Outsourcing network tasks can be an excellent way to achieve enhanced performance and security, improve your disaster recovery strategy and to “buy in” valuable expertise which you may not be able to employ inside your organization. Outsourcing is also a key business tool to ensure that your company stays focused on what it does best – pursuing and developing your business, making money and increasing profits.
Unless you are already an IT solutions provider, there is a strong argument for not managing your own network and security, but getting someone else who does understand and is experienced in managing and protecting networks in to do it for you.
One issue many businesses have is that they are handing over responsibility for a mission critical element of their operation to someone outside of the company and outside of their control. This may not seem like a good idea, but there are numerous reasons why major companies, even banks and governments do outsource network management to third parties.
Outsourcing Delivers Professional Expertise
A key advantage for outsourcing is that professionals can be contracted in to perform services and support without the need to put them on the payroll. Your business can tap in to expertise from experienced professionals who are fully certified and at the forefront of their particular area of interest. Security for instance, is a very broad ranging area but if you have a solution provider who specializes in firewalls and Wi Fi security, you can benefit from their in depth knowledge of solutions, threats and the application to your own network.
You can also use this expertise to transfer knowledge to your own network staff and you should look for solution providers who are willing to take your staff under their wing and bring them on with new technology and issues.
The Bottom Line
Outsourcing is cost effective as you can arrange to pay for only those services you are using. You must ensure you pay very careful attention to the Service Level Agreement (SLA) provided by any potential partner, indeed, you ought to review SLA’s you may already have with current providers.
We’ve already mentioned that by using outsourcing, you can effectively “buy in” expertise which is otherwise not available, and this means you may gain greater efficiencies in your network and how it is used. This in turn leads to greater productivity and cost reductions which feed directly into an improved bottom line.
Maintaining Business Focus
By outsourcing network management and security, you are able to pay closer attention to the underlying business itself. A business maxim is to stick to what you know best – it follows that by outsourcing network management and security to a trusted, third party you are releasing resources which are better employed in generating more business.
Improving Disaster Recovery Strategies
Using an outsourced service provider will also lead to enhancements in your disaster recovery strategy. First of all, network management and security staff are likely to be based away from your operating site and if there is a need for extra hands within the business, you can call them in as you need. By hosting applications and data in a third party hosting center, you are also increasing the protection afforded to your company data and means of transacting business.
Author Resource:
Lawrence Reaves is a strong believer in Virginia Beach IT services such as Virginia Beach IT outsourcing and Virginia Beach network security. For these services Lawrence recommends PLANIT Technology Group, which can be found online at: http://www.planittech.com .