What Is “Managed IT Services” for Enterprise?

When people hear “managed IT services,” they often mentally apply it to small and medium-sized businesses that cannot afford to run an adequately staffed IT department. What they don’t realize is that enterprises can also find great opportunities by connecting with a managed IT services provider.

As a business grows, so do its technological needs. Large enterprises are juggling hundreds or even thousands of user accounts, securing multiple facilities, managing many remote workers, maintaining numerous servers, performing data backup for all and needing to invest time and money on business continuity and disaster recovery plans for the entire enterprise.

If your enterprise hasn’t considered leveraging managed IT services, this might be something to look into and integrate into your overall business strategy.

What Is “Managed IT Services” for Enterprises?

In the simplest of definitions, a managed service provider is a third party that remotely manages or provides onsite IT services for an enterprise. Generally speaking, enterprises can pick and choose which specific services they need, making this approach highly scalable and flexible.

• Pricing is typically subscription-based pricing on a monthly or annual basis
• Access to highly customizable service plans
• MSP staff may work onsite, remote or a combination of both
• Enterprises will sign a service level agreement (SLA) with the MSP, detailing what services will be provided and what guarantees they should expect
• Access to 24/7 support for services

Due to the pricing structure, most enterprise-level decision-makers find the managed approach to be highly cost-effective, along with empowering their organizations to stay on the cutting edge of technology.

Why Managed IT Services Are Relevant to Enterprise-Level Businesses

Enterprises opt to work with a managed IT services provider for several reasons, but the primary factor is that the services are relevant in today’s increasingly complex technological landscape.

Consider how quickly technology is progressing and what needs you have now or will eventually need, but you may or may not be ready to implement. Even if you can handle things in-house, you’ll want to factor in what resources you’ll need to execute your tech strategies. Resources that might be more suited to dedicating to your core competencies instead of non-core IT tasks.

• Cloud migration and management
• Network management
• Infrastructure management
• Business and productivity applications
• Cybersecurity management

• • Business continuity and disaster recovery
  • Data backup and recovery
  • Monitoring and management
  • And much more

• IT help desk for your users

As various tech initiatives emerge or mature, they have a tendency to transform business plans, alter how companies operate and change how they provide services. Whether you want to migrate to the cloud, bolster your cybersecurity posture, upgrade your networks or essentially fill any specific IT roles or bring in a total overhaul of your IT, your provider can help you determine what’s best for your organization.

The experts at Red River can aid with an array of cloud services, cybersecurity services, infrastructure services and much more throughout your entire IT lifecycle.

What are the Benefits for Enterprises?

Decision-makers of enterprises typically weigh the benefits they can receive with their managed IT services plan and often find that these plans offer cost-efficiency, better efficiency and opportunities for competitive advantage, to name a few broad benefits. Here are some more specifics:

Reduced IT costs

Transitioning to a managed service structure eliminates a host of technology-related expenses. In fact, you can see a substantial reduction in your IT overhead.

Diminish hiring costs

Maintaining a robust IT team with the skills, knowledge and experience you need can be challenging. With a major staffing shortage still persisting in the IT sector, it can be difficult to continuously recruit, hire, onboard, train and replace turnover employees. It might even feel like an endless cycle.

Eliminate continuous technology spend

To maintain basic operations, gaining a competitive advantage aside, you’ll need to always be prepared for expenses associated with new equipment, upgrades, software updates, patches, maintenance and breakdowns. Outsourcing to an MSP can eliminate the majority of these costs, and you can reallocate your capital budget to other important needs.

Gain access to new technologies

Due to substantial buying power, MSPs have access to favorable price points, and their team of experts is consistently trained on new and emerging technologies. You can enjoy cutting-edge technologies embedded within your subscription plan – no need to spend extra to try something only to find it doesn’t exactly align with your business needs. When you work with an MSP, you can try out products without having to deplete your budget.

Predictable costs

One major drawback that accompanies technology is expense. You never know when something needs to be upgraded, breaks, crashes or otherwise becomes inefficient and has an adverse impact on your operations. This can quickly get expensive, and the huge downside is, you never know when those costs will happen, so you need to always be ready for them, tying up your budget.

When your enterprise partners with an MSP, it’ll enjoy predictable costs, unlike conventional in-house approaches. Most providers offer a fixed fee, billed either monthly or annually or per-device plans. Clients typically enjoy this predictability, which empowers them to have better financial planning, since the MSP will handle any proverbial curve balls that technology might throw at them.

Specialized expertise

One of the challenges enterprises often face is maintaining a full, up-to-date staff. Aside from the ongoing talent shortage and ongoing training circumstances, businesses must ensure their core staff remains up to date. Between juggling daily responsibilities and trying to keep up, oftentimes upskilling and training fall by the wayside.

Enterprises contracting with MSPs enjoy continuous access to the specialized expertise they need. No more worries about filling gaps or missing key tasks necessary to keep up in today’s complex technological landscape. You also can offset the problems associated with any legacy systems your company still utilizes (it can be hard to hire younger employees willing to learn obsolete tech) since an MSP’s teams are trained for technologies, both old and new.

