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Managed services providers (MSPs) are third-party organizations capable of delivering a wide range of IT services, including cybersecurity, infrastructure management, cloud services, regulatory compliance, and more. Choosing to partner with MSPs can often be an advantage for organizations attempting to manage these same areas with in-house IT teams since MSPs offer specialized expertise, proven experience, and a business-first approach, often at a lower cost that building or maintaining internal IT resources.
MSPs are also capable of helping companies of all sizes and in various industries overcome many specific challenges. Let’s take a closer look at these challenges – and how MSPs deliver real-world benefits related to them.
Senior Vice President, Managed Services, DataBank.
Closing the talent gap
One of the first and most pressing issues is related to IT talent, and more specifically, attracting, managing, and retaining highly qualified technical employees. Today, the demand for skilled professionals in areas such as cybersecurity, cloud services, or infrastructure management often outpaces supply. This is especially true for those companies competing with leaders such as Amazon Web Services, Google, or so many AI start-ups. Faced with these more exciting opportunities, prospective employees are less inclined to join what they perceive as conventional in-house IT teams.
MSPs help address this issue by giving businesses access to a pool of highly skilled IT professionals, without the need to hire, train, or manage them. MSPs are better equipped to bring an entire team of technical experts with specialized skills and knowledge and more capable of working in complex IT ecosystems.
Not only does this approach save companies the cost of recruiting and training, but it also ensures that their IT systems are managed by seasoned professionals. MSPs tend to work with a large portfolio of clients, so it’s more likely that their employees have “seen it all,” or at least have more experience with a wider range of challenges and solutions that than internal IT employees.
Cybersecurity is another example where MSPs can deliver significant advantages. MSPs can specialize in modern, emerging cybersecurity products and services beyond baseline monitoring, firewalls, or other basic approaches many companies can only muster. They are often staffed with larger teams of experts who focus exclusively on the latest innovations in cybersecurity, including specific new tools, methodologies, or best practices. As a result, these teams tend to be more up to date on the latest threats and the best strategies to thwart them.
This isn’t a criticism of in-house IT staff. Yet those teams must often juggle many different IT responsibilities – including more mundane aspects such as maintenance, updates and patch management, network monitoring, and support – and simply can’t dedicate their full attention to cybersecurity. MSPs can dedicate full resources to threat monitoring and detection, behavioral analytics, identify security, and other innovations that many companies may not be able to afford, staff, or maintain on their own.
With so much experience amassed serving many different clients in many different industries, MSPs tend to have broad exposure to new cyber-threats, enabling them to quickly apply lessons learned and effective best practices to protect their customers. Such a proactive, specialized approach enhances any company’s security posture, reduces risk, and provides peace of mind – all without the burden of building a comparable in-house cybersecurity team.
Ensure business continuity with MSP-driven disaster recovery
Similar to cybersecurity, disaster recovery is a critical component to business continuity. Again, MSPs can play a pivotal role in planning the most effective recovery strategies, especially critical for companies in colocation or conventional data centers.
How do they do this? MSPs can provide valuable expertise in designing and implementing disaster recovery plans that factor advanced capabilities of data centers such as redundant power supplies, cooling systems, and high-speed connectivity. Their teams can monitor these systems on an ongoing basis and quickly execute various recovery protocols in the event of outages caused by natural disasters, hardware failures, or cyberattacks. Businesses benefit from minimal downtime, rapid data restoration, and compliance with industry regulations.
Driving growth with scalable IT solutions
Scalability is an important advantage in partnering with an MSP. In this case, MSPs can enable business growth by providing more flexible IT infrastructure and support tailored to the company’s evolving needs. As companies expand, MSPs can provide more resources, such as cloud services, storage, or bandwidth to meet the increased demand without requiring large upfront investments.
With MSPs handling IT scalability, businesses can focus on seizing new opportunities and driving revenue, all while maintaining operational agility and cost control. Beyond infrastructure, MSPs help optimize operations by implementing advanced technologies and automation, which helps free internal teams to focus on higher-value, more-strategic initiatives. This efficiency extends to sales and business growth, where more streamlined IT systems are more able to enhance customer experiences, improve productivity, and reduce downtime.
Simplify compliance with MSP guidance
Compliance with industry regulations is a complex yet essential requirement for many businesses, especially those handling sensitive data or operating in highly regulated industries. MSPs help organizations address these challenges by ensuring that their IT systems meet strict compliance standards.
MSPs can provide extensive experience implementing and maintaining security frameworks, conducting audits, and managing documentation required for regulatory compliance. This helps businesses avoid costly penalties and reduce the risk of non-compliance. Such a proactive approach helps make sure the systems are as compliant as possible as regulations evolve for further peace of mind.
MSPs: strategic partners for growth and innovation
Making the decision to partner with an MSP isn’t just about outsourcing IT. Instead, it’s about transforming elements in the IT ecosystem – and improving the overall business – with strategic guidance, scalability, and resilience. With MSPs as strategic partners, companies can confidently navigate today’s complex IT landscape and focus on driving growth and innovation.
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This article was produced as part of TechRadarPro’s Expert Insights channel where we feature the best and brightest minds in the technology industry today. The views expressed here are those of the author and are not necessarily those of TechRadarPro or Future plc. If you are interested in contributing find out more here: https://www.techradar.com/news/submit-your-story-to-techradar-pro
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