If you own or operate a business, you’ve probably considered using a cloud service to help manage your data, information, and communications. While the savings and gained efficiencies can be tremendous boons for most businesses, the concepts can be a little daunting for managers who are accustomed to more traditional IT departments.
At first blush, turning management of your cloud storage to an outside party can seem a little risky, but the gains in security and functionality are a little too attractive to be ignored. The purpose of this article is to provide an overview of managed cloud services and to help familiarize company managers with their benefits.
What Does a Managed IT Company Do?
A managed IT company can serve some or all of the functions of an IT staff. When you hire a managed IT company, you’re outsourcing some of the work usually handled by an IT department. Modern managed IT providers achieve enormous economies of scale via cloud servers. With this type of system, instead of the information that you need to operate being stored on local drives and servers, it can be pulled from the cloud storage.
How the Cloud Works
One of the biggest disservices that the tech industry did to end-users was creating the term “cloud” as a self-explanatory metaphor for remote storage. Naturally, data isn’t stored in the air, and computers and devices aren’t drawing the information from a nebulous pool of floating bytes.
When users access information via the cloud, their device connects to the server where the information they’re seeking is stored. Because most devices connect to the internet via wireless routers, it gives the illusion that they are drawing information from the air. Cloud storage only allows authorized users access, which is where the term cloud comes from. The information is open and accessible, but only to those authorized to be in the cloud’s space.
How Does Having an IT Company Help Grow Your Business?
There are several advantages to cloud storage and managed IT services.
Cost
Cloud storage does not require physical servers in your building. That means that your company can not only avoid paying for servers, but you also don’t have to sacrifice space to house them. From the managed IT company’s perspective, because many clients are using the same physical servers — although, only your employees have access to your data — there is an economy of scale that the managed IT company can pass onto you, the client. Additionally, your company doesn’t have to pay the salaries of in-house IT employees.
Convenience
Managing and maintaining your own IT department requires constant upgrading, updating, and hiring. When you hire a managed IT service, most changes and upgrades are performed remotely via the cloud. You no longer have to purchase replacement components, buy additional storage, physically install phone lines, etc.
Scalability
The cloud services that modern IT solutions providers use are easily scalable. If your business is expanding or you have seasonal ebbs and flows, you don’t have to worry about upgrading your servers, equipment, etc. You can add and subtract services as you require them.
Synchronization
With synchronization, any device is a portal to your company. As long as you have the proper logins, you can work from all computers, tablets, or smartphones. You don’t have to transfer information with thumb drives or email files.
Security
Companies that manage their own IT frequently have security vulnerabilities. A professional managed IT service can utilize state-of-the-art cloud encryption to better secure your proprietary data. Because your data is stored across multiple servers, if one server goes down, your data is safe and accessible to your authorized users.
Types of Businesses That Can Benefit From IT Services
Any business that requires an IT department for storage, communications, security, and more can benefit from IT services. Managed IT services remove the need for building and maintaining internal IT services. For instance, if you require local data storage to keep files on all clients, you would need servers to store your data and terminals to access it. A managed IT service would maintain your files on their servers and provide your employees with points of access. The more IT services your business handles internally, the greater the financial outlay. By managing the information technology for multiple companies, managed IT services achieve an economy of scale. Their savings become your savings.
Frequently Asked Questions About Managed Cloud Services
We know that business owners and managers are motivated to save money, but they have natural concerns about turning their data storage over to an outside provider. These are some of the most common questions asked by Flagler Technologies clients. If you don’t see your question answered here, contact our office and speak to one of our managed cloud and IT services experts.
How Can a Managed IT Solutions Provider Save My Company Money?
Because an IT solutions company uses multiple servers to store data for many clients, they’re able to reduce the cost of data storage. Additionally, not all companies require one or more IT workers on their staff. A company would have to hire a full-time IT staff member, providers like Flagler Technologies can allocate staff to clients on an “as needed” basis. These economies reduce the overall cost of IT services, allowing the IT solutions provider to keep their prices lower.
How Is My Data Safer in the Cloud?
There are several ways that your data is safer using a managed cloud than on private servers. To begin with, data is stored across all servers. If one server crashes or is compromised, the others will retain your data. Additionally, your data is encrypted, so anyone attempting to access your managed cloud without the proper credentials won’t receive readable data.
Efficient and Cost-Effective Managed Cloud and IT Services
If you represent a business seeking an adaptable, affordable, safe, and productive way to manage your data, communications, and security, you owe it to your company to explore managed cloud services as an alternative to paying for an ever-expanding in-house IT department. Contact Flagler Technologies to schedule an initial consultation. Let’s talk about your business’ IT needs.