Both large and small businesses turn to managed service providers (MSPs) to control the costs of software, hardware, and information technology talent. The customer's business can rent people and products in one package rather than investing in it one piece at a time. Instead of paying for human resources, training, software licenses, and upgraded hardware, companies choose to pay a predictable fee to let their provider manage the details.

October 15, 2014

2 Min Read
3 Overlooked Reasons Your MSP Should Use the Cloud

By Michael Brown 1

Both large and small businesses turn to managed service providers (MSPs) to control the costs of software, hardware, and information technology talent. A customer business can rent people and products in one package rather than investing in it one piece at a time. Instead of paying for human resources, training, software licenses, and upgraded hardware, companies choose to pay a predictable fee to let their provider manage the details, including the details of cloud-based file sharing services.

What do the best services providers offer? Among other considerations, companies look for providers that can deliver cost-effective solutions that can scale and evolve with a changing business climate. With that in mind, the marriage of  MSPs and cloud computing seems very natural.

MSP Customers Want Cloud Computing

According to Ace Group, one of the largest property and casualty insurers in the world, the majority of big and small companies are either using cloud computing or will soon. The first reason to consider cloud computing as an essential part of an MSP is because providers that offer cloud computing can meet their customer’s demands. Even if customers have not asked for cloud computing yet, they will soon.

Reduce Obsolescence

How long do business computer servers last? Maybe a better question would be to ask how long they last between necessary upgrades for more memory, more disk space, or better performance? ITech, an IT service provider, estimates an average server lifetime at three to five years.

Cloud computing distributes computing across multiple servers, so the business does not need to rely upon one server that might suffer a disk drive crash or a denial-of-service attack. Data, software, and Internet sites can swiftly switch over to a different server while upgrades and maintenance get performed transparently. In the worst case, the loss of one server doesn’t really lose anything.

Access Data Anywhere

Consumers are already used to having access to their virtual real estate on multiple devices. They have personal computers, tablet computers, e-readers, and smart phones. They are even used to sharing this data through popular file-sharing services. As you can see in this previous post, over 300 million people are registered at one of the most popular consumer file-sharing websites.

Of course, business cloud computing must deliver corporate standards, and these include more security and control than found on consumer services. With virtual emulation features, businesses won’t have to change a thing about the way they work if they do not choose to. Instead, they can simply choose more ways to work in the office, at home, or out in the field.

Business is Ready for Cloud Computing

All sorts of business people, from freelancers to corporate executives, already adapt cloud computing as consumers, and many have already integrated some aspects of it into their work. It only makes sense that quality managed service providers offer the same technology that their customers already know they want.

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