8 benefits of managed cloud services

#1. A foundation for business continuity (and disaster recovery)

A managed cloud service fits neatly with business continuity planning (BCP).

Your server, applications, and server hardware (which you rent as part of your cloud hosting agreement), are in one location, and with redundancy to ensure uptime. Your managed service provider has its own BCP to ensure they can meet their service level agreements (SLAs), which means you’ll continue to receive service even in the event of a disaster.

Your IT team or business contacts (like an operations manager) can direct the effort from anywhere and even access the applications to execute any tasks as needed.

Distributed tools and teams like this limit the impact of a disaster that would otherwise disrupt operations.

An important facet of the business continuity benefit is disaster recovery, or the ability to recover data and/or systems due to technology-specific events like data breaches, ransomware, and destruction of hardware like laptops and servers (not an issue for cloud-hosted solutions).

Managed cloud service providers back-up the hosted systems as part of their offering. You may also be able to take advantage of services like disaster recovery as a service (DRaaS) that backs up your operating systems, files and data, applications, and all configurations.

If your managed cloud service provider offers IT management services, you may also be able to get endpoint protection and backup for local devices like PCs.

#2. Improved system reliability

The redundancy of cloud infrastructures and cloud architecture guarantees reliable access to all your business tools and data. Fail-safes are built-in to ensure uptime and continuity of access.

#3. Enhanced scalability

One of the challenges for onsite servers is managing the hardware. If you need more memory or hard drive space, for example, you need to purchase and install it. With a cloud computing, you adjust your contract and go in and reconfigure for the newly added space. With a managed cloud service, you adjust the contract and they reconfigure the newly added space.

The service provided makes scaling to growth and other needs much simpler. You focus on the work you need to do while the service provider gets it done.

#4. Confidence in your data security

A data center company’s reputation depends on secured systems. You should always confirm with your managed cloud service provider the security of the data center they use.
Best practices for data centers include:

• Multi-layered security protocols
• A minimum SOC II security standard
• Perimeter building security
• Zoned card or biometric access controls
• Zone fire suppression

#5. Technical expertise to get the job done right

Established managed service providers with a proven history have both the teams and the expertise to set up, provision, migrate and support your organization’s cloud solutions. Their technical expertise allows them to immediately step in and help, whether as another team member or as your full-service cloud service provider.

#6. Simpler building of custom solutions

 Without hardware commitments, you have more flexibility in the tools and applications you use.

Need a dedicated server for an application? A managed cloud solution can be easily provisioned with a unique virtual server to handle the load, complete with the storage, security, and memory needed to run it.

This allows you to build an infrastructure that meets the needs of your employees to stay productive wherever they work.

#7. Faster deployment and support

 Managed cloud service providers speed deployment. Regular performance analysis ensures a fully optimized system. Network operations center (NOC) monitoring guarantees problems are identified and addressed sometimes even before end-users are aware a problem exists.

If someone should have an issue, support teams can be reached to immediately begin remediation…or help update a password.

#8. Better budget-ability

 Managed cloud services eliminate capital expenditures and depreciation tied to physical hardware. Instead, the entire operation becomes an operating expense. Plus, all of the services are bundled into a single price with preset fees defined for any services needed to expand the infrastructure to meet increased data, user, or application needs.

The reduction of physical equipment that is needed and the consolidation of fees simplifies the matching of computing needs with budget demands.

Source : https://www.ricoh-usa.com/en/insights/articles/8-benefits-of-managed-cloud-services