Hosting and Management Tools and Services to Improve Performance
Pressure to reduce IT budgets, unexpected system downtime, user support issues and security compliance are just some of the challenges today’s business leaders face. Your IT systems hold important, and most of all, private, corporate information that must be always safely but easily accessible. If business systems go down or are compromised, it can have devastating effects on your company.
Partnering with a cloud managed service team should be an essential part of your business’ cloud hosting strategy. A reputable service provider can help streamline your IT processes, maintain your applications and develop solutions that enable your business operations to thrive in today’s changing market.
Managing your IT services can be an enormous challenge on your internal resources. It can also be a financial strain. Thankfully, IT service providers offer the kind of management tools to deliver the business services you require.
Addressing Your Unique Needs
Do you know where your data is? Is the data center SOC 1 audited? Is there 24/7 staff monitoring your systems? Is each rack locked to prevent unauthorized access? Are the services that you receive customized to properly support your needs? Every business is a unique entity with a complex infrastructure to address operations and business goals. No two businesses have the same needs, and a service agreement should reflect that.
Here are the most common cloud hosting and managed services offered:
Infrastructure Management
IT Infrastructure Management deals with the oversight of key IT elements that are required to deliver business services. It is all the physical components that sustain the activities and services that are required by users to support business functions. These can include software applications, but the primary focus of IT Infrastructure Management is typically on physical components such as servers and networking hardware and the data center facility itself. Most businesses need several resourcing tools to configure and monitor the hardware, software and other various components and applications of the entire network including IBM Power Systems, Windows and Linux.
Systems Management
Technology systems are always running, even when you are not there to monitor them. Systems Management is the administration of IT systems in an enterprise network or data center. Services keep your operations running smoothly and covers a wide range of key activities and are typically responsible for overseeing the daily operations of the data center and managing the integration of new applications and third-party services into the organization’s cloud environment.
• 24/7/365 system monitoring and operations
• Operating system and applications management
• System security and administration
• Network and VPN management
• Performance tuning and monitoring
• Capacity planning
• PTF management
• Change management control
• Reports
• Escalation procedures
Storage Management
Data storage space is a limited and a valuable asset for IT and business organizations. Storage Management ensures data is available to users on demand with options designed to be scalable, configurable and adjustable to meet specific needs. Successful management is key to helping organizations use storage resources effectively, and that you store data securely in compliance with company policies and government regulations. Other data management services like data replication, mirroring, memory management and security are offered to help guard against data loss or theft. With effective management, storage systems perform well across geographic areas, time zones and users. It also safeguards data from outside threats, human error and system failures. An effective management strategy provides users with the right amount of storage capacity. Organizations can scale storage space up and down to accommodate for constantly changing needs and applications.
Security Management
Security Management covers areas such as fighting cyber threats and protecting against data breaches, as well as visibility, transparency and compliancy. A framework of quality controls manages security and risks systematically across your entire network. These security controls can follow general security standards or be more focused on your industry. Regulatory pressures from industry and governmental mandates have become an increasing focus of IT management. Look for a provider with a SOC 1-compliant data center, which is staffed by skilled operations professionals, meets the highest standards of quality and performance to ensure security of services. A trusted security advisor assists with providing continuous security monitoring and improvement.
Backup and Recovery
You never know when disaster will strike. It could be malicious ransomware, a natural catastrophe, hardware failure, intentional sabotage or human error. Revenue, customer satisfaction and employee operations are all dramatically affected. Scheduled data backups and IT disaster recovery protocols can minimize downtime. According to a leading resource, the average cost of a data breach in 2020 was $3.86 million. Even if data is recoverable, it can take months or years to recoup intellectual property and productivity losses.
• Develop Disaster Recovery Plan and test annually
• Maintain a data backup schedule
• Provide High Availability
• Access to 24/7 disaster response team
• Prevent potential IT disasters and downtime
• Provide peace of mind
Professional and comprehensive IT cloud hosting and managed service delivery allows employees and workgroups to do their jobs efficiently. It also helps businesses be proactive, spending less time fixing problems and more time planning and redirecting the focus to business-critical strategy and innovation.