The Evolving Landscape of IT Managed Services

The business landscape today is vastly different from what it used to be a decade ago. Many CIOs and IT managers realize that the commercial backdrop is continually evolving and that a professional IT service provider can help mitigate risk, enhance agility and control costs. Most CIOs consider an IT partner as a value addition to their in-house team, since a professional IT managed service provider also helps reduce the complexity of an organisation's IT environment.

IT is no longer an overhead expense, it is a business transformation agent

Forces such as globalisation, consolidation and deregulation have driven organisations to realize that business transformation is a must to gain a competitive edge and to maximise shareholder value. Business leaders understand that IT is no longer an overhead expense. On the contrary, it is a business transformation agent that can drive high impact initiatives, which in turn create incredible business value.

IT budgets are scrutinised more than ever before

Today, CIOs and IT leaders understand that the business value of IT needs justification, and that they need to efficiently manage TCO (Total Cost of Ownership) and boost ROI (Return on Investment) on existing investments on technology.

Today, it is difficult to support a modern, global business with a traditional, in-house approach towards IT

Legacy IT infrastructure is simply not enough to face the fast-paced challenges posed by a modern business. Established managed service providers have the skills and experience that is required to serve global companies with world-class, innovative IT solutions that meet the unique business needs of the organisation. These managed service providers often take the responsibility of managing all third-party providers and create a total managed services solution by efficiently taking care of all client relationships.

Integration projects are no longer stand-alone or secluded

A decade ago, IT transformation projects were often secluded from management and operations. However, that is not the case today, as integration projects are no longer stand-alone, as companies understand that it is crucial to implement integration to realise the full value of their investment on technology.

Organisations rely on IT managed services providers to not only manage IT assets, personnel and processes, but also to mitigate risks

Until a couple of years back, organisations used to partner with managed service providers to exclusively manage technology assets, personnel and processes, but the scenario is different today as companies partner with IT service providers to mitigate risks that are associated with a change in the technology environment.

The IT landscape is continually evolving and IT managed service providers are considered as strategic tools and partners who can help boost business agility, conserve capital and control operational costs.

Is the Term Managed Services Over Used?

Managed Services - what does that mean? If I am a small business owner, what do managed computer services do for my business?

The trend in the small business computer space has been this push towards "managed services" over the past few years. Everybody wants to jump on the managed services bandwagon. Is this the magic pill that will save your small business practice? Trends are shifting toward software and hardware as services rather than products, but what does this mean to the owners of small businesses?

Managed Services in the small business computer space is really a service offering small business specialists are using to extend a level of service where they can better take care of small business technology needs. It offers a full-time computer help desk or IT department that allows the small business to focus on their business and leave the headaches associated with technology to their trusted solution provider.

The problem is that today's small business consultants and owners of small business computer shops are too focused on delivering this managed services offering and forgetting about the client's needs. I have attended conferences in the past three to four years where the same conversations are always occurring around how to compensate employees, how to bill, what services are offered and many more about how to the deliver the service. Why is this? Are we as computer consultants losing focus on what is important to our business?

I have always focused on what the client needs. However, is the market fully aware of what the client needs from a managed services approach to computer support? Do small businesses really want managed services? Everyone in the IT space is jumping on this bandwagon and believe they know what the client needs with managed services but have they forgotten to ask the client.

Managed services needs to be positioned to small business owners in such a manner that shows real benefit to a small business. The "managed services" terminology is a predictable expense for a small business. Their IT support can now become a consistent expense throughout the course of the year which lets a small business budget their IT support costs throughout the year.

Small Business today needs to be educated so that they understand what a managed services solution will do to benefit their business. The popular phrase that the your existing or prospective client will always ask, "what is in it for me" rings true in this technology dependent market. It is not about what is in it for the computer consulting firm-- always what is in it for the client. I am seeing that small business IT support firms are still too focused on what is in it for them, and losing focus on what is it for the client. The small business specialists that clearly understand how to meet the client's wants and needs, will always win.

The term "managed services" is over used. I have taken the approach that we are a Professional Services Organization and do not even the term, mention managed services to the end client. When you shift your mindset to offering a professional service and provide small business with a professional services offering, it doesn't matter if you bill hourly, monthly, annually-- it is about the services you offer and how you take care of your client.

The small business market is made up of four buying groups: stable, mass target, tipping and tipped. The tipped market is actively looking for a new solution to resolve their pain; these are the 3% of the market that are actively looking to replace their existing service offering. The tipping group can be tipped over to a new approach to help with their needs; these are the 7% of the small business market that can be persuaded to look into new offerings to better their business. The mass target is an approachable group that may not be aware they need a new solution. They are unaware that their IT systems are having challenges or specific areas are not even being looked after; 40% of your potential sales can come from this market. The stable market is not even looking; this is about 50% of today's small business market.

