What is it – or should it be what are they? Managed IT services means having your IT managed professionally. That’s what it is.
As for what they are, the services – they’re everything you need professional help with. They include installing new software, ironing out glitches, upgrading software and hardware, protecting you against hacking, viruses and malware, setting you up with cloud storage so your system doesn’t get clogged, slow and unreliable. All these things and many more are the answer to the question “What are managed IT services?”
At What Stage Will You Need Managed IT Services?
Maybe you’ve reached that point already. If your IT is on your mind, it is probably because you have reservations about it. Maybe it’s getting cranky, and you don’t know why. You keep getting error messages about running low on space or whatever. One way or another, your IT is becoming a concern.
But is your IT use big enough to warrant setting up your own IT department in the form of one person to whom you will hand over the whole shebang? That’s another salary and a whole lot of trust.
What if you go for managed IT services instead? That means having an ally, a proper, professional IT company who are not actually on your books but can be relied on to help when you need it.
That means help with data backup and disaster recovery, which will in fact, become less of a worry because they will be making sure your systems are properly organised and maintained.
It means cybersecurity and endpoint security: protection against ransomware, cryptojacking and a host of other threats – and you really don’t want to find out what they mean through personal experience, so let the company providing your managed IT services explain what they are and hope you never hear of these things again.
There is phishing, a term that everyone knows about, and everyone experiences from time to time, to the point where you’re suspicious every time someone wants to know your name and email address.
Then there is privilege escalation, a relatively new term coined to describe the sort of malware that gives hackers access to higher security levels in your system.
How about zero-day attacks? They sound dramatic, and they can be. The zero bit indicates they came out of nowhere, so there are no exact precedents and no readymade solutions. They require expert help immediately, with your managed IT services provider really earning their corn on your behalf.
To Sum Up: What are Managed IT Services
This is a single term encompassing much more than one thing. It is the management of your IT systems as a whole, from using the best software for your particular requirements to keeping them up to date and keeping your business safe. It allows you to concentrate on doing what you do to the best of your ability. Having managed IT services takes care of the IT side of your operation so you can get on with your business, whatever that is.
