IT Services Davis

What you need to know about IT services in Davis

These days, having access to robust IT infrastructure is essential to businesses of all sizes, including SMBs. With a global shortage of skilled IT staff, however, it can be very difficult for any business to put together an in-house IT team, even if they want to, which many SMBs do not. The good news is that there are a number of IT services in Davis which can help. Here is a quick guide to the main ones and what they can do for you.

Colocation

If you’d like to own and run everything yourself, but you lack the space to house IT infrastructure appropriately, then colocation could be for you. With colocation, the vendor simply provides a location for your infrastructure, plus power and internet (with backups for both) and physical security. Colocation can be used either on its own (with everything run by your in-house IT team) or in combination with other IT services such as IT support and managed IT services.

IT support

There still seems to be some confusion about IT support and managed IT services. This is probably a throwback to the days when IT support basically meant “anything and everything to do with IT except programming”. These days IT support essentially means project implementation and break/fix work. More formally, it’s short-term support for short-term needs. This makes it effectively the exact opposite of managed IT services, which are all about completing predictable everyday tasks for a predictable, fixed fee.

Regardless of whether you have an in-house IT team or whether you’re using managed IT services, it often makes a lot of sense to have an IT support partner in Davis to cover your back whenever you need extra help. If you’re using managed IT services then your managed IT services partner is very likely to offer IT support as an extra service, thus making them potentially a one-stop-shop for all your IT services needs.

When considering how much budget to allocate to potential break/fix work, you might want to consider using a combination of sinking funds and insurance as your liability is, theoretically, unlimited. Admittedly if you (or your managed IT services partner) practice effective care and maintenance, any issues are likely to be minimal but this is not guaranteed. You may find that you can get insurance from your IT support provider, which can be both convenient and cost-effective. Project work can and should be costed and budgeted in advance.

Managed IT services

Managed IT services have really become the mainstay of IT for the business world, especially for SMBs. They can be used to take care of any, or even all, predictable tasks for a fixed monthly fee. This gives SMBs the reassurance of a guaranteed service without the hassle of having to recruit and manage an in-house team to take care of them.

The key point to note, however, is that managed IT service providers only deal with regular care-and-maintenance tasks. They do not implement projects (not even upgrades) nor do they deal with break/fix issues (not even ones identified as a result of their activities). This needn’t be a problem as long as you are clearly aware of it in advance. If, however, you are not, then it can come as a bit of a harsh shock, especially if you find out about it as the result of coming under a cyberattack which needs to be remedied immediately.

The spectrum of managed IT services is incredibly broad and so, unsurprisingly, the industry has started to divide into companies that cover all (or at least most) areas of it, plus some which specialize in particular areas such as managed hosting or managed IT security.

Many SMBs might find it more convenient to go with one provider who can cover most, if not all, of their needs (and preferably their wants as well). If you go down this route, just remember to check what is and is not included in any contract you sign. In other words, even though a managed IT service provider may offer a service, they may not offer it as part of all service contracts, so make sure to check.

For the sake of completeness, public cloud services are essentially a subset of managed IT services and they can offer a very flexible and cost-effective way of getting access to the resources you need. There are, however, several security concerns regarding them.

Most of these revolve around the facts that they can be used by anyone who can pay for them and that customers are entirely dependent on their cloud platform to provide effective security. Because of this, it can be necessary, or just desirable, for companies to maintain their own infrastructure, be it in a traditional format or as a private cloud.

If you want to speak to a reputable and experienced IT services provider in Davis, please click here now to contact Aperio.IT.

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