In today’s modern digital world, security threats to your small to medium-sized business are more likely than ever before. The Internet is saturated with cybercriminals looking to steal your data, target employees, and shut down your business.

By definition, managed cloud services (MCS) is a subscription-based service model that provides managed IT capabilities for customers who outsource hardware and software management to save costs on their own and internal IT staff. There are managed cloud services in all industries, and the managed cloud service industry is expected to be worth around $116 billion by 2025.

To an extent, MCS can offer your business complete protection against security threats while allowing you to remove the stress that comes with maintaining IT infrastructure yourself.

What is a Managed Cloud Service, and How Does it Work?

We've all heard about The Cloud and have probably used it, but do you actually know what it is?

We’ve all heard about The Cloud and have probably used it, but do you actually know what it is? Photo by Ant Rozetsky on Unsplash

An MCS is a managed network of multiple servers that functions as a single entity. This makes it easier for small to medium businesses (SMBs) to access and manage their data. They get solutions that are tailored and easy to use, thus taking responsibility off their shoulders.

With an MCS, you’ll experience less of a hassle when it comes to managing your systems. You will be spared from arranging for the installation, configuration, maintenance, or repair of the MCS infrastructure. All these things are done by an expert team of IT specialists who know what needs to be done and how. All you need to do is focus on your organization’s growth and development, giving you peace of mind.

Please note that if a managed cloud service provider doesn’t have the necessary training or experience to handle these things efficiently, your company is bound to suffer in terms of efficiency and productivity. So make sure they’re qualified.

 

Helping Small to Medium-Sized Businesses

Managed service providers have been helping SMBs for eons, well for at least the last few decades, and they are intricate part of any business.

Managed service providers have been helping SMBs for eons, well, for at least the last few decades, and they are an intricate part of any business. Business photo created by drobotdean – www.freepik.com

When you choose managed cloud service for your company, you will be able to take charge of growing and developing your company without having to worry about technicalities. You will be able to focus on your core business activities, such as your company’s research, development, and growth. Managed cloud service providers can also do other things for you like firewall setup,  backup services, disaster recovery planning, and off-site storage of data and files, among others.

Here are some advantages of managed cloud services:

  1. Setup and configuration– they have extensive knowledge of computer hardware, software, and networks. This means that they know how to set up and configure managed cloud services.
  2. They’ll monitor managed cloud services on a 24/7 basis – managed cloud services are centrally hosted, which means that monitoring of managed services is done 24 hours a day, and it doesn’t stop. This allows them to quickly detect problems affecting you and take appropriate action to solve the problem.
  3. They use best practices in managing managed cloud services – Providers follow established procedures to manage managed network services effectively. You can feel assured that the MCS provider will manage your cloud services effectively and efficiently. MCS is hosted on fault-tolerant hardware, and data is replicated across multiple servers, so MCS rarely go down.
  4. Managed services are cheaper than owning and managing your own IT infrastructure – because managed cloud service costs are less than the cost of having managed networks managed in-house. You don’t really have to manage your cloud services with managed network services since an IT expert will manage them.
  5. Reduced hardware and software maintenance – managed outages of online business services due to hardware failure and software problems are reduced with managed network services since MCS are managed better by MCS providers.
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Benefits of Using a Managed Cloud Services Provider

If you value your time, money, and data security then cloud solutions are right for you.

If you value your time, money, and data security, cloud solutions are right for you. Photo by Clayton Cardinalli on Unsplash

When we think about MCS, many things come to mind. Many managed service providers also offer managed cloud services for clients and customers, but MCS may seem confusing or perplexing in our day-to-day lives. Nevertheless, managed cloud services have been rising exponentially during the past few years. MCS can be a great way for small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) to save more money and avoid complex problems that could arise with normal managed services. Your provider manages your cloud service, and they will take care of the physical servers, hosting, networks, data storage, backups, hardware, and most importantly, privacy.

 

With managed services for small businesses, there are two main benefits to look forward to. First off, managed services for small businesses are usually cheaper because MSPs have already taken care of most of the technical work behind MCS. They’ve managed things like backups, storage, and networks, so you don’t need to spend your money on all that extra stuff.

 

Why are Managed Cloud Services the Solution?

Be proactive and implement solutions before a problem arises.

