Organizations in the business world with the latest technology and other tools are the ones who stay ahead in the market. However, if you can implement effective managed IT services while keeping up with the newest trends at any size, you are in a good place to compete.

What are managed IT services?

Managed IT services are a form of cyber security services provided by specialist IT firms who perform specific IT management functions on behalf of another company. These companies are called Managed Service Providers, or MSPs. These companies provide cyber security services for an organization, generally at a fraction of the cost of on-site staff. In addition, they offer a range of services such as 24/7 monitoring, on-demand support, security, and data backup. Other managed IT services provide hardware such as servers, desktops, networks, and other equipment.

Managed IT services are quickly growing as one of the more popular practices among cyber security services, particularly with many Fortune 500 companies. Organizations continuously depend on managed IT services to handle business processes and operations and manage cyber security services more efficiently.

There is an increased demand for managed IT services. This demand is driven by factors such as:

• Pressure to stay updated with the latest technological advancements
• The need to meet increasingly complex regulatory compliance
• Lack of technical expertise among the internal team
• Increase in the number of cyber-attacks globally
• Lack of technical knowledge or ability to hire the proper staff
• Lower costs with greater efficiency and skill

One of the top benefits of managed cyber security and IT services is the stable monthly costs while still delivering exceptional services. Managing an IT service on your own is a huge task. Between managing and upgrading equipment, hiring and training staff, deploying new systems, and security management, IT can be unpredictable on the budget, especially if there is ever a widespread attack. Managed IT services help stabilize these expenses to a fixed monthly cost.

Types of managed IT services

There are many types of outsourced managed IT services. The leading offerings are hosting, cloud computing, and managed cyber security services. As of 2021, hosting is the number one outsourced managed IT service.

There are several other managed IT services out there, including the following:

Cyber security services: A Primary role of managed service providers in protecting an organization from cyber attacks. Cyber security service providers also provide regular software updates, patches, and other routine maintenance and a host of additional cyber security managed services.

Backup and recovery: Managed IT services help guarantee integrity and safety with data protection. A proper cyber security services company will ensure that backups are set up well and that data recovery is manageable in an emergency.

Audits and compliance: Compliance can be a significant stressor on organizations, especially in the areas of medical and finance. Managed IT services tend to specialize in compliance issues and can dedicate resources to adapting to change rapidly. Staying in compliance with payment information, client data, documentation, and other sensitive data is critical to many industries.

System and network monitoring: Monitoring for threats is a huge task for any organization. There needs to be 24-hour vigilance to be safe. Organizations can focus on other essential aspects of their industry with managed cyber security services handling this for you.

System management and design: Managed IT services understand each organization's unique requirements and optimize your system to meet objectives. In addition, these companies monitor trends and progress to make sure you stay ahead of the competition.

Reporting and analytics: Managed IT service providers handle the analytics and reporting for you. In addition, an MSP can provide an unbiased assessment of an organization's digital activities.

Latest trends in managed IT services

Businesses face immense pressure thanks in large part to technology changes and regulatory market forces. Because of this, more companies are turning to managed IT services for their IT needs. The global market is expected to expand to a more than $300 billion a year industry in coming years.

With continuously evolving markets, cyber security service providers must be aware of constantly changing trends. Here is a list of other evolving trends in the managed IT services market:

Emerging technology: New advancements such as the Internet of Things (IoT) and blockchain have created more need for managed IT services. Organizations need to hire and train specialists with a complete and evolving skill set about these technologies.

The rise of cyber crime: Increasing cyber attacks have forced many companies to focus more and more on security. Cyber security services are effective at providing solutions to threats in real-time and often before they even occur.

Increasing mergers: With companies merging more frequently, merging IT becomes a lot more complicated. A managed IT service can seamlessly combine two systems into one fluid, outsourced solution.

Subscription model growth: With the increasing transition to subscription-based models, and the cloud to host them on, managed IT service providers can provide services and pricing models to fit specific needs, even as a subscription! Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS), and Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) technologies can be complicated to manage, dedicated IT services can help.

