Key Takeaways:
- Managed services reduce the need for in-house IT resources
- Outsourcing operations can lower overall costs
- Providers offer expertise in maintaining infrastructure
- It allows teams to focus on core business priorities
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By Robert Clayton, DataBank Senior Product Manager
Enterprises can reduce their IT management costs by turning to their colocation provider for managed services. If you rely on a colocation provider to host your IT infrastructure, you realize the immediate benefits. You no longer worry about where to set up your server and networking gear. You also don’t lose sleep over having sufficient power supply because your colocation provider will assure that.
However, you may be missing out on another key benefit if you manage the infrastructure using internal resources. Those resources require specialized expertise and 24×7 bandwidth to do their jobs well — and that can add significantly to your IT infrastructure costs.
Fortify Your Colocation, Interconnection, and Cloud Platforms
The way to overcome this challenge is by also turning to your colocation provider for managed services that allow you to scale and fortify your colocation, interconnection, and cloud platforms. Instead of a do-it-yourself IT infrastructure, you get a suite of services and expertise to take care of challenging and time-consuming tasks that burden your internal IT resources.
These services can include distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) mitigation, intrusion detection and prevention (IDS/IPS), file integrity monitoring (FIM), vulnerability scanning, and storage as a service (STaaS). Managed IT services can also include business continuity—where your workloads automatically fail over to another data center in the event of a regional disaster. Your colocation provider can also monitor your storage and scale resources for you (on-demand) for data-intensive applications.
Tapping into all these services through your colocation provider reduces your IT management costs in these key areas, tools, expertise, and service protection:
- Enterprise-grade security and performance management tools come at a fraction of the cost compared to deploying the same tools on your own. Colocation providers reduce software costs by spreading the expense across many customers and consolidating licenses, which allows them to negotiate better rates.
- You no longer must spend money on hiring and training internal resources to manage and monitor your servers and network devices and keep them running at peak performance. Your colocation provider also never takes a vacation or has a sick day—they are always there 24×7.
- Your colocation provider will have a Service Level Agreement (SLA) in place to protect your services and your budget.
In addition, the flat-rate pricing model for managed services provides you with predictable budgeting for your IT expenditures. You won’t have to worry about unexpected technology service incidents that often come with premium prices that can throw your budget out of whack.
The Benefits of Managed IT Services
On top of the cost savings, consider the many benefits of having your colocation partner provide managed IT services:
Cloud infrastructure management
Managed service teams in colocation data centers possess extensive experience in managing all aspects of your cloud infrastructure. They can provide guidance and support on migrating to the cloud, managing cloud storage solutions and interconnection options, and deploying cloud applications.
Security
Colocation providers deliver everything you need to make your IT environment safe and secure. This includes a multi-layered defense-in-depth approach with controls for physical security, network gear, the perimeter, user-access, and servers. Other key services span firewalls, intrusion detection and prevention systems, and regular vulnerability assessments.
Data backup and recovery
Colocation managed services ensure the continuous availability of your data and applications so your business can quickly resume operations in the event of a disruption. Managed services teams also perform regular backups of data and employ redundant storage systems.
Networking monitoring and management
Managed IT services within a colocation environment provide continuous monitoring and management of critical network infrastructure. Highly skilled network professionals use advanced monitoring tools to proactively detect and troubleshoot issues to ensure smooth network operations.
Software and hardware management
Turning to managed services teams in colocation data centers streamlines software and hardware management by handling software updates, ensuring license compliance, and performing regular maintenance of hardware devices.
Perhaps, even more importantly, managed service teams within data center colocation facilities serve as your trusted advisor. They provide valuable IT consulting and strategic planning services based on their deep understanding of technology trends and industry best practices. By aligning IT infrastructure with business goals and objectives, these teams help you make more informed decisions about technology adoption, system architecture, and digital transformation strategies.
Optimal Uptime and Agility with Reduced Risk
Three primary considerations are influencing the strategic shift toward managed services. The first is that every second of downtime translates into lost revenue, eroded customer trust, and diminished brand value. With around-the-clock monitoring, your managed service provider ensures optimal uptime and availability.
The second is greater agility. An agile IT infrastructure ensures you can swiftly pivot, scale, and transform, thus reducing the bottleneck of technology holding most customers back.
Third, partnering with a managed services provider who understands your business also minimizes transition challenges, miscommunications, and integration issues. This consolidation ensures smooth operations and significantly reduces your operational and cybersecurity risks.
To learn more about DataBank and our comprehensive suite of managed services, visit the managed services section of our website or www.databank.com today.
About the author: Robert Clayton has enjoyed a successful career in product management, including security, network, systems, storage, BaaS, DRaaS, managed and professional services.
See these related resources:
What Should You Expect When Considering Managed IT Services?
Don’t Go it Alone: Take Advantage of Managed IT Services from Your Colocation Provider