How to Adapt Managed Service Models to Emerging Business Needs?

Managed service providers (MSP) have come a long way from their origins in the 80s and the 90s as mere outsourcing vendors who would help offload low-value work, and the nomenclature then used was RMM (Remote Monitoring and Management). Since the rise of the internet in the 1990s and eventually the cloud, MSPs have been able to take a more hands-on role in enterprise operations, even when working remotely. Today, remote-managed services are an enabler and a crucial cog for enterprise IT.

The Technology & Services Industry Association (TSIA) has defined Managed Services Provider (MSP) as a shift in responsibility for the health of the technologies under management from the customer to the MSP. In the technology industry, outsourcing day-to-day infrastructure and application management is becoming more popular for several strategic reasons. These may include cost reduction, risk aversion, transition from CapEx procurements to OpEx, or accelerated return on technology investment.

Managed services are about preventing bad things from happening through a more proactive, predictive, preventive, and prescriptive approach. However, restoring service is also a crucial aspect of managed services. The core ownership of resolution, restoral, and future prevention of incidents lies with the MSP.