Internal IT Support vs. Outsourced Managed IT Support

Internal IT entails having your own employees to manage your company’ s technology needs.

Internal | Pros

• Understands your business: Works at your company every day.

• Internal: Making it easier to resolve issues in real time.

• Your employees: Extensive knowledge of the company’s systems and processes.

Internal | Cons

• Lack of coverage: Vacation, sick-days and employee turnover can disrupt the flow of IT operations and support coverage.

• Higher cost: IT specialists require competitive salaries and benefits, adding a fixed cost to the business's operational costs.

• Risk of departure: If your internal IT specialist leaves the company, the business may lose valuable knowledge and expertise. This knowledge can sometimes be virtually irreplaceable.

• Limited expertise: As the IT field is constantly evolving and requires specialized knowledge, ongoing training of industry standards may be nearly impossible to accomplish.

• Strategic thinking: Your IT specialists may struggle to think and operate strategically when constantly putting out fires.

Outsourced IT is partnering with an external provider to manage a business's technology and security needs.

Outsourced IT | Pros

• A complete team of IT professionals: Outsourcing IT provides access to a team of IT professionals, bringing with them a diverse range of skill sets and certifications. An IT firm typically has a larger staff with more specialized skill sets. They can each provide expert support for many businesses.
The internal IT professional often needs to try and fix all the problems that come up by themselves and get bogged down in problems they are not trained for.

• Savings, cost-effective: Outsourcing IT is typically more cost-effective than having an internal team, as businesses do not have the fixed costs of salaries, payroll taxes, and benefits.

• Constant exposure to innovative technology and security practices: Outsourced providers are constantly evaluating and exploring new technology, hardware, and cyber security best practices.

• Documentation practices: Outsourced providers must have strong documentation practices.
o Changes and updates to the system are documented to allow multiply technicians to work effectively on your system.
o They ensure that essential information and passwords are stored securely.
o The Outsource IT group will have strong NDAs are in place.
• This is critical to business as no one person can take critical IT information with them if they leave the company.

• Adding value: Outsourced IT providers must focus on adding value to their clients and solving their technology and security issues.

Outsource IT | Cons

• Not on-site: Outsourced providers are not on-site 100% of the time. While most issues can be resolved remotely, on-site visits may be required to resolve more complex issues.
However, most outsourced IT providers have some level of 24/7 support, which is impractical, and cost prohibited with an internal team.

• Lack of knowledge about your business: Outsourced providers may not know the business inside and out. This may result in a longer ramp-up time. It can also be a challenge for you to keep your provider up to date as changes occur in your business.

Cloud vs. Local Server – Which is better for your business?

The decision between using a cloud server or an on-site server depends on your requirements. Consider these when deciding.

Speed / Performance / Load

Cloud servers are ready to implement at any time. Sign up for a plan with a provider, and you will have your servers running shortly. The managed provider oversees your servers, so your people do not have to worry about updates and security patches. You can scale it up or down as your needs change.

On-site servers require you to spend a considerable amount and effort from the start. From your system requirements, acquisition of the hardware and setting them up in a secured location. Once deployed, it is your team that continues to manage the servers (Examples: software updates, security patches and hardware changes).

Upgrading

Cloud service providers are innovating and upgrading constantly to offer better, more dependable, and faster servers. Your company benefits when your cloud servers get these upgrades.

On-site servers require your team to manage all upgrades and changes. This can take them from their main responsibilities.

Maintenance and Security

Cloud services from your managed IT partner already include maintenance and updates to ensure that your data is secure.

An on-site server requires your in-house team or outsourced vendor to oversee maintenance and security.

Control and Customization

A cloud server will require you to give up some control. You will also need to wait for your managed IT provider to implement upgrades to the server. However most managed IT providers are often ahead in this curve. Trying to maintain the highest standards possible.

In contrast, you have complete control over an on-site server. If you have the budget and time.

YES!

Firewalls are very important. Cyber-attacks can cost money and could even jeopardize your entire business. Firewalls can block potentially harmful websites from the network and can minimize the risk from malware and ransomware attacks.

Regularly scheduled backups are the best way to protect your business from losing valuable data.

At the minimum important data should be backed up at least once a week, but preferably once every twenty-four hours. There are many automatic software options that you can set to make a backup of your data at a set time of the day or week.

How much time and money do you want to spend to recreate missing data?

Why is secure remote access important?

The number of companies operating fully or partially remotely has exploded.

Appropriate security measures need to be enacted to protect your business data in a remote work environment. Secure remote access systems have important advantages for companies and their networks.

1. Secure access from any device

2. Safe internet browsing

3. Protected endpoints

4. Increased employee security awareness

What are the different types of secure remote access systems?

Several options are available to securely access a device or program from a remote location. Depending on the level of access and security required these are some of the most common types of secure remote access systems:

1. Virtual private network (VPN)

2. Endpoint security

3. Zero-trust network access (ZTNA)

4. Network access control

5. Single sign-on (SSO)

6. Privileged access management (PAM)

Will a VoIP phone system slow the internet at my business?

No, it will not if it is configured and installed correctly.

This is not to say that your internet speed does not impact your VoIP call quality. If your internet does not have a high enough download and upload speeds, you could experience some audio issues on calls, usually in the form of “jitter” or other audio distortion. Calls are in real time and more susceptible to the internet quality.

You do not want to ignore this issue.

The purpose of “Email Retention Policy” is to reduce legal risk.

A comprehensive “Email Retention Policy” will help prevent maintain company records and ensure accuracy when issues and disputes arrive.

If your policy dictates that you do not have email past a certain age, and you adhere to that policy, then “Discovery Requirements” and lawsuit risks are greatly reduced.

A policy will place additional pressure on IT, to put systems and configurations in place to implement the policy and enforce it.

This is a partial list of our Managed IT Services

• Managed IT Services

• Infrastructure Cloud Hosting

• Email Retention & Security

• Software Development

• Technical Support Services

• Hardware & Equipment

• Government Solutions