Small business owners often handle every aspect of their business to cut down on cost and maintain greater control over workflows. However, with the increasing complexities that come with running a business, having a managed IT services partner can be a wonderful thing. IT infrastructure is often the most crucial part of a business so allowing experts to handle it mitigates the threats of malware attacks and data loss.
But there’s a great misconception about transferring IT needs to an independent partner. People often think IT vendors are more costly to continue with and there’s a compromise in terms of security and flexibility.
In most cases, these are just misconceptions. In reality, you can grow your business faster and more efficiently with an IT partner by your side. The trick is to find the one that fits your bill.
Why do you need an IT partner?
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In 2021, there are plenty of reasons to outsource technology and infrastructure to an independent IT partner. But we’re going to list down three key points:
Data breaches and malware attacks
The post-pandemic business world has been hit by a wave of cybercrimes. The sudden shift to remote workspaces and rapid digitization has contributed to worldwide IT systems that are vulnerable to sophisticated cyberattacks.
Alarming numbers
According to a 2021 IBM study, the average data breach cost has risen from $3.86 million in 2020 to $4.24 million in 2021. The average cost is now the highest ever in history. The same study in 2020 highlighted that it takes 207 days to identify a data breach.
According to a Cisco report, the total number of DDoS attacks will reach an astonishing 15.4 million by 2023. The impact of cybercrime will reach $10.5 trillion annually by 2025. Ever since the pandemic, malware attacks, and data leaks have risen 300%.
By following the numbers, you can discover a trend — businesses that have an expert team and sizable budget for security are often in a better position to handle attacks.
Why is there a rise in cyberattacks?
The trend can be attributed to three major factors:
- Lack of funds or technology to maintain a state-of-the-art IT infrastructure
- Not prioritizing IT security and treating it as an afterthought
- The rapid speed at which ransomware and other cybercrimes have advanced in the last few months
Interestingly, all the factors can be addressed with the help of a managed IT services provider.
Business scalability
In this age, businesses that become too comfortable in their own space, tend to fold faster than expected. In order to survive, you have to keep growing and keep scaling further. But if you’re taking care of every little element of your business, you can’t focus on your core objectives.
Managed IT services providers (MSPs) help you in this regard by taking responsibility for your IT and security maintenance on a daily basis. This allows you to scale your business and explore new territories.
Cost-effectiveness
Cutting down operational costs is one of the prime objectives of any business. MSPs are an ideal solution if budget is your primary concern. They bring their own equipment and tools that quickly integrate with your existing IT stack, freeing you from the burden of carrying equipment and maintenance costs.
Contrary to in-house IT teams that you need to train, and maintain over the years, there are no major investments into an MSP contract.
What are the services offered by managed IT services providers?
The best thing about MSPs is that they can customize and tweak their service portfolio to cater to your demand. In general, here are five major services you can expect from an IT partner:
Proactive network management
Managed IT services providers have moved beyond the break/fix model and adopted a proactive model. Today you can’t just wait for something to break in order to fix it. You have to proactively monitor each system part and neutralize threats in real-time.
MSPs constantly keep an eye over your system and keep it safe and efficient 24/7. They also deploy real-time security patches, software upgrades, and firewall protection.
Upgraded security
By now you must have realized how MSPs can improve the security of your system. Depending on your use cases, they can also migrate your legacy IT to the cloud for better computation and roll out end-to-end security policies.
If your business is growing fast, MSPs can act as security consultants and help you chalk out protocols and other documents. Security policies become even more important if you’re operating in the EU. Depending on your location, IT experts can help with GDPR and other geo-policy compliance.
Backup, storage, and recovery systems
It’s crucial for businesses to use a robust backup and disaster recovery service. Real-time backups reduce the stress of data loss and help you work with different teams without worrying about fragmented data. A BDR policy comes in handy when companies plan to switch to a different cloud infrastructure or experience inconsistent data processing.
Running the entire backup, storage, and recovery system can be costly and stressful for your workflow. When you leave the job to an MSP, you not only get a seamless transition but also a more secure service.
Flexible finances
As we have already discussed early in the article, MSPs have a low barrier of entry. Businesses don’t need to carry the cost of huge equipment and they can pay for only the services they need.
This is a welcome change from the previous practices where an in-house team was financed regardless of the scope of work. By going with independent IT partners, you can customize your finances and tweak the level of services according to your needs.
Overall better quality of services
MSPs follow service level agreements (SLAs), ensuring you get the services outlined. The business of the IT partners is to support your business. Independent or third-party contractors often have a better pulse of the market trends, new technologies and they find new and innovative solutions to expedite your business.
If you haven’t yet considered partnering with a managed IT services provider, now might be a good time to do so. But remember to carefully vet each application, test their skills, and find whether they fit your company goals.
