There are, of course, different types of managed services available for businesses. While some companies may choose to have these types of services located in-house, more and more businesses are deciding to outsource in order to receive reliable managed services. In 2015 alone, for example, a survey showed that 66% of businesses chose to outsource their IT within the previous year.
The importance of enhanced security and compliance may be more obvious and essential for some businesses than others. When considering companies of all sizes, 38% cited these services as the primary reasons for their outsourcing to a managed services provider. Given the prevalence of security and data breaches, it’s possible that more and more companies will opt for enhanced protection through reliable managed services.
Within the past 12 months, for example, 55% of small to medium-sized businesses experienced cyber attacks. While there were, and will continue to be, a variety of factors involved, it’s important to note that many organizations don’t conduct full-network active vulnerability scans as often as recommended. Recent reports show that less than 40% of organizations had these vulnerability scans performed more than once per quarter.
While the costs of these breaches do vary, for each affected business, they recently averaged $3.5 million. This constitutes a 15% increase from 2014. Part of these costs are related to business downtime. Given the businesses that were impacted, 31% of them experienced over eight hours of downtime. For many companies, a day of downtime, which includes the inability to access vital data, can have serious effects.
Even though some companies and enterprises may be primarily non-profit, most tend to be for profit. Given companies of all sizes, the survey revealed that 61% indicated that their primary reason for using a managed services provider was to receive a return on their investment. The nature of these returns on investments will vary; however, when considering the amount of time and revenue that is lost due to security breaches, recovering lost data, and other issues, using managed services can provide a stronger platform to recoup losses and create business growth.
Is your company currently using managed services? If not, then you may be interested in learning more about the benefits associated with outsourcing these services. In addition to the issues cited above, your company may also benefit from working with computer consultants and receiving computer network maintenance. When your company has reliable managed services, it can assist you with streamlining your operations so that you can focus on conducting your specific type of business.
