Answers by the Experts: Managed Services
You may have heard of managed services, but do you know what that means on the cloud?
As more companies migrate their IT environments to the cloud, they turn to cloud managed services providers to help them get the most out of their environment. This month, we asked Director of Managed Services Patrick Hernandez to answer a few questions about managed services that we get a lot from customers.
First off, what is managed services in the cloud?
Managed services are either the complete or partial management and upkeep of a company’s environment and cloud resources.
What do managed services providers actually do?
Managed services providers take on all of the day-to-day maintenance tasks that are necessary to keep your environment up and running properly. The services they offer can include the management of your network, backup and recovery, security, and patching. Many providers will handle monitoring and can be on call if a crisis comes up too.
How do managed services in the cloud differ from traditional managed services?
The main difference between traditional and cloud managed services is how providers do maintenance on your environment. Traditional managed services providers have to do in-house maintenance, so they have to physically maintain and repair your on-premises servers and hardware. This type of management generally takes longer because they have to order new parts, wait for them to ship, install them and test them. Issues can only be resolved in person.
In contrast, cloud managed services providers can complete projects and maintenance faster because everything is virtualized. On the AWS cloud, AWS takes care of all of the physical maintenance. Your managed services provider is solely focused on your environment. They can build your infrastructure and resolve alerts or issues faster. They can resolve issues from anywhere.
What are the biggest benefits of working with a managed services provider?
Our customers have up to 24/7 access to a team of technology experts that can help you resolve issues quickly and generate new and innovative ways to reach your goals. A big part of our strategy with managed services customers is focusing on proactive monitoring so we stay ahead of issues. A proactive approach to managing your environment can play a huge role in determining whether or not your company survives something like a ransomware attack. If crises do come up, you have a team of experts that know your environment ready to go 24/7 to help you get back on track and minimize the effects.
How does a managed services provider help customers save money?
- Managed services providers can save companies money in three key ways:
- Analyzing the environment for ways to optimize cost and efficiency
- Removing time-consuming management tasks from the in-house team’s list of responsibilities, freeing up resources and capital for more productive use
What is the difference between Amazon Business Support and a managed services provider?
Amazon Business Support allows customers to open support tickets. From there, they will provide an explanation for how to remediate the issue, but it is up to the customer to actually perform remediation. A managed services provider takes this a step further by opening the support ticket with AWS and performing the remediation on your behalf.
How does JetSweep communicate about projects with the customer?
JetSweep’s SLA lays out a communication cadence. Customers can create support tickets via email. From there, we assign the ticket to a solution architect. We try to resolve the issue within an hour and communicate with the customer when the ticket can be closed. If it will take longer than an hour, we will complete timely updates for the customer until the issue is resolved and the ticket can be closed. We also hold regular meetings with customers so all parties are up to date on projects and upcoming goals.
How does JetSweep’s team interact with a customers’ IT department?
We encourage our customers to view our Solution Architects as an extension of your team. We will follow your team’s lead on procedures and policies to ensure a successful working relationship.
An experienced cloud managed services provider can help your team maximize efficiency, optimize cost, and simplify IT for your organization. They are there to make things easier on your team so you can concentrate internal resources on revenue-generating activities instead of general maintenance.
Contact sales@jetsweep.co for more information about our managed service agreements.