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Managed services solutions ensure the performance and availability of your voice and data systems while reducing your overhead costs.
What's going on inside your network
right now? Most companies would have
a very difficult time answering that
question. Few small to midsize organizations
have the tools or talent to proactively monitor
the health of their networks. IT staff must react to network
faults and performance degradations, poring
over event logs to try to find issues and resolve them.
Trouble is, networks are increasingly complex,
and isolated events don’t always point to the root cause
of network problems. Network managers often find
themselves solving the same problems over and over —
problems that become more serious as the number of
users and importance of network availability increase.
As companies continue to focus on increasing
revenues while reducing costs, throwing money and
personnel at the problem is simply not feasible. Fortunately
there is a solution — outsourcing network management
to a managed services provider.
A Look Inside
Managed network services (MNS) adoption is on
the rise among large, global businesses. A survey by
high-tech market research firm In-Stat shows that most
globally focused firms currently perform network functions
in-house, but outsourcing will soon gain acceptance
due to increased network complexity and convergence.
“In two years, nearly 40 percent of survey
respondents in the areas of PBX/Phone System Management
and Telecom Expense Management indicate
that these functions will be out-tasked,” says In-Stat
analyst Jeff Jernigan. “Within two years, MNS adoption
rates will roughly double for security, storage and
hosting, with nearly one-third of respondents indicating
these functions will be out-tasked.”
Global firms are adopting MNS in order to
access state-of-the-art technology, and smaller organizations
can realize these same benefits. Myriad factors
impact network health and performance, and keeping
tabs on them all requires a significant investment in
network management and monitoring tools.
Managed services providers spread the cost of
building a 24x7 network operations center (NOC) —
which can run into the millions of dollars — across
numerous customers. Each customer can utilize the
Keeping Watch
Managed services solutions ensure the performance and availability
of your voice and data systems while reducing your overhead costs.
NOC resources at a very small fraction
of the cost of deploying them in-house.
New Insight
Of course, network management
and monitoring software is only part
of the investment. The skilled personnel
needed to operate these tools command
significant salaries. If the network
is to be monitored 24x7, the personnel
costs increase exponentially.
Generally, the salary expense of
around-the-clock monitoring is more
than small to midsize organizations
can justify — even though their mission-
critical requirements may demand
such service levels. Managed services
offerings are ideal for these organizations.
Managed services programs can
be set up in a variety of ways. Fully
outsourced programs go beyond network
monitoring and management to
include proactive maintenance, help
desk support and more.
Many managed services
providers also allow customers to
select different service levels for various
parts of the network — advanced
service levels can be allocated to a customer’s
mission-critical systems, while
non-critical systems are limited to basic
monitoring. Organizations that do not
want to completely outsource network
management may utilize in-house IT
staff for routine issues, relying on the
managed services provider for higher
level or after-hours support.
Improved Vision
While organizations typically
focus on operational savings when
evaluating MNS, it has the potential to
impact many cost metrics. IT capital
expenditures can be optimized through
sound recommendations from professionals
familiar with the organization’s
network and business needs. The productivity
gains that come with a highly
available, high-performance network
are another benefit of managed services.
Obviously, the ROI any organization
achieves is subject to the services
and technologies covered. Still, the ROI
of the managed services model tends to
be very real and usually very startling.
Organizations utilizing managed services
consistently enjoy impressive
returns on investment.
Managed services solutions do all
that while keeping a watchful eye on
the health and performance of missioncritical
systems — 24 hours a day,
seven days a week. By outsourcing
monitoring, management and support
of their networks to a managed services
provider, customers get reduced
operational costs, improved network
efficiency and peace of mind.
‹ Back to Managed Services |
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