Cloud services: Speaking of subscription and IoT business models, organizations are increasingly reliant on cloud services to manage their network needs.

Of course, when looking at budgets, ways to save money while maintaining or improving processes are a plus. There are several ways a managed IT service can help reduce cost and even increase efficiency.

Inclusive rates

Instead of paying for help desk, antivirus, repairs, IT staff, applications and server space and more separately, many managed IT services can provide all of this and more. In addition, everything is at one rate, so there are no surprises.

Among the many services offered by managed IT service providers include:

• Patch and Update Management
• Proactive IT Health Reports
• Routine Maintenance
• Cyber security Services
• Compliance Management
• 24/7 Help Desk Service
• 24/7 Network Monitoring
• Dedicated Hardware Firewall
• Corporate Antivirus
• Server/Network, PC & Mac Support
• Backup & Disaster Recovery

Further, there are many standard benefits to outsourcing your managed IT services, such as reducing downtime. Hard drives crash, updates have problems, peripherals do not connect, and so on. Downtime costs companies tens of thousands per year. Downtime is one of many factors many businesses do not even consider with their IT decisions.

Managed IT services ensure your systems are always running smoothly through vigilant monitoring and maintenance. A good cyber security service will stop trouble before it ever occurs.

Additionally, there are still more benefits to using managed IT services that can benefit the entire team.

Employee downtime

Employees waste an average of 22 minutes every day struggling with computer problems. While it may not seem like a lot, this adds up to over two weeks per year per employee. With 25 employees, you are losing the equivalent of one full-time employee per year in inefficiency. Lack of an IT support desk increases this downtime.

Having an IT support desk employees can come to for their support needs to limit lost productivity. Managed IT services provide support 24/7. Whether an employee is working from home in the middle of the night or at the office in the middle of the day, support is here to save time getting them back to their much-needed tasks.

Equipment longevity

The longer you can go between replacing hardware, the better your ROI is for IT. It is also best to prolong new equipment purchases for the right upgrades, not just what is needed at the moment. With regular hardware maintenance, you get a lot more hours clocked with your equipment before needing replacement, saving your company money.

Lower risk of cyber attack

The average cyber attack costs a business an average of $200,000 per successful attack. While some larger companies may mitigate such an expense or possibly even have insurance to cover the loss, this can mean the end of a small or medium-sized business.

When businesses try to manage IT security on their own, there can be a lot of unmet needs and essential best practices overlooked, leaving the company vulnerable to attack, even with a significant IT investment. With managed cyber security services, this risk goes down considerably.

In addition to all of the benefits mentioned above, flat-rate plans include all of the basics you should expect, such as antivirus protection and firewalls. Also, other issues such as DNS filtering and fishing attacks are monitored and blocked.

Focus on what matters

When a company runs their own IT department, they have to worry about problems constantly. When you have to manage one more department, that is the valuable time taken from the core of your business.

Companies who try to manage their own IT often are constantly treading water to keep up with a constantly changing atmosphere.

Taking advantage of managed IT services ensures your IT needs are running efficiently without you having to worry about it constantly. With managed IT services, your needs are provided for your custom needs.

In short: Managed IT services saves you money

It is a simple answer for what decision to make with your IT services if you are looking to streamline and save money. Managed IT services will keep your business running at an optimal level, making sure your machines, software server, and other devices are running at peak proficiency, saving you time and money.

Thus, lowering employee downtime and frustration makes employees feel like you care about their success, which reduces turnover. Often people are surprised that with increased productivity comes improved employee satisfaction and retention.

Spend your and your employees time doing what you enjoy rather than dealing with frustrating IT issues. It is a nice feeling knowing your IT problems are being managed for you and that they are preventing threats online while you work the threats from your competition.

With managed IT services, you only have to worry about outdoing your competition without the added stress of cybercriminals. You control your business. Let SSI handle the rest of the online world.