Small Business computer consultants need to concentrate on what is best for their clients. It is time to stop the over use of the term "managed services" and just take care of the client's needs. You can have the best managed services business, however, if you focus too much on your internal company needs and forget about the client needs, you will end up with a well planned managed services business, but no actual business.

What Is a Managed Service Provider?

A managed services provider is a company that manages services for another company. Basically, they are a company that takes care of outsourced services on a month-to-month basis, which is how they also receive their income. Many of these services are provided via the internet and cover such tasks as IT services, remote data backup, desktop and security monitoring, and technical assistance. It is also common for a managed services provider to also manage a company's web hosting and maintenance of their websites.

However, managed hosting is perhaps the most common function of many managed services provider. The provider bills the business they are providing the services for a fixed amount on a monthly basis. They provide IT services that would otherwise be provided in-house by existing or additional staff. They backup any data that is on the website and any data offered by customers visiting the website to benefit the business in case the website crashes. The customer data also allows the business to stay in touch with their customers. The managed services provider also continuously monitors the website in order to prevent security breaches. That way if there is a security breach, the managed services provider can rectify the issue right then and there. The managed services provider is also there to provide any technical assistance to the business or the customer if any issues come about with the web hosting.

It is obvious that a managed services provider can do a wide range of things for the business that the business would need an entire IT staff to do. Additional tasks that they perform include managed remote access, network monitoring, network management, scanning for vulnerabilities, firewall management, securing the e-mail and messaging system, tracking incidents, and server management. These are a few amongst the many tasks that would be required by the company that the company is outsourcing when hiring a managed services provider.

Benefits to the business

A managed services provider takes many tasks off of the hands of the business. In fact, the different payment models that managed services providers make available to the businesses that they serve is usually cheaper than having to hire one or two full-time employees to take care of these tasks or having existing employees add these tasks to their work loads. There may be times in which issues come about and those employees must focus on the managed hosting while putting their other job responsibilities on the backburner. However, some managed hosting operations are so large that it takes a number of employees to manage the system and everything that comes with it. This avoids having to pay higher salaries, additional salaries, training costs, and prevents staff members from being overworked.

Another benefit is that a managed services provider focuses on the task at hand because their job is to manage services for the business so that the business can focus on customer satisfaction, monitor costs better, save money by not having to manage their managed hosting themselves, protect vital information, and focus on making the applications satisfactory for the customer. They have no additional tasks other than focusing on the success of their client's managed hosting.

Overall benefits

So the overall benefits are quite obvious in terms of convenience and cost. What's really important is that the managed services provider is not consumed with other tasks because their job is to ensure the business they provide services for remains running smoothly in terms of their managed hosting. Successful managed hosting means the business can be more profitable and the consumer's view of their business will be one of trust and satisfaction.

What Is Cloud Computing? - 12 Facts Every Small to Medium Sized Business Owner Should Know

Background

In the last 3 years dramatic changes have been taking place in how business computing happens, especially in larger companies. Traditionally companies build their own IT infrastructure, buy expensive equipment and servers and install everything locally. They need to keep hardware running, software compliant while making sure that the information input and output actually meets company needs.

Things have changed. With the advent of Cloud Computing a company can have reliable and safe business computing delivered like a utility service. Today we no longer dig wells for water, or run our own generator for electricity. These services are available as a utility service. So too with IT, you can "buy" IT infrastructure as a service, pay for what you need, and focus on the business not the technology.

1.What is Cloud Computing?

Computing delivered over the internet like a utility service that can be accessed by any device that has internet connection. Computing horsepower is located and happens outside the company on external servers, so no computing hardware needs to be owned and operated by the company. In fact, a well-known market research company, Gartner, has estimated that by the end of 2012, 20% of all companies will own no IT assets! The move to the cloud is underway.

2.What would full Cloud Computing look like in my office?

Imagine your server room or server area gone, no more major capital expenditures on equipment and facilities. Imagine desktops that don't crash and hard drives that don't fail, but with the same user experience. Imagine a secure safe environment for your systems and data taken care of by experts not on your direct payroll for a flat monthly fee that covers everything at a lower cost than you currently pay. This is what Cloud Computing can look like NOW.

3.Why isn't everybody doing it?

Big companies have commonly been using Cloud Computing technology for a while now. Now smaller companies are increasingly changing to this way of running IT. Specialized managed IT companies are helping these smaller companies move their IT to the cloud and then run their IT efficiently - and this is accelerating the trend.

4.With Cloud Computing do you have to buy servers?

No. There is no cost burden of server ownership and therefore no expensive capital expenditure. You buy "server use" from a virtual server created for you in an external data center and pay for it by means of a simple monthly fee.

