Why your business needs a certified MSP

A managed service provider (MSP) is an outsourced IT department that handles all your company's IT support needs and is available in an instant. That means your entire company's data is managed, monitored, and remediated 24/7/365.

At Sagiss, we divide our services into three main buckets:

• Managed security services.

• Managed cloud services.

• Managed IT services.

If you're already familiar with the concept of an MSP, you're likely considering whether an MSP is the right fit for your business.

Security doesn't just mean preventing risks, threats and attacks though. MSPs like Sagiss offer HIPAA compliance for clients like doctor's offices. HIPAA regulations are of great importance when it comes to managing data from the healthcare sector and many other types of businesses. They ensure privacy standards are met when personal information is used and accessed. HIPPA compliance and training ensures that MSPs know the correct way to handle your data.

Cloud expertise

There are three types of cloud structures:

• Public cloud — The most common type of cloud computing, the cloud sources are owned and operated by a third-party cloud service provider and delivered over the internet.

• Private cloud — A private cloud consists of cloud computing resources used exclusively by one business or organization.

• Hybrid cloud — A hybrid cloud is a type of cloud computing that combines on-premises infrastructure—or a private cloud—with a public cloud. Hybrid clouds allow data and apps to move between the two environments.

Note: Credit for the definitions of the cloud structures above are courtesy of Microsoft.

All three cloud structures share one basic principle: They deliver hosted services over the internet. They are all designed to enable businesses to create virtual machines and hosted applications instead of building and maintaining physical hardware.

While each cloud has its own perks, they do overlap in the benefits they provide:

• Elasticity: Businesses can scale their network up or down on demand.

• Data backup and disaster recovery: Cloud based data backup and disaster recovery solutions give businesses the power to have built in safeguards that save time and money, and can be managed by third parties.

• Automatic software updates: Security and software updates (software patches) can be pushed to the client whenever/wherever, all while freeing up the business to tend to more important things, like running the day-to-day operations.

• Increased collaboration: Access, edit, and share documents anytime, from anywhere with your team using cloud-based workflows and apps like Microsoft's 365 and SharePoint. These services also have real-time file updates so collaboration is seamless.

Return on investment

Every business owner wants to maximize efficiency, but sometimes efficiency means nothing when systems are slow, email doesn't flow, or networks have frequent outages.

Sagiss' managed services provide efficiency in ongoing, proactive maintenance. To use an ancient proverb, time is money. If a business can save time (and money) by not having to work through hundreds of support tickets or worry about IT worries, that's more bottom line to spend elsewhere.

Certified MSP vs. internal IT

Partnering with an MSP may look expensive when considering only the sticker price of the service. But partnering with the right certified MSP offers far greater value than the price tag would suggest. (Also, partnering with an MSP is far cheaper than the average cost of a data breach, now at $4.24 million!

And for many companies, MSPs are a better choice than an internal IT department.

To be clear, we are deliberate in comparing internal IT to a certified MSP.

There are few ways to guarantee quality, but your odds are much better when selecting a certified MSP as opposed to just picking an MSP at random.

When you're looking for a certified MSP, it helps to know which certifications to look for. The Cyber Verify from MSPAlliance is a great certification to seek. Less than 1% of the global MSP community has achieved a AAA Cyber Verify rating, so any managed service provider with this rating is in elite company.

The right certifications are third-party endorsements that an MSP maintains a certain level of standards.

Below are the main points to consider when weighing the value of a certified MSP over internal IT.

Points of failure and knowledge

Small companies may see no problem in relying on only one person to handle all the IT needs. On most days, this setup may work.

But running lean creates problems when the one-person IT department is sick or injured. The situation is devastating if the person quits without notice or without having the opportunity to pass his or her knowledge on to someone else.

Even the best intentioned solo IT person likely lacks the time to maintain network documentation in addition to keeping everything working properly.

But the right MSP is prepared to have someone else fill in if your dedicated tech is sick or quits.

Also, certain situations are too much for one person, such as a infection of emotet or some other type of threatware. The right managed service provider will be able to temporarily scale up to help out until your issues are resolved. Also, the ability to temporarily scale up is one reason co-managed IT is a great option for larger companies.

Control and admin rights

Whoever handles your IT also has access to your company's critical data, including but not limited to payroll information, HR documentation, and crucial contracts. An internal IT employee looking at these items presents conflicts.

Of course, there are obvious concerns with a third party having access to that same data.

That's why we'll repeat our point above about certifications: An MSP with the proper certifications (like the Cyber Verify from MSPAlliance) has been vouched to be trustworthy with your data and systems.

If an MSP has gone through the trouble of getting certifications, you know they place value in these credentials and will not keep around employees who can't be trusted with a client's assets.

Motivations

A competent MSP is motivated to innovate and improve processes. This focus encourages growth for both your company and the managed service provider itself.

Internal IT, on the other hand, has incentives to maintain the status quo. Changing processes or growing employees (users) brings more opportunity for systems to break.

Growth is often a negative for internal IT, because growth increases IT's responsibilities. The IT department may not be equipped to handle the challenges that growth brings, especially if your company is having trouble finding the funds to invest into the resources IT needs to keep up with your growing business.

MSPs are motivated to improve processes because they juggle multiple clients. Anything that helps an MSP save a little time and effort with one client can be applied to all clients, thereby increasing the value of the newly discovered efficiency.

Training and career path

If you have an "IT department," then IT is not your core business.

The unfortunate truth is that IT employees (and their development) are often not priority for most companies. When the development of IT employees is neglected, those employees stagnate and eventually become a liability because they are not able to keep up with the ever-changing demands of IT and security.

But IT is at the core of an MSP's business. If an MSP hopes to stay in business, it must invest in the development of its employees.

Costs of internal IT

In many cases, partnering with an MSP makes more financial sense than creating your own internal IT department. The cost of a fully-burdened (salary, benefits, PTO, etc.) IT employee may cost your business more than outsourcing your IT responsibilities to an MSP.

Creating your own IT department gets even more costly when you consider the costs acquiring and maintaining the software, hardware, and training your internal IT employees need to perform their duties.