Managed Services Provider Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Managed Services Provider - Research Paper Example Companies outsource their IT based business processes to the managed service providers because it costs them very less as well as increases the reliability of the outsourced business processes. â€Å"A business will contract with a managed service provider to fill certain needs that are met more cost effectively by outsourcing than by purchasing and supporting equipment in-house† (White, n.d.). Managed service providers use the concept of cloud computing to provide reliable and cost effective services to the client companies. Schauland (2011) states, â€Å"Cloud computing is used to allow services used in everyday practice to be moved onto the Internet rather than stored on a local computer†. Cloud computing facilitates people and helps them perform their IT related tasks by eliminating the need of any specific place or a particular computer system. Some of the major tasks, which managed service providers, perform for the client companies include virtual private network , IP telephony, managed firewalls, messaging and call center, and monitoring or reporting of network servers. Unlike traditional business applications, managed service providers eliminate the problems of hardware and software installation and maintenance for its clients. In traditional settings, companies need to install, configure, test, and run every hardware and software application on their own. ... Computers, which are used locally, no longer need to perform heavy workloads because applications are kept online and the service providers handle the networks of such applications. Managed service providers assist companies in many areas. Some of those areas include network monitoring, network security, and information management. They also provide many other facilities, which may include alerts, data backup and recovery for different client devices, and patch management. For companies, some of the main advantages of using such services include no requirement of ease in running applications, ease of integration with proprietary systems, low capital investment, and intuitive interface of software applications. Some other advantages for the companies, which make them switch to such services providers include low security risk and improved organization of IT related business processes. Service providers make use of Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) that use such security protocols, which do not remain the same forever rather they continue changing their protocols in order to ensure more protection against hackers. This feature of VPNs attracts a large number of companies towards managed service providers. Such companies find it easier to ensure network security by using the VPNs provided by the managed service providers. Some other benefits, which the companies gain by using the VPNs of managed service providers, include reduction in time and money consumption. Companies just need to pay for the virtual networks; they do not need to spend their precious tie and money to get the services of virtual networks. â€Å"The  managed service provider  assumes ongoing responsibility for monitoring, managing and/or problem resolution for