A Managed Services Provider takes charge of the IT management of companies, allowing them to concentrate on their core business.
In today’s technology-dominated business landscape, companies are often faced with complex challenges related to managing their IT infrastructure. To deal with them effectively they are increasingly turning to Managed Services Providers (MSPs), i.e. managed service providers.
Demand for managed services has grown exponentially in recent years: the global market was recently valued at nearly $200 billion and Statista predicts it will reach nearly $400 billion by 2025.
This is a growing trend that can also be largely attributed to small and medium-enterprises, which require greater access to innovative solutions in order to maintain their competitive advantage but contain their budget.
Here then, Managed Services Providers play a crucial role in facilitating the management of corporate IT, allowing them to concentrate on their core business, without having to face the burden of internal IT management.
Thanks to their specialized skills, advanced security services and ongoing support, Managed Services Providers are strategic partners essential to the success of companies in the digital age.
But who exactly are these providers, what role do they play, what services do they provide and what advantages do they bring to companies?
Who is a Managed Services Provider and what does it do
A Managed Services Provider offers managed IT services to other companies. These services cover multiple areas, including managing, monitoring, maintaining, and optimizing an organization’s IT infrastructure and systems.
The MSP, therefore, acts as a strategic partner that works with the business to ensure that its IT assets are efficiently and reliably maintained 24x7.
A Managed Services Provider offers companies high flexibility and scalability to respond to changing needs: organizations can increase or reduce IT resources based on demand, without having to deal with the burdens of internal management.
This is particularly advantageous in situations of rapid growth or temporary load peaks.
The importance of a Managed Services Provider also lies in its crucial role in simplifying and improving corporate IT management. Among the key functions carried out are monitoring and management.
An MSP monitors the company’s IT infrastructure constantly, promptly detecting any anomalies or problems. This monitoring helps to prevent outages and keep systems functioning optimally.
The MSP also takes care of the regular maintenance of the IT infrastructure, including updates of the software and hardware. This ensures that the company uses cutting-edge technologies without having to personally face the onerous task of constantly keeping IT resources updated.
Cyber security is also a key priority for a Managed Services Provider, which implements advanced solutions to protect the company from cyber threats, intrusions, and data breaches.
This includes device management, implementing threat detection tools, and planning disaster recovery plans.
A Managed Services Provider has staff that are highly specialized and experienced in the field of IT. This means that organizations can benefit from cutting-edge skills without having to invest in expensive in-house training.
This is why an MSP knows how to offer real-time technical support, solving IT problems that may arise during daily operations. This support helps minimize downtime and maintain operational efficiency.
A Managed Services Provider, essentially, offers the possibility to quickly scale the IT infrastructure according to business needs. This is especially beneficial during times of growth or change in the organization.
Here then, the outsourcing of managed services can generate significant cost savings for organizations compared to internal management: the company avoids the costs linked to the hiring and training of staff, as well as those associated with routine and low-value-added tasks such as maintenance and updating of IT resources.
The advantages that a Managed Services Provider offers
As a company grows so do its technological and IT needs. Therefore, the team that the company assigns to IT management may indeed be able to manage a good part of the workload, but it often happens that it is unable to keep up with the growth of needs and, therefore, does not size adequately.
One of the benefits that managed services offer is precisely that of allowing employees to concentrate on their tasks and to fill technical gaps based on the needs that arise in the company in relation to the increase or, in any case, the change in business activities.
A qualified Managed Services Provider will in fact be able to offer a flexible service model that will be determined based on the needs of the organizations, a service that can range from the management of a few operations to that of the entire IT department.
It seems obvious that from the point of view of costs the possibility of having technical skills available in a scalable manner, based on needs and not having to acquire them a priori, is crucial for all companies, especially those that have had to review their spending budgets downwards.
Therefore, the choice of a Managed Services Provider, capable of integrating cutting-edge technological platforms, such as the cloud, will give further value to outsourced activities, opening up new business scenarios.
Original article published on Money.it Italy 2023-09-26 08:08:00. Original title: Managed Services Provider: chi è, cosa fa, che vantaggi dà alle aziende
