Managed Services

IT Managed Services Overview

5 April, 2019

More and more organizations are relying on external partners to take over managing their IT services. Industry experts believe that the IT managed services market will hit $193 billion by the end of this year. What does that mean for tech professionals who are interested in offering IT managed services? What are the types of managed services that you can offer to these organizations?

As a managed services provider (MSP), your role is to proactively manage an organization’s IT system for optimal efficiency and productivity, as well as to prevent any downtime or cyberthreats. There a variety of types of services that an IT managed services provider can choose to offer to help them do this. This guide breaks down what types of IT managed services you might consider including in your role, and why more and more businesses are working with MSPs to save time, resources, and money.

What does IT managed services include?

If you choose to become an MSP you will serve as a crucial resource for businesses, supporting them in running their IT operations—either in part or in full, depending on the resources and expertise they have in house. As a third-party contractor, you will assume all or some of the role of an IT department, such as monitoring networks, optimizing infrastructure, or protecting the overall system from security threats. If the business does have in-house IT staff, your services may be used to supplement their capacity and allow them to focus on particular functions, or to provide specialist knowledge in areas where they are lacking—such as managed backup or cloud services.

IT professionals who choose to become MSPs typically work on a fixed-fee or retainer basis. The organization pays a set rate each month for the MSP to provide dedicated support. The terms of this are typically set out in a managed services contract and service-level agreement (SLA). These agreements dictate the specific services the provider can offer, the cost, and how the delivery of the services will be measured.

Different types of managed services

If you’re wondering about the different types of managed services you can offer as an MSP, here are some of the tasks and monitoring roles you may take on for an organization:

Network and system monitoring: Monitoring is a time-consuming task for a business. As an MSP, you can take on the role of monitoring an organization’s network performance, quality, and downtimes, remediating issues quickly when they arise—often before end users realize there is an issue. This can all be done remotely via a remote monitoring and management (RMM) platform. Over time, you can gather data that helps you improve the infrastructure, optimize performance, and reduce costs.
System design and upgrades:As an MSP, you will work with individual organizations to understand their unique requirements and ensuring that their IT systems fully support their business objectives. As part of this, you’ll need to keeping an eye on more general industry trends to make sure your customers remain on the cutting edge. As an MSP you may be required to set up cloud or other outsourced infrastructure, wireless and mobile networking, and virtualization solutions.
Security management: An MSP can protect an organization against the latest malware threats, provide software patching and maintenance, monitor application compatibility, and perform other key parts of risk protection and cybersecurity. MSPs also manage organizations’ email security and help safeguard other data from cybercrime.
Backup and disaster recovery: Ensuring the integrity and safety of a company’s data is another key role MSPs fulfill. Making sure that they have adequate backups and that data is able to be recovered in the event of a disaster is critical to this.
Communications, support, and SaaS: Some IT managed services companies can choose to offer communications support such as data, VOIP, or video as part of the provided and managed services package. Others will be able to support software applications that are hosted on their own servers and offered on a subscription basis. You may consider providing 24/7 support, either remotely or via a help desk.
Auditing and compliance: As an MSP, you can remove the compliance burden for your customers with thorough assessments. When it comes to network vulnerabilities, logging practices, cloud computing, and industry-specific policies, it’s important you are prepared to provide appropriate guidance and support around compliance.
Analytics and reporting: Finally, one thing every MSP should provide is regular reporting in the form of data analytics to help customers evaluate their network performance and other KPIs. You can prove your worth as an MSP by providing an unbiased snapshot of workflows and suggestions for improvement. Where can the business take advantage of automation or better software? What trends are causing lost productivity, and how is it impacting the bottom line?

Why offer managed services?

For IT professionals, offering managed services means you can be a valuable resource for businesses, providing expertise and continual support around either general IT needs or specific functions. At the same time, your arrangement generates recurring revenue, allowing your business to more easily plan and grow. Unlike the break/fix model, where you are just putting out fires, working as an MSP allows you to focus on creating efficiencies, building out a reliable network, and taking other proactive measures. For your customers, you will provide a level of expertise that more than justifies the monthly retainer fee.

If you’re considering becoming an MSP, or want to learn more about growing your business or knowledge base, SolarWinds can help. Utilize our resource center to discover other ways MSPs provide value to businesses of all sizes.