Keeping your company’s information technology infrastructure up and running requires a lot of work. Many things need to be done. That can include regular equipment maintenance, setting up new systems, maintaining physical security, and more.
When you have to do everything yourself, it can take a huge amount of time away from your primary responsibilities as a business owner.
If you don’t want to go down this route, then managed IT services might be the right option for you.
Read on to learn more about how managed IT services could help you.
The Benefits of Managed IT Services
Fortune Business Insights published statistics that the global managed IT services market has been projected to grow from $243.33 billion in 2021 to $557.10 billion in 2028 at a CAGR of 12.6%.
That’s because managed IT support can provide so much more for businesses than a small, scrappy in-house team can offer.
Managed IT support is great for small to medium businesses and start-ups because it provides high-quality IT services without them having to spend money and time hiring an in-house team.
A managed IT services company can take care of everything from hardware maintenance to security updates and even help you negotiate with service providers. They are also a great option for entrepreneurs of any size because they take care of the IT problems that get in the way of running a business. With managed IT support you can focus on growing your business instead of fretting about your IT infrastructure.
You can also sleep soundly, knowing that your data security is taken care of.
How to Choose a Managed IT Provider
Hiring a managed IT provider is a smart way to take advantage of technology while also saving money. All you have to do is pay the monthly fee and focus on running your business. When looking for a managed IT provider, it’s important to find one that aligns with the kind of business that you run. Some IT providers are better suited for certain industries than others.
Here are some important questions to ask a potential managed IT solutions provider before you hire them:
- What are the technology solutions they offer?
- How long have they been in business?
- Do they have customer testimonials?
- Do they have a business continuity plan in place and cover national holidays?
- How long will it take them to complete your project(s)?
- What’s their customer service like?
- Do they have experience with your specific industry?
- How do they measure success?
- How are any issues resolved?
- Do they have experience with the types of technology you use?
- Do you need to sign a long-term contract?
- Are there any cancellation fees if you decide to stop working with them?
- How do they stay up-to-date and protect their clients from cyber-attacks?
- How long does it take to get any major software updates applied?
- What is their SLA (Service Level Agreement) on service and support?
Our experience has shown that people who ask the right questions before hiring an IT firm are not only more likely to find the right firm for their company, but they will also find the right firm for their budget.
Properly vetting a company will prevent you from paying too much, which is one reason why it is so important to ask the right questions before hiring an IT service provider.
Here at Truit.io, we’ve had a lot of clients come to us because they were dissatisfied with their former managed IT support company. In most cases, they had neglected to ask the right questions and thoroughly vet their supplier before they signed contracts with them.
Don’t do the same thing. Choose a managed IT service provider you can trust from day one! Choose someone like us.
What You Need to Know About Managed IT Services
If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you know that here at Truit.io we’re all about helping small businesses run more efficiently. That’s why we provide a lot of information on how to avoid costly mistakes and how to keep your business safe and secure.
The one thing we don’t talk about a lot is how to manage your IT services, but this blog will change that. Keep reading for our top areas of focus for businesses to consider in 2022.
From workstations, security, and storage to infrastructure configuration we’ll talk about everything you might need to set up, from day one to have your IT services in perfect working order.
How Truit Managed IT Services Enable Better Workstations
Workplace technology is crucial for a productive work environment. You need to make sure all your employees have the tools they need to do their jobs well. If an employee doesn’t have access to the tools they need, such as a well-equipped workstation, it’s like giving someone a hammer and telling them to fix a car. It just doesn’t work.
Having said that, you also have to make sure you’re not spending too much money on workplace technology. There’s a big difference between spending money and buying cheap stuff that doesn’t last and spending money and buying good quality products that last longer.
A good IT service provider will be able to get you the hardware and software your company needs at a reasonable cost and at the right quality level for your requirements. Having a managed IT services provider can improve the quality of workstations because they can help identify issues before they become bigger problems.
They know the specifications for the technology your business will need to thrive and they can plan carefully, and future-proof your company workstations so they last longer and serve your business better.
How Truit Managed IT Services Enable Better Security
Security is a top concern for any business. In an article published by Cybercrime Magazine, Editor-in-Chief Steve Morgan revealed that Cybersecurity Ventures expects global cybercrime to grow by 15 percent over the next 5 years. It is predicted to reach $10.5 trillion yearly by 2025, which is incredible growth when compared with $3 trillion value it had back in 2015.
