Managed Service Providers Near Me - What to Expect Before You Choose

Posted by Dylan Jackson on February 4th, 2021

If you are one of those SMBs with a plan to outsource a range of IT services from reputable ‘managed service providers near me’, what should be your expectation from them. It’s a vital decision-making keeping in mind the importance of IT management for an effective business functioning. Apart from evaluating your IT necessities and making a consolidated IT infrastructure planning, the provider is expected to serve you with a number of services. Let’s check, the most crucial components of IT services that you should expect from your IT partner before making a contract.

IT Infrastructure Management

In general, a specialized managed service provider should cover all basic services including maintenance of the server, hardware, software, OS, windows patch management, network administration, cloud computing system, storage maintenance, and administer network issues. It should have highly skilled IT professionals in the team to offer custom based IT services and solutions focusing on your business practices. Before having the first discussion, jot down your IT linked requirements and make sure it’s included in the service contract.

Helpdesk Support

Make sure that the provider can support your small business with cloud-based IT management solutions that equally helps them to provide 24x7 remote Help Desk support. IT problems can crop up at any time, and if remain unresolved, it’s sure to slow business productivity, disappoint employees, interrupt in providing smooth customer services which eventually costs you grossly. Before hiring a ‘managed service providers near me’ ask for their clientele and contact them to ensure that the provider sticks to their commitments.
 
Network Monitoring

Consistent monitoring of your networking system is most vital to prevent it from all sorts of network intrusion, attacks, and vulnerabilities. Look for the high-provide managed providers who are sufficiently armed to monitor every phase of your network. Study the website of ‘managed service providers near me’ and also inquire if they cover remote users, virtual machineries used in other locations, and mobile devices under the network system. The service package should include firewall configuration, intrusion detection, and prevention.

IT Security

Regardless of the size, all businesses of from corporate enterprises to SMBs need  IT security to protect their most valuable business information, customer details, emails ( broadband) from growing cyber-attack and data threats. Thereby, when hiring ‘managed service providers near me’ you should expect them to train your employees about do’s and don’ts, security measures, and principles. They should be properly equipped to negate all possible cyber crimes with high-level encrypted passwords, firewall settings, and other measures and protect your business from huge business loss.

Data Backup

The objective of having backup copies of the database helps recover that vital information in the event of a major data failure. Failure or loss of primary data could be a result of hardware/software failure, malicious attacks like malware or virus, apart from accidental deletion which could be detrimental for a business. That is why data backup on a separate medium is essential, and typically as you’re dependent on your MSP for data backup, know what kinds of mediums it uses or about its cloud storage system. Before choosing the provider, ask them how secure is their cloud-based backup system while you should prefer having a private cloud backup advantage.
 
Disaster Recovery Plan

Whether it is natural disasters like a hurricane, an earthquake, flood, fire, or a man-made blow— like virus attacks, terrorist attacks, major power failure, having a steady disaster recovery plan should be in place to minimize the possible consequences that your business face. Considering the gravity of the matter, while selecting a managed service provider as your IT outsourcing partner, it’s imperative to assess your area of needs and determine whether or not the provider is competent enough to meet them. Pay close attention to your MSP’s reliability, expertise, and availability ensuring you’re in the right hands when it comes to disaster recovery issues.

3TPro.com is a Dallas, TX, based computer repair, support, and consulting company specializing in services including managed IT services (3tpro.com/managed-services-provider-near-me), onsite IT support, disaster recovery, security monitoring, web & email hosting, etc. To know more, visit https://3tpro.com/about-3t-pro/.