the latest reflection of cloud computing’s impact on the IT services market, outsourcing consultancy Information Services Group (ISG) for the first time expanded its quarterly market index to look specifically at the as-a-service segment of IT and business process services industry.
The as-a-service market, which includes Infrastructure- and Software-as-a-Service (IaaS and SaaS) activity, now represents more than one third of the combined global market for sourcing services — nearly double its share from early 2014, according to ISG. And the firm predicts accelerated growth in the cloud computing segment longer term—both in absolute terms and relative to traditional sourcing activity—as more and more work is automated and moved to the cloud.
CIO.com talked John Keppel, President EMEA and Asia for ISG, about the rapid rise of cloud offerings, the especially sharp increase in IaaS deals, cloud’s new role in digital transformation, and the future prospects for traditional IT outsourcing market
CIO.com: It was already clear that the uptake of as-a-service offerings was rising rapidly. Were you surprised at how big a chunk of the business services market they had consumed?
John Keppel, President EMEA and Asia, ISG:I don’t think ‘surprised’ is exactly the right word. We’ve known for some time now that the as-a-service sector has been eating into the market share of traditional service providers. How else to explain that contract counts are soaring, but contract values are remaining relatively stagnant in the traditional market? We knew anecdotally that a lot of client work was moving to the public cloud infrastructure and cloud software markets, and we also knew it was time to begin an empirical measurement of that growing shift. That’s why we decided to move beyond our initial examinations of this phenomenon and officially expand the coverage of our [index].
The drivers for cloud have changed noticeably over the past three years. Initially, cloud interest and adoption was concentrated primarily on cost reduction, in line with what we traditionally have seen as a driver for outsourcing. It was an evolutionary process up until about 18 months ago, when we began to see the real cloud revolution: using public cloud infrastructure and software to dramatically boost agility and grow the business. More clients are taking the savings from deals created a few years ago and re-investing them into their digital transformation initiatives; indeed, the public cloud usually serves as the foundation for many of these emerging services.
CIO.com: Your report looks at all business services. What was traditional and as-a-service IT activity like in the second quarter?
Keppel: Taking a look at the combined market—that is, traditional sourcing and as-a-service activity—we saw overall market value decline 2 percent to $7.9 billion in the second quarter. Compared to the first quarter of 2016, the market was down 9 percent, but still within the healthy range of around $8 billion it has averaged over the last five quarters.
Looking for a partner in your business' managed services needs? Call us at 800-790-1524 to learn about all that we offer!
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Why automation doubles IT outsourcing cost savings
New research analyzes automation’s impact on the IT outsourcing market, revealing double-digit productivity improvements and specific cost reductions between 14 percent and 28 percent.
Outsourcing consultancy and research firm Information Services Group (ISG) this week unveiled a new research report to quantify the cost savings and productivity gains from automating IT services.
The inaugural Automation Index shows improvements in productivity fueled by automation can more than double the cost savings typically derived from outsourcing IT. Total cost reduction ranged from 26 percent to 66 percent, depending on the service tower, with 14 to 28 percentage points of these savings directly attributable to automation, according to ISG. (The typical cost savings from labor arbitrage and process improvements alone range from 20 percent to 30 percent).
The report is based on cost and labor data from ISG’s database covering outsourcing agreements with an annual contract value of $10 million or more in which service automation is a core component. The index is one of the first to quantify the impact of automation on IT services. Automation-related technologies and platforms improve the productivity of employees by enabling them to do more with less and prevent problems before they arise, translating into lower costs for buyers by not only reducing the number of provider employees needed to perform the work but also by reducing the amount of work that needs to be performed.
The result, says Steve Hall, partner with ISG Digital Services, is a buyer’s market that’s putting tremendous pressure on services providers to deliver more and more savings to stay competitive. “As automation moves up the IT process value chain and into business processes, it will eliminate a significant amount of workthrough problem avoidance and self-healing, and with it, a significant amount of the headcount needed to deliver large-scale ITO services,” Hall said in a statement accompanying the report.
Where automation has the biggest impact
Automation is having the biggest impact on areas in which employees manage physical devices, such as network services. Most IT towers see an average 25 percent decrease in the number of resources required as a result of automation, but certain IT services experience a 50 percent headcount reduction, according to ISG. ISG found that network and voice costs are declining by 66 percent mostly due to the convergence of voice, video and data solutions built on highly standardized and virtualized capabilities, an environment ripe for leveraging automation. Service desk and end user support costs declined by 26 percent due to increased adoption of self help and remote support, the introduction of self-healing functionality, and significant automation of level one and two incidents.