Increased scalability

One of the most appealing aspects enterprises find with their MSP is adaptability. No longer do they need to worry about expensive changes in their IT landscape, they can simply ask their MSP to adjust its service levels in times of expansion or cutbacks. Additionally, MSPs typically offer several price points and plans, which allow enterprises to buy what they need and not waste funding on products they don’t use. In an age where most enterprises need agility, MSP easily fits the bill.

Better security

Cybersecurity threats are a realistic factor in today’s business environments. Enterprises cannot afford to ignore threats and, if steps aren’t taken to mitigate them, they can be held liable for violation of compliance and regulatory standards. Not to mention, the brand reputation backlash that accompanies a data breach or other lapse in security.

Enterprises choosing to contract their cybersecurity processes to an MSP can rest assured they have a strong defense against cybercriminals. MSPs invest a lot in their cybersecurity strategies. After all, they are tasked with the responsibility of maintaining and safeguarding their client’s technology, which makes it a priority. This means they must invest heavily in security measures and your company benefits.

The staff is fully trained, able and ready to mitigate, monitor and defend. MSPs stay up to date with the latest threats and utilize strong strategies to combat them.

24/7 service

MSPs are equipped to provide ongoing, continuous support, making certain your IT assets are running smoothly at all times. If your company runs into a minor or major issue off-hours, you can feel confident your partner will be on it. Unusual activity occurs on a Sunday? Your partner will quickly identify problems.

You don’t have to worry about making sure your IT department is staffed around-the-clock to monitor threats, cybersecurity events and address simple hiccups. You get 24/7 service as a part of your contract.

How to Choose a Managed IT Services Provider

You’ve decided to transition to a managed IT services provider technology solution. Great! You’re likely wondering where to start. With the many MSPs out there, it can be difficult to choose the right partner. To find the company that will meet your needs, understand your objectives and is equipped to provide the services you need, look for these attributes:

• Possesses real-world experience
• Has a long, demonstrated history of helping businesses
• Offers expert-level qualifications
• Has great reviews and references
• Possesses an ability to scale service as your business grows

As you explore your options, be sure to examine specifics. For example, if your primary concern is cybersecurity, you want to take a look at the company’s track record. While they may offer cybersecurity, their primary business might be cloud migration.

Make sure the company you select is prepared to deliver. Don’t be shy in asking specific questions relating to your concerns and needs.

Managed IT Services Can Integrate with Your Existing IT Infrastructure and Solve Problems

Whether you want to integrate with your legacy applications, install new ones or create a hybrid IT infrastructure, your MSP partner can work with you. Whatever your needs, a knowledgeable and experienced MSP can work directly with you to develop solutions and perform any migrations to get you from problem to solution.

Here are a few examples of problems Red River has solved in recent years.

• An international law firm serving many industries needed an upgrade to their data center network which had reached its end of life. Red River was able to integrate the holistic approach the client wanted and, instead of replacing it, they upgraded the law firm’s network with no disruption to services. The end result was new technical capabilities and a smoother operation.
• A company providing code enforcement software to various U.S. public agencies across the country needed to grow and expand to meet their clients’ compliance requirements. Red River helped the company successfully migrate from AWS’s Commercial Cloud to AWS GovCloud. From there, our managed services continued to supply ongoing support.
• A global consulting services company with over 80 offices and three data centers needed to update their network, data center and voice infrastructure. Their current provider was unable to handle their demand. Red River offered the client a customized staffing plan, 24/7/365 monitoring and management over the company’s network. As a result, the company was able to eliminate power outages and consistent disruptions to their operations.
• A real estate company serving military housing partners and other real estate investments encountered issues with their data storage and accessibility. With a multi-layer solution for data, it became too complex to adequately secure large amounts of data. Red River performed an assessment and developed a solution that involved migration to the AWS environment, a robust backup solution, an SD-WAN solution and a backup and recovery solution. Currently, the company is turning to Red River for 24/7 support and maintenance of their new environment. This new configuration saved hundreds of thousands of dollars in annual IT costs.

Red River has decades of experience, having worked with many commercial, federal, state, local and other enterprises to help them scale back IT expenditures while providing modern, feasible and efficient solutions.

MSPs are in Demand. Red River Can Help You Find the Right Solutions

Today’s IT landscape is far more complex than it was even just a few years ago. According to Mordor Research, the managed services market is projected to soar to $410.92 billion by 2029, a substantial increase from $280.96 billion in 2024.

It’s clear many enterprises (and other business sizes) are turning to managed IT services as a solution. From a strategic perspective, this makes perfect sense as MSPs are cost-efficient and are proactive solutions, along with helping to fill gaps within an enterprise’s organization.

Are you ready to transition to managed IT services? Red River has decades of experience and our professional experts will work with you to develop solutions to fulfill your IT needs. To schedule a consultation, contact us today.