Managed IT services: do more with less

Today's intersection of technology and business processes is increasing the need for managed IT services. In fact, it's now looked at by company leaders as not just an instrumental asset, but a strategic business asset.

Because of this, businesses are increasingly lowering their risk and improving efficiency by using managed IT services to handle some of the load.

Many providers offer services a la carte. Most companies get help with one or several applications, such as email hosting, CRM applications, storage, network monitoring, or backup and recovery. These providers augment in-house IT in a collaborative effort.

Chances are, your business IT department (or person) will appreciate some support. Managed IT service takes a load off their plate by having enterprise-grade service monitoring desktops, servers and networks, not just during business hours, but 24/7.

Hosting is another big benefit. Managing an in-house email system is an enormous time sink, and employees probably complain that it's clunky. Letting a cloud provider host it not only frees up IT, it gives your staff a better product.

Modern cloud services also take much of the legwork out of keeping applications up to date by pushing automatic patches. This can go a long way toward keeping your business safe and remove a time-consuming and tedious process for IT.

With mobility now an integral element of our day-to-day work, the task of managing employees' mobile devices has become increasingly vital. Broad acceptance of the bring-your-own-device trend further complicates the challenge because it means that IT has to account for a menagerie of different devices, platforms, and consumer apps that can be a vector for security risks.

Setting up, managing, and deactivating email and network access on employees' devices can feel like a full time job. Without the proper oversight, it also puts the onus for secure and compliant management of corporate data in the hands of individual employees. Bad passwords, lost devices, and reckless browsing can easily erode the security measures of your IT environment.

Fortunately, the right mobile device management (MDM) service can reduce your IT burden, securing and managing all devices across your network. MDM can provide complete visibility into your organization's mobile resources and usage, helping to protect sensitive business and personal data, and making the provisioning and integration of devices quicker.