5.Company specific software

In a Cloud Computing setup, a company's current servers, with their existing enterprise software, is transitioned over to newly created virtual servers which are theirs only. The company accesses everything as before as normal, with the exception that it is now communicated over the internet not the company's local area network.

6.How Cloud Computing can get rid of PCs

With a full Cloud Computing implementation there are no servers or PCs at the business locations. Data is securely protected and continuously monitored on servers in a safe local physical environment and backed up behind a firewall. All PCs are changed to "Virtualized Desktops". Employees will have a Thin Client, mouse, keyboard and screen but nothing will change in their computing experience. They will be looking at their screens with all their familiar programs such as Office, Outlook, etc.. They will be able to save to "My Docs" and other drives as normal.

The cloud management company will take care of equipment, Microsoft software licensing, antivirus, Spam Filtering, Security, secure backup, server and virtual desktop monitoring, and all the other IT headaches that you would rather not worry about. It's easy to add desktops as you grow, or take them away just as easily if you need to downsize, paying for what you need.

7.Cloud Computing and the IT person /department

The typical IT person working in or for a company is spending up to 80% of their time keeping stuff up-and-running - PCs, hard drives, updates to office software, virus spam protection issues. It's "busy work" which does nothing to improve the company's performance. With a Cloud Computing solution a company does not have to spend time on these activities. More time can be spent on activities that support the business; or, if appropriate, staff can be cut or redeployed.

8.Can Cloud Computing save money?

It is easy to forget how much Information Technology is costing. As well as the "Hard Costs" like cost of hardware, infrastructure, software licenses, there are the more intangible "Soft Costs" such as IT staffing, troubleshooting, energy costs to run the servers and desktops and cool the server room and building. Typically you should be looking for fully costed savings in the area of 30-50% a year. With these levels of savings a business owner should, at the very least, be looking at Cloud Computing in their organization.

9.IT people often say Cloud Computing is less secure than in-house infrastructure. Is this true?

Typically because of the physical security and data security used, cloud security protection is almost always much better than most local company networks. Security over the internet is extremely high with firewalls that form barriers and which are monitored continually. Advanced backup and data recovery mean even a catastrophe can be quickly recovered from. And because all the company data is held on the company's remote servers and is not being held all over the place (such as on local hard drives, thumb drives etc.) the likelihood of software and data contamination and theft is reduced.

10. What happens if a cloud server goes down or there is a catastrophic loss of data?

This is a very important topic. Companies frequently think that their own server rooms are somehow immune from catastrophe and they are also very often woefully under-prepared for a disaster. Simply doing tape backups, putting tapes in fireproof boxes and other methods can give a false sense of security. The reality is if disaster strikes, you need the very latest backup data recovery technology so that you can be up and running in minutes or hours not days or weeks or never! Cloud computing solutions typically take incremental snapshots backed up to multiple locations physically elsewhere to ensure you will be up and running again very quickly.

11.Moving Offices if you are using Cloud Computing

Moving offices or facilities is trivial when a company has a Cloud Computing setup. Because the infrastructure is in place (separate from the old and new company facilities) data can be accessed from anywhere. In theory once the internet connection to the new location is up and running the whole company can be up and running and back to normal as fast as thin clients can be hooked up to the internet!

12.Mobile Computing

With Cloud Computing, your Virtual Desktop can be accessed anywhere and anytime. Other solutions require your office PC to be turned on, and your office Internet connection to be live. Most Internet connected devices, such as laptops, tablets, smart-phones, can be used to connect to your desktop. Imagine being able to run Excel, PowerPoint or any of your business specific software from an iPad or a smart-phone! And security remains at a high level for remote access since only keystroke and screen refresh is sent between the data center and your smart device, but no actual data.

In summary, the benefits of moving to the cloud are great. Cloud computing already is increasingly the way IT is being handled, and owners would therefore be wise to take a look at and embrace the technology now.

Security Challenges for Cloud Computing - How Prepared Are You?

Cloud computing is here, and has been embraced by many an organization. Cloud computing as defined by the US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is "a model for enabling convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources (e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications, and services) that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort or service provider interaction." [1]. Cloud computing is basically about outsourcing IT resources just like you would outsource utilities like Electricity or water off a shared public grid. The cloud services options include:

Software as a Service (SaaS): Whereby the consumer uses the cloud provider's applications running on a cloud infrastructure and the applications are accessible from various client devices through a thin client interface such as a web browser (e.g., web-based email).

Platform as a Service (PaaS):Here the consumer deploys their own applications on the provider's infrastructure. This option allows the customer to build business applications and bring them online quickly they include services like, Email Campaign management, Sales Force Automation, Employee management, Vendor management etc...

