What is cloud managed services?
Managed services consist of delegating to a third-party specialist all or part of the operational management of an organisation's IT systems. We refer to cloud managed services when the scope of the managed services engagement focuses on services hosted in the cloud (and by extension on IT infrastructure) rather than on hardware (workstations, printers, etc.) or software (ERP, website, etc.).
A quality cloud managed services engagement is not limited to day-to-day system operations; it also includes complete management of those systems, encompassing updates, optimisation, and long-term security.
The main features of a cloud managed services offering:
• Upstream audit and advisory to define the scope of services, deploy managed infrastructure and/or services, and implement supervision
• Maintenance, updates, and security hardening of managed systems
• DRP/BCP plans, replication, and backup of systems and data
• Capacity planning: adaptation by anticipating load evolution
• Supervision: monitoring, metrology, and alerting
• Technical support and on-call availability accessible 24/7 or during business hours
A quality managed services provider must be operationally expert, with a comprehensive supervision system and a well-organised approach to support and on-call duties. It must also possess strong expertise in cloud technologies and infrastructure to fulfil its advisory role regarding the evolution and security hardening of managed systems.
The benefits of cloud managed services
Whether technically or more broadly, we do not believe in the perfect solution suited to all needs and all challenges. Managed cloud services can therefore, depending on the situation and if properly implemented, offer the following advantages:
• Allow you to focus on your core business, by delegating responsibility for platforms and operations to a specialised company
• Give you access to highly skilled technical teams with cross-functional and multiple competencies (cloud, devops, cloud native, systems, virtualisation, networking, databases, storage, security, etc.)
• Enable you to more easily adopt new technologies (e.g. devops transformation, adoption of containers and K8s, Gitops, etc.)
• Offer you fine-grained monitoring based on the managed service provider's team organisation to anticipate production issues and benefit from optimal responsiveness in the event of an anomaly
• Technical expertise is rare and costly in these fields. Recruiting and retaining quality, trusted experts is complex. Relying on a managed service provider allows you to delegate these human resources matters and mitigate the risk of losing internal competencies that are key to the smooth running of your business
• In many contexts, when properly implemented, managed services offer strong potential for reducing operational management costs compared to in-house teams
• A quality managed service provider is a single, preferred point of contact for all complex IT matters; you can rely on them to advise you on the most suitable choices in terms of cost or functionality
Key considerations for cloud managed services
As previously explained, cloud managed services are not a suitable solution for all situations and all companies. For example, when IT platforms are of low complexity or when internal technical teams are well-equipped and well-organised, outsourcing offers limited benefits. Since the mission is critical to the business, it can even carry risks if the managed service provider fails to meet its commitments and does not deliver the expected advisory and assurance role. In general, it is essential to choose your cloud managed service provider carefully to avoid the potential pitfalls of managed services (poor operations and inadequate support, lack of transparency, misunderstanding of your specific needs and issues, security risks
Why entrust ST DIGITAL with your cloud managed services?
Whether you are a public institution, an SME, or a large enterprise, we can offer you cloud managed services and our managed services tailored to your needs.
We distinguish ourselves by placing technical expertise at the core of our priorities: over the years, we have built teams composed exclusively of senior expert engineers with at least 10 years of experience in the fields of IT infrastructure, Cloud, and DevOps.
This guarantees the quality of our managed services and our ability to advise you on new technologies and the evolution of your systems.
If you would like to learn more about our cloud managed services or our ST DIGITAL infrastructures