Many businesses that transition applications and infrastructure to the cloud rapidly find themselves with a new set of challenges. Between the challenge of running the transition and keeping cloud-based systems up and running, the cloud isn’t always as easy as it’s purported to be. However, adding management services to a cloud installation can help solve those challenges in four key areas.
Infrastructure Updates
Given that many companies have years worth of legacy IT systems, the process of preparing them to run in and integrate with the cloud can be long and tedious. Managed service providers have teams of experts that can handle updating, patching, and fixing older systems so that they are not only ready for the transition to the cloud but also running with maximum efficiency and reliability independent of where they end up.
System Tracking
Whether a system is located at a corporate data center or in the cloud, monitoring its performance is imperative. Not only does monitoring provide increased uptime, but it can also be a necessity both for maintaining IT security and, in some industries, for meeting compliance obligations as well. Cloud managed service providers have expertise in building monitoring systems that balance all of these needs for greater efficiency at lower cost.
Data Protection and Backup
One of the cloud’s many strengths is in building backup systems. However, while the system can be easily provisioned, getting it to serve its intended purpose poses additional challenges. Backup systems still need to be configured and monitored to ensure that they are storing the correct data securely and at the right intervals. Handling backups is one of the many services that managed providers can offer.
Uptime and Availability
As applications and data move out of of the corporate setting and into the cloud, high availability architectures that ensure high levels of uptime become crucial for business continuity. By retaining a managed service provider (MSP), a company can define benchmarks and off-load the responsibility for meeting it to the MSP. As with other cloud services, this reduces cost, management complexity, and staff levels for the company while potentially improving continuity.
