An Architect’s Thoughts on the Value of Managed Service Providers
In the ever-evolving digital landscape, it can become challenging to keep up with the requirements of a modern network architecture. As more businesses rely on seamless connectivity, they realize that network services play a vital role in the overall production of the workforce.
Everyone in the tech world understands that being proactive is vital. However, most struggle to keep the cycle going as day-to-day tasks and unexpected projects take precedence. A solid case can be made to outsource network-related tasks to a specialized, trusted service provider. By taking this approach, you can help address the challenges of security, scalability, and performance while also allowing business stakeholders to focus on their core objectives.
Security breaches and common vulnerabilities and exposures (CVEs) are daily occurrences at this point. They spare no vertical—neither hardware nor software can stop them. Vulnerabilities are a constant worry, making critical patch applications necessary to protect your company’s assets. But when your team has already overworked themselves, and network downtime must be kept to after-hours or weekends, what options do you have?
There is never enough time in the week to schedule an outage window, ensure proper notifications get sent, perform the work, and troubleshoot in the event something goes wrong. Thankfully, specialized managed service providers (MSPs) can make your never-ending to-do list manageable. MSPs can take responsibility for applying critical security patches from start to finish, allowing your team to focus on the tasks they need to.
From switches to firewalls to servers to applications, flexibility is a must. Business objectives can pivot rapidly, and the dreaded question “How fast can we do x?” can work its way down to the IT business unit. In most cases, when this question gets posed, it requires heavy lifting on the part of IT to achieve. Whether adding a building or launching a new software platform, the ability to scale and meet objectives can make or break the IT team.
Having the resources of a trusted partner, such as a network MSP, can assist in meeting these goals. Whether it be sourcing equipment in a pinch, leveraging niche engineering talent, or simply another set of ears to bounce ideas off, having a trusted partner who knows the ins and outs of your IT infrastructure is a plus.
While there are endless tools to gain insight into network analytics, most take time to set up and care and attention once they get deployed. There are numerous stories where tools were deployed, but there was no time for tuning or training to assist in root cause analysis. With so many tools at our disposal, it becomes impossible not to fall victim to alert fatigue, causing IT to miss even the most crucial notifications.
Thankfully, when working with an MSP, your service provider can respond to the alerts and remediate issues, doing so in a proactive manner to keep the business operational. They also have the engineering resources and experts to analyze the root cause and keep the network infrastructure running optimally. The range of talent is an added benefit, with Tier 4 support and beyond allowing complex issues to be easily resolved.
Undoubtedly, technology is at the forefront of business innovation, and the landscape is constantly changing. IT professionals are being called upon to support numerous technology stacks, some of which may be outside their area of expertise. Unfortunately, there are only so many hats a person can wear at one time.
Having the ability to lean on a trusted advisor, leverage expert resources, and have a new breadth of knowledge can mean the difference between sinking and swimming as a business. Proper architecture, security, and performance insights are vital to moving a company forward. Managed network services can augment your team and perform the heavy lifting, allowing the internal resources to focus on key business objectives.
Interested in learning more about MSPs? Check out our blog about the difference between help desk and managed services.
Contact us to explore how we can get you back to focusing on your business.
About the Contributor
Nick Griggs is a Solutions Architect at Secure Data Technologies. With a decade of experience in technology, ranging from in-ground fiber installation to wireless design and architecture. Throughout his career as both a client and service provider, he understands the challenges of designing and maintaining a network.
