Moving to AWS cloud is clearly beneficial on so many levels, higher scalability, better security, less stress about monitoring and managing your infrastructure, and so much more. But to enjoy all these advantages you need to know how to make the most of the cloud: which services you need now to optimize them, for cost and performance, how to secure your workloads, ensure resiliency, etc. The answer: AWS Managed Service Providers (MSPs).
Amazon’s Managed Services Providers can help you stay competitive, solve business issues and drive key outcomes, through their expert guidance. From migrating to AWS to optimizing your workloads, your MSP works with you at every stage of your cloud journey.
Here are the top ten ways your MSP can help you get the most from your AWS cloud.
1.Savings
The upfront cost of acquiring and managing IT infrastructure in-house is one of the biggest reasons to move to the cloud, as it provides excellent economies of scale, eliminates the need to provision infrastructure, and eases administrative tasks. But it all still needs to be picked, configured, and deployed. Which calls not just for expert knowledge but several specialized tools too. Availing of the services of an MSP is a huge help in doing all of this. To begin with, MSPs already have the tools and resources you need to set up and maintain your infrastructure. Since you only pay for what you use and for as long as you use it, you are effectively reducing your costs. No to mention, you’re conserving capital by moving expenditure to Opex. So your budgets can be spent on more urgent business needs. This is a significant cost saving for SMEs.
2. Infrastructure Optimization
Building and maintaining network infrastructure involve many components and processes; and the responsibility of provisioning, monitoring, and managing all of it falls to you. When you partner with an AWS MSP, a substantial portion of this responsibility is taken off, and so are the expenses.
Migrating legacy workloads to the cloud can be a complicated affair: do you lift-and-shift, refactor, rehost, or replace your apps? MSPs can help you decide the best-fit strategy for you as well as simplify and streamline the entire process, helping you meet your business goals with a more integrated business strategy.
MSPs typically provide 24×7 management services to ensure your infrastructure is secure and available. This reduces expenses, eliminated (or reduces) downtime, removes the responsibility of managing your infrastructure, and allows more leeway to diversify and focus on your core business needs.
3. Streamlined Processes
Your processes and tasks are interlinked with the rest of your infrastructure to some degree. This means that every action you take to manage any piece of your infrastructure will have some knock-on effect on all the processes it is linked to. So before you go in for any change—an update or upgrade, for instance, you need to get on top of this complexity. Your MSP can take over the responsibility of monitoring your processes and handling changes. The MSP has the infrastructure and the expertise to handle any problem that may crop up, be it in your day-to-day routines or during new releases.
4. Data Management & Disaster Recovery (DR)
If you operate an on-premises IT Infrastructure, you know firsthand the stress of possible loss of data or server failure. This is a nightmare that haunts all businesses, even those operating their infrastructures in the cloud. Any data loss can trigger unplanned downtime, compromising day-to-day operations, negatively impacting growth, and compromising brand equity. Ensuring your data recovery processes and tools are operational 24×7 is a full-time task. But with an experienced MSP on the job, you can avoid major catastrophes, and even a major situation, should it occur, can be handled with minimal downtime.
5. Automatic Upgrades
The IT industry offers fertile grounds for new technology, with new applications, tools, and trends being released almost by the hour. Some might need just a tweak or two, but a fair number of them require major upgrades or new solution integrations. Plus the need to keep up with changing business needs and regulatory compliances often forces organizations to adopt new technologies or tools. Having a capable MSP at the helm allows organizations to navigate these changes with as little disruption as possible, and often saves you the cost of employing new talent or having to up-skill your workforce, which is a neat segue to our next point.
6. Strengthen your team without new hires or up-skilling
Along with new technology upgrades, comes the need to also upgrade your workforce’s skill sets, and this can be time-consuming and expensive. Hiring workers with the cutting-edge skills you will need won’t come cheap, and remember, those skills might soon need upgrading too. The other option is to re-skill your workforce; get them to earn the required certifications, etc. This is also a time-intensive affair, plus they won’t have any experience with the new skills and will, in effect, learn on the job.
You can avoid all this heartache and expense simply by engaging a qualified MSP. This gives you direct access to staff with the certifications and experience to match. And the responsibility for keeping those skills current rests with the MSP, not your HR.
7. Responsiveness
Although it pays to be vigilant, there are a lot of inconsequential anomalies that your security system will flag. Separating the noise from the truly dangerous can be a fatiguing business, but any miss could well be a catastrophe. A reliable MSP saves you this tedium. There are many cutting-edge tools—including several ML-powered ones—that flag potentially dangerous threats, and the right MSP ought to have access and familiarity with those tools, and will be alert to any threat.
8. 24×7 Management
In a world where downtime can severely—sometimes, permanently—damage businesses and cause major losses, you need constant supervision to ensure business continuity.
MSPs bring a high level of security scrutiny that will pre-empt problems and catch anomalies before they cause security breaches and/or compliance issues.
A properly qualified and experienced MSP will ensure that your infrastructure is constantly monitored and requirements are taken care of as and when they arise, with the right solution—such as updates, security patches, or audits.
Putting your infrastructure under close and constant scrutiny also ensures that you meet any required compliances.
9. Resources freed to focus on core business
With a qualified and experienced MSP keeping a 24×7 watch on your workloads and data in the cloud, your staff is free from routine tasks like monitoring, updates, and maintenance. This effectively releases your organization’s resources from infrastructure- and process-related responsibilities, allowing them to focus on core business activities, such as product/services innovation, sales, and growth.
10. Centralized Data
When you migrate to the cloud, your operational data and information are moved to a centralized system. And this brings several benefits:
Higher data integrity
With your data consolidated in one central location, you have one single source of truth—the assurance of reliability and accuracy wherever the data is used, throughout the organization. You also enjoy better data portability.
Lower data redundancy
One of the big downsides of autonomous databases is that it leads to data duplication. Centralizing the data reduces redundancy, which helps reduce errors. It means everyone will be working with the same data sets.
Reduced cost
Since your data is in one centralized location, you’re also saved the need to pay for multiple locations, this also includes the cost of administration, and multiple license fees (for different software). It is also a time saver, since you can collate and analyze data easily, as you don’t have to consult multiple data sources.
Better insights
With cleaner data comes the opportunity to mine it for real actionable insights, allowing for better business planning and reporting.
As we’ve seen there are many definitive advantages to engaging with the right MSP. As part of AWS’s Partner Network, we have in-house expertise and cross-industry knowledge to help you meet your cloud goals, quickly and cost-effectively.
Need help with your cloud? Connect with Applied AI Consulting (AAIC) today.
