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 op­ti­miza­tion 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 jeop­ar­diz­ing 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
• Defense 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 uti­liza­tion 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 Ku­ber­netes
• Managed NAT Gateway
• Managed Network Load Balancer