What is an MSP (Managed service provider)?

For many companies, the growing demands on in-house IT in­fra­struc­ture represent a major challenge. One approach to tackle this is the purchase of managed services. But what are ad­min­istered IT services and what exactly does a managed service provider do?

A Managed Service Provider (MSP) is a company that provides a range of IT services and manages them for their clients. By default, the provision and main­ten­ance of the services usually happens remotely, which is why MSPs rarely visit a client’s office. Managed service providers tend to offer different types of billing models: a monthly fee to install and maintain the re­spect­ive MSP services is just as common as time-based billing. Cost struc­tures based on the number of users or devices are also widely in use.

Managed services are par­tic­u­larly appealing to small and medium-sized companies because the out­sourcing of specific IT needs allows them to forego in-house IT support and save costs. Starting in the 1990s, the principle of ad­min­istered services was ori­gin­ally aimed ex­clus­ively at large cor­por­a­tions. IT heavy­weights such as IBM laid the found­a­tion for the business model of today’s managed service providers by offering services for remote mon­it­or­ing of servers and networks.

The term ‘managed service’ does not target a specific type of IT service. Rather, it is used for all IT services that can be out­sourced to an external provider and managed remotely.

Typical managed services include:

• Hosting
• Network and other technical in­fra­struc­ture
• Cloud services
• Backup services
• Security struc­tures (Managed Security Services)
• Disaster recovery
• Managed server ap­plic­a­tions
• Remote mon­it­or­ing
• Update and patch man­age­ment
• Helpdesk services

In addition to technical IT services, managed service providers now also tend to offer support for more basic business areas such as personnel man­age­ment, process op­tim­isa­tion or ac­count­ing.

The following examples of managed services are intended to il­lus­trate the benefits and func­tion­al­ity of such IT services, and exemplify how managed service providers work.

IT security is an important topic for most busi­nesses because the loss of sensitive company data has the potential to cause severe financial damage, while also jeop­ard­ising a company’s image. However, many SMEs tend to lack the know-how or personnel to ensure their IT systems are safe and ap­pro­pri­ately managed.

By part­ner­ing with a managed service provider, small and medium-sized companies can re­lin­quish re­spons­ib­il­ity for security struc­tures and con­cen­trate on their core business. Typical MSP services within IT security are:

• Man­age­ment of firewalls and intrusion detection and pre­ven­tion systems
• Man­age­ment of company-wide malware pro­tec­tion on all end devices
• Defence against hacker attacks
• Mon­it­or­ing of network and security
• Updating of systems and ap­plic­a­tions
• Detection and elim­in­a­tion of weak points, e.g., by using pen­et­ra­tion testing
• Security training

Security is also an important topic when selecting suitable storage solutions for company data. Saving data in the cloud has been a standard for years, but data security and data pro­tec­tion have become in­creas­ingly important topics in recent years. Out­sourcing company storage solutions to a managed service provider not only keeps internal hardware to a minimum but means busi­nesses can rely on guar­an­teed security con­di­tions set out by the provider.

A com­pre­hens­ive backup solution is also a popular managed service offered by many providers. Re­gard­less of the storage struc­tures selected, a backup system ensures a higher level of security, as lost data can be restored at any time. A provider helps to implement the right strategy, ad­min­is­trates, and monitors the backup process and supports the company in the event of necessary res­tor­a­tion.

Remote mon­it­or­ing, i.e., the mon­it­or­ing of IT struc­tures from a distance, was the first managed service offered back in the 1990s. But this type of service is no longer just aimed at large companies. Remote mon­it­or­ing and ad­min­is­tra­tion of IT services is now of in­creas­ing interest to small and medium-sized companies that depend on func­tion­al and high-per­form­ance IT in­fra­struc­tures.

Among possible functions of Remote Mon­it­or­ing and Man­age­ment Services (RMMS) are:

• In­stall­a­tion and updating of software
• Con­fig­ur­a­tion and remote control of servers and other end devices (desktop, mobile devices, etc.)
• Mon­it­or­ing of system util­isa­tion and per­form­ance
• No­ti­fic­a­tion of problems
• Reporting
• Automated execution of routine processes (e.g., scripts)
• Remote IT support

The range of managed services offered is broad and the way in which in­di­vidu­al providers position them­selves on the market is just as extensive. While some companies focus solely on the provision of managed services, for others managed IT services form part of a whole suite of products. The number of managed services on offer tend to vary from one company to another.

IONOS offers a range of managed services that ensure clients remain effective, efficient, and suc­cess­ful in the digital space. The ‘managed’ part can take on a smaller or larger role depending on per­form­ance. A good example of this is server hosting. Here, customers can select from the following options:

• Tra­di­tion­al server hosting: Customers borrow the hardware for their desired server struc­tures. IONOS provides the hardware resources and supports the software in­stall­a­tion by providing ready-made apps. The ad­min­is­tra­tion of the server is the re­spons­ib­il­ity of the customer.
• Managed server hosting: When opting for a managed server from IONOS from IONOS, customers can also borrow the hardware for their desired server setup. In this case, IONOS will ad­min­is­ter the server so that a client can con­fid­ently focus on day-to-day business processes instead.
• Managed CMS hosting: Managed CMS offerings from IONOS take things one step further. Customers not only receive the hardware framework for the CMS of their choice (including WordPress, Joomla, PrestaShop, Contao, Magento). As a managed service provider, IONOS also ensures that the desired CMS (including the operating system) is correctly installed and always up to date.

But IONOS is also offering itself as a managed services provider for a whole range of other products. Among others, these products include:

• Managed database
• Managed Kuber­netes
• Managed Nextcloud