Higher-order automation
Most of today’s automation is focused on computerizing repetitive tasks based on standard operating procedures but more complex automation is beginning to emerge that takes advantage of more advanced data mining and machine learning capabilities, says Stanton Jones, ISG director of research. That higher-order automation can make operational decisions with no human involvement.
In order to seize the benefits of increased automation and plummeting IT services costs, however, buyers will have to transform to more standardized technology stacks across the IT organization. “The more clients standardize things like operating system instances, application interfaces, ITIL processes, and network infrastructure, the easier it is to automate operations,” says Jones. “Standardization means less interfaces, less complexity and fewer decisions that need to be made, therefore, it becomes easier to automate.”
Buyers should also approach process automation tools with standardization in mind. “Service providers are driving increased productivity into their services by using data mining and machine learning to aggregate and correlate data and then improve the quality and timeliness of decision making for routine and repetitive tasks,” Jones says. “Clients can enable and execute these transformations by accepting standard processes and technologies providers bring to the table.”
Looking for a partner in your business' managed services needs? Call us at 800-790-1524 to learn about all that we offer!
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How to maximize ROI by outsourcing or blending with a managed services provider
Managing IT is no easy task. Challenges with IT professionals include a lot of turnover of IT employees, difficulty supporting the necessary training, and the expense of continued education to keep employees at the top of the industry. Whether you completely outsource IT or create a Blended IT workforce, a managed service provider can save you time, money, and a whole lot of frustration. To get the best out of your MSP, check out these tips:
Communicate your needs
Make sure to follow up with your managed services provider. They are there to give you exactly what you need, and also what you want. Communicate your goals and ideas so they can execute and implement them into your business. MSPs can be so much more than an outside IT department, and can often serve as your virtual CIO. Take advantage of this by combining all of your skills with theirs to take your business to the next level.
Re-evaluate often
Meet up with your MSP on a regular basis. Consistently reviewing the overall state of your IT operations is important in resolving - and preventing - any issues. Also checking up on your last period's operations efficiency, such as how many tickets went through, the average time of resolution, etc, can help you see exactly how your MSP is performing. Your MSP should work with you to improve the functionality of your network by keeping up with reports.
Let them help you
MSPs are capable of providing valuable strategic advice, including planning future IT projects and upgrades, evaluating your network, systems, and workstations, and coming up with solutions to current or potential future IT problems. Come up with a clear, step-by-step backup and disaster recovery plan. Work with your MSP to make sure they know what you will need, and you will know exactly what they can do for you, as well as what you will need to do in case of a disaster. Test the backup process with your MSP to make sure the plan will work for both of you.
Our Managed Services Portfolio includes offerings that cover a wide range of technology’s – choose from one of our packaged offerings or pick and choose the specific services and applications that fit your business needs. The first step will be a Network Assessment with one of our infrastructure experts that will provide you a network inventory analysis, identify any and all network issues and correlate data collected to provide you extensive insight into your network and its performance.
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5 steps to a solid disaster recovery plan
If your business was about to be destroyed by fire, and you had one minute to save one file, what would it be?
I’d guess not your pictures of Fluffy the cat. But maybe your payroll data or customer order list. A Disaster Recovery strategy defines which data you will save first and what will be available during planned or unplanned downtimes. It also plans for the data you can live without. Poor Fluffy.
Complexity vs. Costs
When you create your Disaster Recovery plan, you’ll need to weigh the trade-offs between complexity vs. costs. What data can you afford to be without? For how long? If you lost some data, would that destroy your business forever?
Five parts of a disaster recovery plan:
1. Recovery Point Objective (RPO). RPO defines how much data you are willing to lose. You can give higher priority to your most critical data, but be willing to lose less important data, such as pictures of Fluffy. Customer records might be top of your list, while marketing data might rank lower.
2. Recovery Time Objection (RTO). RTO weighs how long you are willing to be without your data. Depending on your business, you might decide that you can lose up to two hours of business operation. A shorter time will create higher costs, so you’ll need to consider your options carefully.
3. Personnel. Who should get their data back sooner? Who will support the plan? Do you have a backup person as well as backup technology? Is your plan dependent on human intervention, which may not be possible in all cases?
4. Regulatory constraints. Is your business subject to regulatory compliance? How will you make sure you are covered?
5. Critical data. Which data is critical to your business? What are the dependencies between different areas of the business?
Test and train
Often companies will create a plan, and then leave it on the shelf. They don’t fully test the plan, or consider multiple scenarios. When a disaster hits, whether it’s cybercrime or a hurricane or a rogue sprinkler system, the plan fails. The New York Stock Exchange had a plan before Hurricane Sandy, but they didn’t follow it when disaster hit. Instead, they closed the stock exchange for two days.
Your resources and business needs will change over time. This includes your location, personnel, and data. Testing your plan two to three times a year is one way to make sure the plan is up-to-date and still supports your current business goals.