Cybersecurity is especially important for small businesses, which often operate on tight budgets and with less staff.
Security is a top concern for any business. In an article published by Cybercrime Magazine, Editor-in-Chief Steve Morgan revealed that Cybersecurity Ventures expects global cybercrime to grow by 15 percent over the next 5 years. It is predicted to reach $10.5 trillion yearly by 2025, which is incredible growth when compared with $3 trillion value it had back in 2015.
Small-business owners are looking for the best ways to protect their companies against the many cyber threats that exist in our modern world.
There are a lot of options available in terms of security-managed IT services and many small-business owners don’t know which option is right for them. By hiring experts to take care of their digital security, businesses in any industry can ensure their data is safer and more secure.
A managed service provider can monitor your network for suspicious activity, alert you when something is out of the ordinary, and clean up any malware that’s found. They can also set up a firewall that will keep hackers from gaining access to your company’s network by keeping unauthorized users out.
How Truit Managed IT Services Enable Better Storage
Out managed IT services allow businesses to improve their data storage solutions.
If you are currently using a cloud storage service like Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive, or any other cloud storage service intended for personal use instead of business use, you’re not getting the most out of cloud data storage for your business.
Not only is it expensive to store large amounts of data in the cloud using personal accounts, but it’s also not as secure as enterprise-level solutions.
With business-level cloud services through a managed IT service provider, your business would have access to enterprise-level technologies that are much more secure and cost-effective. Do you want privately owned servers or data centers but perhaps not want to have them on your premises? Maybe you don’t want to spend a lot of money on them? Well, a managed IT service provider can also rent you secure, co-located storage solutions that are ideal for your business and industry.
Infrastructure Configuration Including Hardware and Software
Infrastructure is a really broad term, but for this article, it can be broken down into two parts: your business’s data infrastructure (software) and your business’s physical infrastructure (including hardware).
If your business is like most businesses, your data infrastructure has become increasingly complex over time as you have added new systems and technology.
Infrastructure is the foundation of every organization. It’s critical to have a solid foundation, so you can build on it and keep growing your business. You need to constantly maintain and improve your infrastructure to ensure that it’s able to support your business needs now and also serve you well into the future.
Physical Infrastructure Is More Than Just Computer Hardware
Your physical infrastructure is what keeps your business running – from electrical wiring to heating and cooling systems. These systems keep the lights on, the computers running, and your employees safe. Hardware will determine how fast your systems run and how efficiently your staff can complete their work.
This includes things like containers and software-defined networking, microservices, and automating deployments.
These new technologies help you scale applications and also scale your business.
They also make it easier to test, deploy, and run your applications. The key is to find a managed IT service provider who understands these new technologies because they’re here to stay, and they’re going to change the way businesses manage their infrastructure configuration, hardware, and software.
New technologies are emerging to manage infrastructure and keep it running smoothly.
Ensuring a Secure Infrastructure Switchover
If you’re going to migrate from your existing IT infrastructure to something else, it’s important to know what you’ll need to do to clean up your database and servers.
For example, if you’re moving to a new database, you’ll need to figure out how to import and export your data. You’ll probably also want to make sure that you’re removing any old dependencies or libraries that are no longer needed.
At the very least, you should remove any old accounts on the servers so that if someone were to try and break into the server they wouldn’t be able to use or view any old accounts.
If you’re looking to clean up your infrastructure and get it under control, here are some tips and tricks you can use to help make that happen:
Firstly, plan!
When cleaning up your infrastructure, it’s a good idea to plan out what you want to do. Write out a plan and be as specific as possible. This ensures that when you’re performing the tasks (or getting your managed IT provider to do them) you won’t forget anything.
Secondly, automate!
One of the best ways to clean up your infrastructure is to automate everything. If there are tasks you perform regularly, automate them so that they’ll be done for you on a schedule or when certain conditions are met. For example, if the company has an “outage budget”, any time there is an outage for more than an hour it can automatically start remediation tasks such as deleting old snapshots and cleaning up unused volumes.
Thirdly, don’t keep everything around if you don’t need it!
Delete old resources. If you’re cleaning up your infrastructure, don’t keep everything around. When possible, remove or delete old resources that are no longer needed. This includes archived snapshots and volumes, old network routes, and unused security group rules.
Choose an IT Service Provider That’s Always There For You
Here at Truit we think: ‘I’ll call IT’ is something that no-one should ever need to say. In this era of digital interconnectedness, we provide all our customers with Truit Help Deck. It’s a messenger tool that is right there on your employees’ desktop and it offers direct access to our services for every client 24 hours a day.
