Managed IT Services Blog

The 2018 Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report showed that businesses with fewer than 250 employees were the victims of 58 percent of cyberattacks. It has been a trend for small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) to be targeted by cybercriminals for some time now. To them, the SMB represents low-hanging fruit. A lack of security knowledge and inadequate security technologies help fuel this trend. 

This is where Check Point Software Technologies, a partner of Rutter Technologies, can help. When combined with a knowledgeable team of professionals from the right managed service provider (MSP), your organization has the tools in place to stop malware and other cybersecurity threats before they do damage to your network and reputation.

Statista expects the size of the managed services market to reach nearly $300 billion a year by 2023. This growth, up from an expected $190 billion in 2019, is due in part to the fact that so many organizations realize the value a good managed service provider adds when it comes to their IT needs. 

However, if you are looking for Boston IT companies to help with IT in your company, you need to make sure that you find the right partner. As in any industry, with growth comes more competition. And not all Boston IT companies are the same. To ensure that you bring the right partner on board, avoid the following mistakes when vetting managed service providers. 

When it comes to choosing a partner for managed IT services, companies may run into issues finding the right partner because of the overwhelming amount of noise in the local Boston market. There are a number of companies fighting for market share, and with the global market share expected to rise to 296.38 billion dollars by the year 2023, you can expect even more companies to start vying for your business. 

When you are vetting a new vendor, there are certain questions that you need answered before you do business with them. Although these questions differ based on the service or product you are purchasing, the vetting process itself is no different whether you are looking for IT services in Boston, the northeast, or anywhere else in the country. There are specific questions that you should ask to make sure that whoever you choose as a managed services provider for your business’s IT is a match for your individual needs. At a very minimum, any IT services provider should be able to answer the following questions for you. 

No one should be surprised that when systems go down, businesses lose money. What might be surprising is just how much money is lost because of downtime. According to Forbes, businesses averaged a loss of $100,000 for one hour of downtime in 2017. A small business in the Boston area may not lose numbers like that, but any amount of loss could have devastating effects. For this reason alone, many small to medium-sized businesses turn to managed IT services. Managed service providers (MSPs) provide your business with a talented and experienced team of IT professionals who offer around-the-clock coverage to help prevent system outages from causing your business to lose money.

According to TechGenix, it is estimated that 78 percent of all small businesses will adopt cloud technologies by the year 2020. This estimation makes sense when you consider the cost savings that small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) find after they move to the cloud. As the popularity of cloud computing with SMBs grows, so does the interest in Amazon Web Services (AWS) as a cloud provider. This is expected as AWS remains the dominant force in the market, even when compared to heavyweights like Microsoft and Google.

The idea of threats to data security often conjures up thoughts of large companies plastered across the national news because thousands of records were compromised at the hands of a malicious hacker. Unfortunately, this often provides smaller organizations with a false sense of security; they start to believe that the bad guys are only after the large companies with a lot of money at stake.

In a recent Indeed survey of more than 1,000 hiring managers and recruiters, more than half (53 percent) of respondents have hired tech talent despite candidates not meeting the job description requirements. That may be a good thing for businesses in need of IT resources to fill gaps in their talent pool. While that alludes to the fact that businesses are working hard to meet their needs for IT talent in what must be creative ways, here are five of those ways that businesses can employ to fill the gaps in IT resources and talent.

Oftentimes, when discussing outsourcing IT services, the main point made in its favor is the costs savings that are bound to come with it. For this reason alone, many companies are quick to embrace this practice. However, there are many other benefits that come from outsourcing IT services, especially when it comes to specialized IT functions. If cost savings or, even better, cost control aren’t enough to encourage your company to take a serious look at outsourcing, these added benefits may just tip things in your favor. 

As Amazon Web Services (AWS) instance options increase, selection, deployment, and management of the right solutions become more complex for businesses. The reality of that challenge is reflected in the RightScale 2017 State of the Cloud Survey, which indicates a lack of resources and expertise is still the number one challenge for businesses. Due to limited time, in-house IT team expertise, and personnel, businesses are increasingly looking to managed services partners to supplement their team and provide end-to-end assistance for AWS deployment.