Managed IT services are still growing in popularity, with many organizations considering the model to be critical to their business success. There is no one reason why companies choose IT outsourcing, but one of the most significant driving factors is the improvement they see in their ROI. After all, in many cases, internal expertise is no longer effectively available for your IT environment due to the skills gap and resulting soaring salary budgets. The skills gap presents an undeniable concern when trying to keep up with ever-innovating technology, which can thwart your most valiant efforts to grow your business. Managed services providers (MSPs) can therefore play a critical role in supporting and promoting the goals of the business.
The pandemic changed business models surrounding the IT environment in profound ways, and as businesses returned to full scale, they sought to achieve company goals more efficiently. MSPs offered a distinct competitive advantage, catapulting clients past smaller competitors – a trend expected to continue throughout 2023. Because MSPs staff their operations with the right talent to propel your business forward, you don’t have to worry about finding and acquiring that talent yourself. Other trends in 2023 include:
- Specialization: It is not plausible for every MSP to excel in every domain. Therefore, today’s MSPs often consolidate their offerings and focus on certain industries. Therefore many MSPs opt to be specialists in specific areas or industries where they can provide top-tier service offerings.
- Data Storage and Backup: To adequately serve businesses of all sizes, MSPs often reassess their operations and seek more cost-effective options. These evaluations often confirm what you might expect – data center expenses represent the most significant costs, even when related to cloud services. Therefore, MSPs looking for more cost-effective, high-performance storage solutions may bring some of the data back on site, rather than sending it all to expensive cloud service providers. If cloud services are important to you, be sure to speak with your MSP to confirm their data storage plans and strategies.
- Data Recovery: Data backup is vital, but even more essential is rapid data recovery after a cyberattack or breach. Robust disaster recovery (business continuity) plans are necessary for both MSPs and their clients. Without an adequate recovery plan, searching through stored data for information can get complicated. An effective recovery plan will help clients to retrieve their data promptly and systematically in order to get the business running without catastrophic delay. In the same vein, Cyber Recovery as a Service (CRaaS) is expected to play a critical role in protecting the IT environment against ransomware attacks in the near future. CRaaS allows companies to retrieve data their data in minutes, as data is updated and stored every 90 seconds. Using these “snapshots,” organizations can return to specific points in time and recover entire file systems rapidly – even if the attacker overwrites the current data.
- Platform and Infrastructure-as-a-Service (PaaS/IaaS): These services can significantly benefit organizations in many ways, packaging software, hardware, servers, storage, networking elements, and database platforms to help businesses rapidly scale their business. Both PaaS and IaaS service structures allow companies to minimize expenses, reduce the time spent managing in-house infrastructure and services, and enhance customer service capabilities.
- Automation: Automation is vital to the process of reducing resource waste during repetitive tasks. Automation eliminates human error and reduces resolution times, improving overall productivity. Managed IT services providers with automation expertise can offer strategic support to departments company-wide, from HR and finance to marketing.
IT services and support are vital aspects of every business, and the potential role of MSPs has become just as essential. While 2023 is shaping up to have its challenges for every IT environment, MSPs can provide the support system and safety net companies require. Alliance IT is a managed service and outsourcing firm serving Sarasota area small businesses.