Once you have a plan in place you’ll need to train all personnel. For a higher chance of success, ensure that senior management endorses the plan and promotes training for all employees.
Get help to create a plan
A cloud solution can help you find a good balance between cost and complexity. With Azure Site Recovery, you can easily create disaster recovery plans in the Microsoft Azure portal. The disaster recovery plans can be as simple or as advanced as your business requirements demand.
We’re here to help you with all stages of strategy, planning and implementation.
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Did you take a wrong turn on the road to disaster?
Can you find your way back if you take a wrong turn on the road to disaster? If disaster strikes, recovering from it could cost you thousands of dollars, plus lose your customer’s good faith.
Having a plan to save your business from bad things will help you get back on track.
Most businesses rely on technology to run their day-to-day processes. Think email, Word docs, customer information and ordering systems, inventory, accounting. Other companies are all about the tech. Think Uber, Airbnb, Constant Contact and many others.
So, if something disastrous happens, your business could grind to a halt, whether tech is your main business or ‘just’ how you get your work done every day. What could go wrong? Well, there's floods. Plus, electrical storms, hurricanes, fire and people who leave with your passwords or source code. Without a backup plan, your business could be in trouble.
What’s included in a plan?
Disaster plans can cover everything from how to get out of your store or office during a fire drill, to how to get back up and running if your servers are underwater.
Then, you can take it a step further. If you think about staying in business during a disaster, as well as recovery, you’ll be in the best shape you could be.
While it’s important to customize a plan for your business, every plan should include:
* Technology asset inventory that names mission critical processes and data
* Schedule for updating and testing any disaster recovery plans
* Clear understanding of the trade-offs between cost and complexity
Murphy’s Law
Murphy’s Law says that whatever can go wrong, will go wrong. That’s why it’s important to understand how your plan works. If you are a business decision maker, you might hand this over to your IT team. But it’s important to ask some questions to make sure you have full coverage for your business. A few questions:
* Does your plan include an inventory of mission critical business processes and data?
* When was the last time anyone reviewed your plan? Tested your plan?
* Is cyberattack preparedness included in your current plan?
* How much depends upon human intervention?
Evaluate Cloud Solutions
During a disaster, humans have other priorities than failing over their virtual machines. Automating your solution is key to ensuring success.
A cloud solution can help you recover quickly. And it’s less expensive than having your own datacenter to support and protect. It’s a practical solution for a business, whether it’s large or small. But it makes especially good financial sense for a smaller organization.
Not all cloud providers are equal, so you’ll need to do some research to compare. A few considerations:
* Do they offer a hybrid solution, so that you can keep some data on premise as well as in the cloud?
* Do they offer metered service so that you can save even more money by ‘turning off’ services when you don’t need them?
* Is the service easy to use, with good support for your team?
* Do they offer geo-redundancy?
* Are they compliant with your industry?
Is the cloud safe?
But wait a minute, you might say. I’ve read about companies, even big companies, losing data in the cloud during a disaster.
It’s true, there have been times when the cloud failed companies. When this happened, it was because the data was only stored in one location. And it was based in the same region as the company. That’s an obvious mistake.
With the Microsoft cloud, you can get ‘geo-redundancy.’ This means that your data is in more than one location. So, if your area is hit with a hurricane, along with floods and electrical storms, your data would be safe in a datacenter across the country.
That also means that your company data is available even during the storm.
Steps to take
1. We’d love to meet you and discuss your plans for keeping your business running. If you’re ready right now, call us or send an email. We’re happy to set up a free consultation to review your plan.
call: 858-429-3000
email: sales@managedsolution.com
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Blended is Best for Strategic Business Outcomes
According to a IDG Enterprise (IDGE) survey of 696 senior IT and business executives, more than half of respondents said IT must be business-savvy (61 percent), collaborative (53 percent), and innovative (50 percent). The only problem is that finding "hybrid" staff--those with that combination of tech skills and business savvy that CIOs covet--remains a problem.
Many IT executives are challenged to build IT departments that are more strategic, serviced-oriented and engaged with the business--but may not have a full staff of employees who have all the skillsets to make the transformation. By using a blended IT workforce, you can leverage the abilities and expertise of a much larger and technologically-diverse team to tackle issues that your full-time staff may not be equipped to handle.
Benefits of Blended IT
Reduce Overhead
24/7 Access to expert support
Round out Your Technical Strengths
Increased Situational Experience
Speed up projects
Reduce Waste
Increased Operational Flexibility
Decrease Overall IT spending
More and more companies are discovering the benefits of employing a blended IT workforce. This approach includes using a mix of full-time employees, independent contractors and temporary workers. A blended IT solution provides for the best possible financial and strategic business outcomes.
