Businesses today are often stretched thin when it comes to managing the IT and security of an organization with multiple locations, hybrid/remote workers, and a bevy of third-party applications or vendors. The challenges of securing each of these assets is exacerbated when struggling to retain a full time IT staff or find individuals with the expertise to address your businesses unique needs. This is why many businesses, especially small-medium sized ones, will choose to outsource their IT and cybersecurity to a managed service provider or MSP.
What is an MSP?
A managed service provider is an organization that offers IT services and solutions to other businesses on a contract basis. This typically will come in the form of 24x7 monitoring, incident response, update and patch management, IT help desks, and more. An MSP is meant to help your organization with the day-to-day IT problems while also taking a proactive approach in making sure your and protected against the most advanced threats. MSPs will also help develop incident response plans to ensure that if something does happen, your organization is up and running as soon as possible. MSPs will typically offer their services in either a fully or co-managed capacity depending on the size of the organizations existing IT staff.
5 Benefits of Partnering with an MSP
Cost Savings
While outsourcing your IT may not be cheap on paper, it is significantly less expensive than hiring and maintaining a fulltime IT staff. IT professionals are in high demands, meaning that hiring, paying, and retaining these individuals can be costly. Partnering with an MSP will give you access to these IT professionals at a more reasonable cost with access to expertise that can be hard to find. An MSP will also come to the table with enterprise level resources and applications that many SMBs will struggle to afford.
MSPs also offer predictable pricing on either a monthly or annual basis. This gives you greater insight into what you'll be spending throughout the year and what you'll be getting out of your contract. Signing with an MSP helps eliminate upfront costs by spacing out payments over the course of a year. Rather than committing to a service or application, you can gain access via an MSP at a fixed monthly cost.
Greater Productivity
Your IT infrastructure requires 24x7x365 attention to ensure that everything is running smoothly for you and your customers. This includes making sure your data is protected at all hours. Unfortunately, cyber criminals don't take holidays, and it is unrealistic to expect your IT staff to monitor your organization at all hours of the night while focusing on their other projects. An MSP reduces stress by shouldering the burden of monitoring and protecting your systems. Whether it be in a fully or co-managed capacity, your MSP should offer you the resources and manpower to keep your IT systems running while also maintaining security.
Scalability
The goal of every business is to grow. However, this can be difficult when you're constantly having to upgrade or purchase new equipment to keep up with the ever-evolving technology landscape. Hiring additional IT staff, training your current staff, or paying for new applications is expensive and time consuming. An MSP offers scalable packages that grows alongside your business. As your needs grow, your MSP can accommodate by providing additional resources or team members with the expertise required.
Greater Security
Every organization's sensitive data is valuable to cybercriminals whether they believe so or not. In many cases, businesses are required by law to implement certain policies and protocols to ensure private information isn't stolen or leaked. An MSP empowers businesses to protect their IT infrastructure by offerings enterprise level tools and applications at a fraction of the cost. Your MSP staff should be made up of experts that understand the risks that are associated with your industry and the unique protections it requires. Your MSP will handle the implementation of these controls, as well as the testing and management.
Expertise
It's been mentioned above, but it is important to underscore the benefit of having an expert IT team dedicated entirely to your business. By partnering with an MSP, your IT staff will include individuals with specialized expertise in cybersecurity and IT. These experts will be well versed in the latest technologies and understand what modern threats are most likely to impact your business. You'll no longer need to worry about finding the right individual for the job, providing the necessary training, or deal with the knowledge gap of your systems that results from employee turnover.
CorpInfoTech - a Trusted MSP
CorpInfoTech is a managed service provider located in Charlotte, NC that offers IT, cybersecurity, and compliance solutions to small-medium sized businesses. Through TAS for Commercial, we offer fully or co-managed IT services that our tailored to our client's unique needs. This includes 24x7 monitoring, an IT help desk, and vulnerability management so ensure that your security needs are addressed on time and with tangible results.
CorpInfoTech utilizes industry standard frameworks like the CIS Controls, to ensure that our clients are protected against the most common and advanced threats. Let us handle everything from firewall and vulnerability management to remediation!