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS): The consumer has access to processing, storage, networks, and other fundamental computing resources where the consumer is able to deploy and run arbitrary software, which can include operating systems and applications. The consumer does not manage or control the underlying cloud infrastructure but has control over operating systems; storage, deployed applications, and possibly limited control of selected networking components (e.g., host firewalls).

Cloud computing has become popular because, Enterprises are constantly looking to cut costs by outsourcing storage, software (as a service) from third parties, allowing them to concentrate on their core business activities. With cloud computing, enterprises save on setting up their own IT infrastructure which would otherwise be costly in terms of initial investment on hardware and software, as well as continued maintenance and human resource costs.

According to the Gartner report on cloud security [2], Enterprises require new skill set and to handle the challenges of cloud security. Enterprises need to see to it that their cloud service provider has most of "the boxes ticked" and that they have their security concerns addressed. Cloud computing being a somewhat a new field of IT with no specific standards for security or data privacy, cloud security continues to present managers with several challenges. There is need for your provider to be able to address some of the issues that come up including the following:

Access control / user authentication: How is the access control managed by your cloud service provider? To be more specific, Do you have options for role based access to resources in the cloud,? How is the process of password management handled? How does that compare to your organization's Information security policy on access control?

Regulatory compliance: How do you reconcile the regulatory compliance issues regarding data in a totally different country or location? How about data logs, events and monitoring options for your data; does the provider allow for audit trails which could be a regulatory requirement for your organization?

Legal issues: Who is liable in case of a data breach? How is the legal framework in the country where your cloud provider is based, visa vi your own country? What contracts have you signed and what issues have you covered/discussed with the provider in case of legal disputes. How about local laws and jurisdiction where data is held? Do you know exactly where you data is stored? Are you aware of the conflicting regulations on data and privacy? Have you asked your provider all the right questions?

Data safety: Is your data safe in the cloud? How about the problems of Man-in-the-middle attacks and Trojans, for data moving to and from the cloud. What are the encryption options offered by the provider? Another important question to ask is; who is responsible for the encryption /decryption keys? [3]. Also you will find that cloud providers work with several other third parties, who might have access to your data. Have you had all these concerns addressed by your provider?

Data separation / segregation: Your provider could be hosting your data along with several other clients' (multi-tenancy).. Have you been given verifiable assurance that this data is segregated and separated from the data of the provider's other clients? According to the Gartner report, its a good practice to find out "what is done to segregate data at rest," [2]

Business continuity: What is the acceptable cloud service down time that you have agreed with your provider? Do these down times compare well with your organization acceptable down time policy? Are there are any penalties/ compensations for downtime, which could lead to business loss? What measures are in place by your provider to ensure business continuity and availability of your data / services that are hosted on their cloud infrastructure in case of disaster? Does your provider have options for data replication across multiple sites? How easy is restoring data in case a need arises?

Cloud services providers have increased their efforts in addressing some of the most pressing issues with cloud security. In response to cloud security challenges, an umbrella non-profit organization called the Cloud Security Alliance was formed, some of its members include: Microsoft, Google, Verizon, Intel, McAfee, Amazon, Dell, HP, among others, its mission is "To promote the use of best practices for providing security assurance within Cloud Computing, and provide education on the uses of Cloud Computing to help secure all other forms of computing" [4]

As more and more organizations move to the cloud for web-based applications, storage, and communications services for mission-critical processes, there is need to ensure that cloud security issues are addressed.

References

1. National Institute of Standards and Technology, N., Cloud Computing definition, I.T. Laboratory, Editor. 2009.
2. Gartner (2008) Assessing the Security Risks of Cloud Computing
3. Rittinghouse, J.W. and J.F. Ransome, Cloud Computing: Implementation, Management, and Security. 2009., New York: Auerbach Publications.
4. Alliance, C.S. Cloud Security Alliance. 2011; Available from: https://cloudsecurityalliance.org/.

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An article by Dougles Chan - Recruitment Guru. A Business Coach that specialized on coaching recruitment agencies & staffing agencies. Author of 8 books. 25 years in business coaching in recruitment and staffing agencies. Talks about Pareto Principle - 80 20 rule.  Training recruitment business owners in Singapore, USA, UK, and Australia. He specialized business, sales, marketing, digital marketing, 360 recruitment process, SEO, SEM, and social media recruiting. For 121 recruitment coaching, kindly check here.

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An article by Dougles Chan - Recruitment Guru. A Business Coach that specialized on coaching recruitment agencies & staffing agencies. Author of 8 books. 25 years in business coaching in recruitment and staffing agencies. Talks about Pareto Principle - 80 20 rule.  Training recruitment business owners in Singapore, USA, UK, and Australia. He specialized business, sales, marketing, digital marketing, 360 recruitment process, SEO, SEM, and social media recruiting. For 121 recruitment coaching, kindly check here.