Tech

Factors to Consider When Selecting a Managed IT Services Provider

Companies recognize the value of managed IT services today. However, finding the right provider to ensure their systems remain up and running and their data secure challenges many. Furthermore, they need a partner that will help them keep costs low while ensuring staff productivity. What factors should a business look for when choosing a provider of this type?

Help Desk

The help desk of the selected provider must offer a fast response time to offer the assistance a client needs. Internet downtime, even when it is of short duration, harms a company. Application errors and more can lead to the loss of customers, and the managed services provider must be able to resolve these issues promptly. Its ability to do so depends in part on the service agents it employs and the IT service management platform. Ask about training programs, HDI certification, and best practices. Finally, ensure the provider’s tools are compatible with your existing IT systems.

Partnerships

Ask the provider about their third-party partnerships. This includes partnerships with software, hardware, and cloud providers, as most managed IT service providers now maintain these partnerships. These partnerships lead to cost savings and efficiencies over time that clients of the provider will benefit from.

Support

Support comes in many forms. Learn whether the provider offers on-site technical support when needed and if the provider emphasizes cyber security. IT assets must remain secured at all times with the help of firewalls and other measures. The managed services provider must also employ strong password management on their end along with access control practices. If the provider lacks these safeguards, clients find their data is more at risk of exposure. Compliance penalties become of concern when the provider has not implemented these controls.

Regulatory frameworks continue to increase, which leads to businesses needing to put into place cyber security measures. A failure to do so could lead to fines and penalties that negatively affect the client’s bottom line. Ensure the provider is prepared to ensure compliance with industry and region regulations.

Monitoring

The managed IT services provider should monitor the network, data, and applications. This monitoring needs to continue around the clock, and the provider should have incident-response services in place. No company can afford gaps in their data security. Reputable providers take on the responsibility of handling the day-to-day operations of cloud infrastructure through Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) management.

Disaster Recovery

Companies must be prepared to respond in the event of a disaster. They need to back up their data and restore it if the worst does happen. Data hosting assets that are secure and redundant make this task much easier.

The selected provider needs secure data centers to store the data, and these centers must make use of standard security best practices. However, companies need to know which compliance frameworks are required by their industry and ensure the MSP follows these frameworks.

If one center fails, the data should automatically roll over to a different data center maintained by the provider. This helps with business continuity following a disaster and minimizes disruptions to normal operations.

Companies love managed IT services, as they make labour costs predictable while increasing employee productivity, regardless of where an employee is working. GSDSolutions goes above and beyond when providing these services by offering strategic IT meetings to ensure the client’s needs are being met. The company’s flexible approach to IT support allows clients to keep existing infrastructure. This approach differs from that used by many competitors. They require clients to do things their way by restricting their offerings to specific vendors. That’s not the case when a client works with GSDSolutions.