What are Managed IT Support Services?

Managed IT services are a way to transfer general tasks to an expert, in order to reduce costs, improve service quality, or free up internal teams to perform tasks specific to your business. A company that provides these services is called a managed service provider (MSP). Managed IT services enable companies to outsource some or all of the management of technology to simplify IT operations and reduce costs. This can include security services such as monitoring, penetration testing, threat search, or incident response.

It can also include configuring, monitoring, and managing cloud services. Additionally, full and unlimited IT services and support can be provided at a predictable monthly rate. Internal managed IT services involve contracting with an organization's own IT service providers and paying their salary, benefits, and additional training, as well as the infrastructure they oversee. This approach offers efficiency, consolidated resources and customer satisfaction, coupled with fixed rates.

It also allows for the delivery of greater service offerings and the ability to attract more customers. MSP services are typically offered at a flat, recurring rate in tiers. This creates a higher level of automation and a higher degree of management at higher tiers based on the specified service level agreement. Managed security and service providers (MSSPs) are IT professionals (or IT organizations) offering managed IT services for a variety of small and medium-sized businesses. This includes remote monitoring and management of servers and networks, mobile device management, managed security, remote firewall management and security-as-a-service, and managed print services. Choosing managed services allows you to scale according to your needs, ensuring the ability to scale rapidly during a crisis.

Service providers can focus on infrastructure as a service (IaaS), providing managed public cloud services together with cloud providers such as Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google and Microsoft. The commodification of basic managed services has forced managed service providers to differentiate their offerings. The evolution of MSP began in the 1990s with the emergence of Application Service Providers (ASP) that helped pave the way for remote support for IT infrastructure.