The History of Managed Services
Business technology evolves in great strides year after year. The more business tech advances, the harder it is for businesses to keep up.
Companies managing their own small networks faced a lack of tools and expertise to help with problems. Networks were once simple systems, usually built and worked on by the owner or a local networking guru. When something went wrong, a technician would come and fix it.
Over time, networking specialists developed procedures to come on-site periodically to sweep the infrastructure for problems. Unfortunately, those service technicians could only see what was happening while on site. They had no way of monitoring continuously or anticipating future problems.
Along with this troubleshooting inefficiency, problems with network stability, continuity, and backups still happened. The only backup testing happened during on-site visits. This could result in days or more of missed backups and catastrophic data loss. Technicians would often spend more time accommodating user requests than of addressing the root causes and important needs of the business.
This inefficiency created a constant cycle of catch-up that wasn’t much better than break/fix. Whenever one problem was solved, another would pop up.
MANAGED SERVICES EMERGED FROM THE WORLD’S LARGEST ENTERPRISES
Large companies have massive network demands, and this paved the way for managed services in the early days of outsourced IT. Technology vendors began to add new and better solutions that allowed IT labor to be leveraged more effectively and problems to be detected before they caused downtime.
Early systems to take advantage of this technology were complicated and were geared only toward large networks, and too expensive for SMBs.
The practicality of these systems made it clear that businesses of all sizes — not just huge enterprises — could make use. This realization spurred a movement toward managed services.
The tools and techniques pioneered in the corporate IT space were adapted to fit smaller business models. Prices and availability improved in kind. Before long, nearly any business was able to leverage this technology.
Improved reporting and remote management meant issues could be fixed before becoming huge problems. MSPs and technicians were no longer fighting fires around the clock.
HAVE QUESTIONS? The team at mPowered IT will be glad to answer any questions you may have about how managed IT services can transform your business. Call us at 678-389-6200 or contact us here.