Be proactive and implement solutions before a problem arises. Photo by Animesh Das on Unsplash

Managed cloud services are the solution to security threats and other problems faced by small to medium-sized businesses and enterprises at present. MCS companies can minimize risks, increase productivity, and improve operational efficiency. MCS providers can install, configure, manage, and monitor the network security system for your business. Cloud service providers can utilize managed host security to protect networks against attacks from malicious software and other external and internal threats.

 

Security Risks That Come With Unmanaged Services

By taking proper security measures and being proactive you'll significantly increase your odds of survival whenever faced with a cyber attack.

By taking proper security measures and being proactive, you’ll significantly increase your odds of survival whenever faced with a cyber attack. Photo by Towfiqu barbhuiya on Unsplash

Managed cloud services, managed hosting, managed servers – whatever you call it, they all mean the same thing: managed security. These managed services put IT experts at the helm of your data centers to ensure a safe and secure environment is in place throughout your network.

Is your business prepared for an attack? Any downtime or loss of sensitive or confidential information could be devastating to your business. In a managed cloud services system, experts protect your data and systems. Here are some security threats that managed services can help prevent:

  • Data Breaches – Cybercrime is on the rise and managed cloud hosting solutions can help minimize risks from outsourcing your IT infrastructure and data storage to third-party managed hosting providers.
  • Data Loss – Security is managed by experienced experts who can quickly identify and repair any vulnerabilities in your network. Lost data due to a missed update or malfunction will be minimized with managed security services.
  • Vulnerability Control – With managed cloud hosting solutions, you’ll have access to automated vulnerability scanning that identifies critical security issues in your managed cloud servers, as well as expert advice from managed security professionals at all times.
  • Security Forensics – Cybercriminals target businesses of all sizes, and managed services can help you spot and stop them before they attack. If an attack does occur, managed services provide security forensics to ensure the integrity of your data.
  • Malware control – managed cloud servers can help you prevent, detect and eradicate malware from your shared hosting account. With managed security services in place, the chances of malware infection are minimized and managed cloud server performance will not be affected by annoying malicious activity.
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Key Points to Consider

Below are some things to consider before you take the jump and move to The Cloud.

Below are six things to consider before you make the jump and move to The Cloud. Business photo created by jannoon028 – www.freepik.com

  1. How are managed cloud providers protecting customer data? This is a crucial question because the managed cloud provider you select needs to be vigilant about security and offer a high level of encryption.
  2. MCS platforms offer critical advantages over traditional managed service providers, making data vulnerable to security breaches, utility outages, or complete data loss. They provide users with a shareable storage space managed by the managed cloud provider and do not exist on each individual’s computers or devices. This means customers’ data is managed, stored, and backed up by the managed cloud provider. The provider is then in charge of deploying the latest updates, security patches, and upgrades to managed servers.
  3. Managed service providers must have adequate security measures in place to protect customer data from cyber-attacks. Ask your managed services providers what types of security technologies they use to protect data in their managed services. Maintaining a managed service can be quite costly for managed cloud providers due to the number of resources required, but managed backup keeps everything running smoothly.
  4. Maintaining backups of all managed support servers is critical because it ensures that managed backup servers can take over and support performance if there’s an outage. Maintaining backups also helps MSPs perform faster-managed recovery times in a disaster.
  5. MCS Platforms typically offer more than just storage from managed services providers. This is because managed services providers typically handle the cloud provider’s  servers, networks, and security. Maintaining copies of existing data allows for faster restoration times when something goes wrong. The best-managed recovery plans minimize downtime for managed services and reduce costs by quickly recovering data in the event of an outage.
  6. Managed Service Providers have automated managed recovery processes that execute failovers without any user interruption. MSPs typically rely on managed backup services to restore managed data from managed servers in an outage or disaster.

 

The Future of MCS is Bright

Managed services are more necessary than ever before with all the security threats and bad actors, but the future is looking up.

Managed services are more necessary than ever before with all the security threats and bad actors, but the future is looking up. Photo by Jared Verdi on Unsplash

Nowadays, managed cloud services are becoming the solution for most small and medium-sized businesses. This is not a surprise because MCS providers take care of everything that you may need to run your business efficiently so that you can focus on what’s really important: building great products.

Indeed, MCS are already very relevant right now, but in the future, managed cloud service providers will become even more powerful and necessary for SMBs. You should feel at ease knowing they are committed to helping you achieve your business goals by any means necessary and doing whatever it takes to make things happen for you!