Organizations of all sizes, including ones with in-house tech people, use managed IT services to handle their needs. A major advantage of using the managed IT model is added capacity to be proactive. Read on to look at how managed IT solutions promote proactive choices and how your organization can benefit from the help.
Monitoring Networks and Devices
Even a fairly small group of systems can present monitoring challenges. You want to be proactive in pulling systems offline to avoid disconnections, data losses, and other potential catastrophes.
Fortunately, a managed IT services provider can keep tabs on all the devices by installing monitoring appliances and software. These systems allow them to detect when traffic, components, and data show deviations from normal operation. The IT services firm can compare systems to logged performance, flag issues, and notify you of problems. Likewise, they can trigger failovers in the network and servers to ensure continual operation while they remedy the situation.
Security Responses
Security is a front where a proactive attitude can pay major dividends. If you're monitoring devices and networks, then you're already doing much of the work necessary. Monitoring tools can turn to handle security issues, too. They can check for unusual data transmission patterns, unrecognized devices on the network, and unauthorized users accessing resources. By getting in front of these problems, you'll be able to secure your setup sooner.
Software updates represent another opportunity for you to proactively secure systems. Most managed IT solutions integrate with update channels. This allows you to grab and install updates immediately after release. Also, you'll have advance warnings if a product is entering its end-of-life cycle. You can then decide whether to move to a newer version or explore other options with time to spare.
Standards Implementation
The IT world is littered with standards for everything from data transmission to payment transactions. If your devices are not operating within these specifications, there will always be a risk something will fail. By implementing standards, you can ensure every connection and transaction will go forward optimally.
Likewise, you can assure customers, partners, and regulators that your organization uses appropriate standards. Suppose you need to make an API available to a customer so they can access specific data. Your IT team can help you identify and configure the appropriate standards. Similarly, they can produce a compliance manual so your customers will know how to connect to the API the right way.
