The Synergy Post

 

 

 

What constitutes a great managed services service provider?

I have been meaning to write about IT managed services for some time now. The concept of IT managed services is almost as important as the internet itself or as important as a mechanic is to the motor industry.

Just as mechanics are put on this earth to insure the “well-being” of our cars: oil checks, shock checks and wheel alignment, the same can be said about managed services taking care of all IT infrastructure. Yes, IT infrastructure also needs taking care of. Servers can crash, machines can break and data can get lost or compromised. This is why the concept of managed services came about.

The concept of managing data, making sure data is secure and machines are in optimal working order insures businesses can carry on with their normal daily tasks and in the end bring in the money. High demand for work that needs to be done quickly and efficiently creates the issue that needs to guarantee that your data centres can’t be down for any given period. This is where a good and reliable service provider comes in to play.

With this said, what constitutes a great service provider?

The first thing that needs to be assessed is the redundancy of your data. What does data redundancy mean? Redundancy is the duplication or re-writing of data, this enables systems to continue operations when parts of a system fail or when data is lost.

Secondly, you need to look at the security of your servers. The security of your servers is a company’s first line of defence in protecting that company’s IT infrastructure. It is essential that security procedures are set in place to safe guard said infrastructure, even at the slightest indication of third party interference. 

This brings me to firewalls. Firewalls can be software or hardware (depending on how much you are willing to spend, software being the more affordable option) installed into servers to keep all data secure. Firewalls are designed to breach the gap between an internal network deemed secure with an external network normally seen not to be secure.    

There are a lot of service providers out there, and the credibility of them should be considered when shopping around for the perfect one. When looking for the ideal service provider it is wise to choose one that resonates with your company’s ideals and values. Success stories, case studies, press releases and blogs on them is essential in helping you choose the right service provider with the appropriate credentials. 

It’s all good and well to look for a service provider that you are comfortable with using, but employing technicians with the highest level of qualifications is almost as important as the service provider itself. These technicians manage the overall well-being of any organisation’s IT infrastructure. Maintenance duties such as maintaining of servers, security issues and network connectivity are only a few of the services these technicians should be able to handle.

SLA’s or service level agreements, as with any other business transaction should be drawn up with commencement of the work these technicians will be undertaking. These SLA’s normally set the benchmark of what needs to be done and what is expected. 

Not all of us speak “NERD”, so it is very important for me, and I think for a lot of people when I phone my service provider for assistance that they speak a language I can understand.