Are you thinking about having your IT infrastructure managed?

Servers and networks, whether in the cloud or in your office, must be managed and receive ongoing maintenance and surveillance to perform optimally and securely.  It’s not as easy to maintain as your home network needs.  The task list and complexity quickly grow, and most small businesses struggle with remote connections, downtime, security breaches and performance issues that disrupt their ability to provide their products and services. To reduce the risk and more efficiently utilize IT resources, many businesses look to outsource their IT network to the experts.

Outsourcing the management of your IT systems come with many benefits, including

1. 24/7/365 support and maintenance.  No need to worry about days off, sick days, vacation days.
2. Full range of IT expertise.  Help desk technicians, field engineers, high-level specialty engineers, including security engineers – you get expertise that cannot be found in 1 or 2 individuals.
3. vCIO consultation.  With your managed IT services comes a virtual CIO who oversees your IT roadmap and consults at a level to enhance your business strategy.
4. Business Continuity.  A well-maintained network keeps the business moving forward and reliable backups make incident recovery swifter.

Here are a few things to consider.

1. If you are new to Managed IT Services, you might be faced with infrastructure improvements that are needed to fully and securely managed your network.

When Integrity IT evaluates your infrastructure, we document hardware life expectancy, security and performance.  To raise your business IT maturity, we will outline a roadmap of projects needed immediately and over the coming years.  Some changes may need to happen immediately for us to truly manage your IT environment, such as adding remote monitoring software or hardware.  If your network devices are old and cannot be patched, you are at great risk for a security incident and this would be a priority.

2. Do you need workstation support?

Larger companies often hire a tier 1 IT technician to maintain workstations and support employees access and use of line of business apps. Smaller companies often find it best to outsource this need to managed IT services, avoiding the cost of hiring a specialized employee.  Integrity IT can maintain workstations and support employees via our local help desk.  If you have a significant need for in-office support, we can customize support to best meet your needs.

3. Do you need a high level of security?

Some companies require a higher level of security based on the data they keep and the risk if breached.  Integrity IT offers Managed Security Services to provide a more intense level of Threat Hunting, Incident Response and Security Incident and Event Management (THIRSI).

For an optimal managed IT services partnership, your company and the managed IT services company must spend time getting to know each other. You will need a close and trusting relationship with your Account Manager, service technicians, and your vCIO.  Integrity IT was founded on trustworthy and respectful relationships and each employee is selected based on their ability to support our core values and live up to our name. Employee surveys have gained us the designation of “Best Place to Work” for the past 7 years.

We close with an offer to help navigate these decisions and some feedback to share from a managed IT service client.

If you’d like to receive a FREE vCIO Business Consultation – sign up here.

Let me preface my comment by saying, we have some crazy and outlandish expectations as a healthcare provider.  Your service providers have a high level of professionalism, knowledge and partnership. When they walk through the door, we know we are in good hands.  Our vCIO is some sort of “unicorn of IT” – he has all the things it takes to build and maintain good relationships.  He is so smart and we love him like family around here.  We love the Integrity IT team and are so thankful to have them working so hard to help us each week. They make difficult days seem brighter and better. – Linzy Willis, Dermatology Consultants, Lexington