Managed Cloud Services: What They Are and What Benefits They Offer

By adopting cloud computing, a company has the option of leveraging IT services through various cloud service delivery models: Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), Software as a Service (SaaS) etc. Likewise, you can choose from three different types of deployment models: private cloud, public cloud, and hybrid cloud. 

Unlike a public cloud, a private cloud requires companies to maintain, manage and update their data centers by deploying dedicated administrators.

That's why several studies suggest an increase in the use of managed services in the cloud. We will talk about them in this article. Keep reading to understand!

What are managed cloud services

The list of managed services in the cloud includes:

  • IT environment monitoring;
  • service management; 
  • Problems solution;
  • availability guarantee;
  • tuning;
  • security management;
  • database administration etc.

In practice, we are talking about outsourcing day-to-day IT management to cloud-based services and technical support to automate and improve business operations.

Internal IT departments often lack the skills necessary to effectively monitor and maintain a cloud environment. In these situations, the company hires a managed cloud service provider to take care of security, compute, storage, network operations, application stacks, vendors, and more.

What benefits do managed cloud services offer?

Check out, below, what are the most obvious advantages of hiring managed services in the cloud!

Cost reduction

Staffing a full-time IT department is expensive, and as the business grows, you'll need to hire more people—better-qualified and higher-paid. 

By outsourcing your managed cloud services, you control and reduce labor and network maintenance costs. 

Outsourcing services to a first-party managed cloud service provider can save thousands of dollars each year on the cost of an in-house IT department.

Flexibility and scalability

With the flexibility of managed cloud services, you decide how much you want to pay for IT services and you have a consistent monthly bill.

For example, an accounting firm has an increase in clients during the fiscal season and will need more support during the first quarter of the year and less during the second to fourth quarters. A privatized learning institute for working adults will need more support in the evenings when students are online after work.

With a fixed monthly service plan customized to suit your needs or budget, you optimize the amount you pay for IT support.

Future proof technology

Moving to a cloud environment is the first step to future-proofing your data center. Next, you'll need to make the latest technologies and services available to your business.

When hiring in-house IT staff, you will need to invest heavily in training and certifications when a new technology or necessary update is released. By contrast, by contracting cloud-managed services from a specialist provider, cloud technicians are already prepared to manage the latest technology.

Personalized and integrated service

Good managed cloud service providers are flexible. Some offer pay-for-service or pay-as-you-go plans, allowing your business to focus its resources on growth.

Other managed cloud service providers offer a converged solution, which generates even more cost savings. These converged solutions can include security protection, network monitoring, or setting up a new service area.

robust infrastructure

Good cloud providers offer a robust network infrastructure with 24/7 management. Depending on the service agreement, a managed service provider can monitor and verify the network for security, patch requirements and more.

Managed service providers can also integrate existing business practices and policies to manage their network to match their organizational objectives.

Centralized network services and applications

With a managed cloud network, the provider manages all applications and servers in a central data center.

This increased network availability also increases employee output. Your remote network users can access centralized data on the same network, including virtual services, and you can create storage and backup on a centralized network.

Coverage at all service levels

Good cloud service providers give you better control over service, performance, and maintenance levels. With a comprehensive service level agreement, your business gains continuity of service. 

The more you work with a managed cloud service provider, the more familiar they become with your network — reducing response times to issues, for example.

With managed cloud services, your data will be safe and secure. In the event of a disaster, your business and operations can continue with minimal downtime. How about your business already having managed services in the cloud? make contact with us and see how we can help you!

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