That means as soon as you have a question or concern you can reach out to us seamlessly to get fast answers and solutions. With a ticket-making portal, email and chat support all integrated. So, we’re always there for you when you need us.
Technology should enable your business to work smarter, not harder.
We’re also serious about security so we have a suite of services to keep your business safe from intruders and attacks.
Our antivirus software works alongside the most up-to-date email protection and it’s powered by AI. We keep all your data securely backed up to defend against cybercrime and outages. We can use either cloud-based backups, local backups, or a hybrid approach. It all depends on what is best for your business.
Ensure Your Enterprise Software is Up-To-Date
A lot of people don’t realize that when their software says new updates are available, those updates are not intended to improve the user experience. They’re also not usually required to make the software run more efficiently. Application updates are often being requested by software to keep the software secure.
That’s why it’s so important that the moment a new software update comes out, it’s correctly put in place.
Sometimes, because system updates take a while to complete, employees are reluctant to allow them to proceed. They delay them for days, weeks, or months. However, by doing so, they expose your company to cybercrime.
The technical terminology for updating software in this way, that you might have heard before is patch management. This refers to putting a patch over a hole in the security of a software application. It’s a key part of a good security strategy.
At Truit our patch management services ensure that your company’s operating systems and third-party software applications are all up-to-date. That way they don’t have any holes in them for cyber attackers to sneak through.
Secure Your Business with Sentinel One Antivirus
We believe that Sentinel One Antivirus is the best antivirus solution for our clients. Sentinel One enables you to autonomously protect your entire network with real-time AI that is adaptive and responsive.
You also need to have a way to monitor and report on threat activity. This requires a lot of behind-the-scenes work, such as building rulesets and policies, making sure you have a good understanding of how the system works, and much more. Fortunately, SentinelOne’s antivirus software does most of this for you.
SentinelOne is a cloud-based security platform that helps companies protect their data by using artificial intelligence to detect and stop advanced cyber attacks. The core of the SentinelOne platform is a virtual agent named X-Force Intelligence.
Based on Machine Learning, it uses big data and analytics to collect and analyze threat data. This artificial intelligence learns as it goes, constantly updating its knowledge and improving its decision-making.
There are a lot of other essential elements of cyber security, including ensuring that your employees are following proper cyber-security protocol. That will help protect your business from attacks.
Having good anti-virus defense software is essential for any business. But, that is just the beginning.
Secure Your Emails with Iron Scales
When it comes to email security we also have a solution we recommend to all our clients. That solution is Iron Scales. It’s an efficient, elegant, and powerful way to protect your company against phishing attacks.
Cybercriminals often target businesses with phishing emails or pretend to be employees in order to gain access to systems. Iron Scales is easy to deploy and manage but it can stop advanced attacks.
It uses an AI-driven email security strategy and self-learning to continually detect and remediate any threats including BEC, account takeovers, credential harvesting, and other malicious activity within your business’s email accounts.
Protect Your Passwords with LastPass
Another recommendation we make for all our clients is that they take passwords very seriously and are careful to keep them safe.
Here at Truit, we consider LastPass Password security solution to be the best in class for the industry. It’s a password aggregator that enables businesses to process, keep and share data including passwords easily and securely.
If your business has a single MS Word or MS Excel document full of passwords on a shared drive, that’s not a secure way to store them at all! We recommend making some changes to ensure that your business is protected.
All our clients get solutions such as LastPass, as standard. We select and explain all the best, most cutting-edge security software and techniques to keep our clients’ data as secure as possible.
Why You Should Outsource Your IT Services
It is no secret that the cost of IT services is on the rise. When you outsource your IT services, you can save a lot of money.
If you’re looking for affordable IT services, outsourcing is the best option.
Not only do you get the benefit of lower costs, but you also get a provider who is familiar with your business and the challenges it faces.
Then, you get to focus on what you do best, which is running your business.
Consider Enlisting Us For Your Managed IT Services
When it comes to keeping your company’s information technology infrastructure up and running, there really is no one-size-fits-all solution. Every company has its own unique needs, from its size and its business objectives to its location and its individual information needs.
We get a deep understanding of your business through a process that begins with discovery, before moving on to planning and implementation. We provide world-leading managed IT services. Contact us now to get the best managed IT services around!