What Are Cloud Managed Services?

As technology landscapes and markets continue their rapid evolution, an increasing number of businesses are leveraging cloud managed services to bolster their adaptability, mitigate risks, and streamline operations.

These services provide comprehensive assistance for organizations seeking to harness the power of cloud platforms while staying laser-focused on their main competencies instead of getting overwhelmed by IT infrastructure tasks.

Encompassing everything from partial to end-to-end management of cloud environments, cloud managed services empower businesses to enhance responsiveness, simplify processes, reinforce security, and more effectively pursue strategic goals.

However, there are key distinctions between popular service models such as IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS, as well as variances in individual cloud managed service providers’ offerings.

While fundamental benefits include upgraded infrastructure, robust security protocols, streamlined software lifecycle management, proactive monitoring, and disaster recovery systems, providers like OnGraph also promise faster time-to-market, scalability, flexibility, compliance maintenance, optimized ROI, and expert consultation on migration strategies.

Executive Overview: Cloud Managed Services

The cloud-managed services would let organizations gain access to the benefits of the cloud with the day-to-day management and control work being done by professionals.

This way, businesses can entirely focus on their strategic priorities and core business, and their cloud infrastructure and applications will have a stabilized environment and security.

With the constant pressure to adapt to the ever-changing technology and market landscape, companies have turned to cloud managed services as a solution.

With services ranging from partial to full control and management of an organization’s cloud platform, companies can choose the solution that makes the most sense for them. In this article, you’ll learn all about cloud-managed services and how to choose the best cloud-managed solution for your business.

Understanding Cloud Managed Services

Cloud managed services (CMS) offer comprehensive support for businesses seeking to leverage cloud technology while staying focused on their core competencies. By addressing critical operations, CMS providers empower organizations to:

• Enhance agility and response capability: CMSs can boost business adaptability and reduce risks by implementing the latest infrastructure, platforms, and tools.
• Simplify IT operations: CMSs can reduce technical debt and optimize infrastructure for improved performance, scalability, and cost efficiency.
• Strengthen security posture: CMS providers offer specialized knowledge, tools, and processes that help safeguard sensitive data.
• Focus on strategic goals: By outsourcing day-to-day IT tasks, organizations can concentrate on innovation and growth, instead of getting bogged down by service tasks.

There are, however, different kinds of Cloud managed service. So you need to be aware of the differences before choosing the best solution for your business.

Cloud Services Models and Managed Service Providers

Cloud service models and managed service providers possess knowledge in a number of cloud technology and IT management areas. Some of the key areas of expertise include:

• Cloud Platforms: Providers usually offer specialized services related to specific cloud platforms such as Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform or IBM Cloud. They are experts in what’s going on on these platforms, and they know all the existing features, services, and best practices.
• Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS): Expertise in the administration and the management of cloud infrastructure components, like virtual machines, storage, networking, and security.
• Platform as a Service (PaaS): Expertise on deploying, operating, and cloud application development without handling the underlying infrastructure.
• Software as a Service (SaaS): An understanding of the development and delivery of software applications over the internet is based on subscription pricing such as application hosting, maintenance, and support.
• Cloud Migration: Capability in migrating on-premises infrastructure, applications, and data to the cloud such as planning, execution, and optimization of migration strategies.
• Cloud Security: Expert leads the execution and operations of security controls to ensure the security of cloud assets like identity and access management, encryption, threat detection and compliance.

But within these CMSPS, there are different cloud service models as well:

• Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) provides virtualized infrastructure elements, including computing resources.
• Platform as a Service (PaaS) provides a development environment, commonly used for application development and deployment.
• Software as a Service (SaaS) provides software applications, which are completely hosted and managed by the service provider.

Whichever cloud managed service you end up choosing, rest assured that you are guaranteed to benefit from certain standard features. Cloud service models and managed service providers provide a basket of diverse skills to help companies utilize cloud services rightly to better their operations in the areas of efficiency, scalability, and achieving business objectives.

Standard Offering Of Cloud Managed Services: In Depth

• Infrastructure Management: You get enhanced cloud infrastructure management that emphasizes strategic setup and provides ongoing optimization processes. This includes auto-scaling capabilities, resource allocation, and performance tuning to ensure that operations are streamlined and costs are minimized.
• Security and Compliance Management: CMSs offer a comprehensive approach to maintaining secure cloud environments through advanced threat detection, encryption practices, and regular audits. They place prime importance on adhering to industry regulations and standards to protect data integrity and client trust.
• Software and Application Management: They provide multiple methodologies for efficient software lifecycle management, from deployment to updates and maintenance. This could involve continuous integration/continuous deployment (CI/CD) pipelines, containerization, and microservices architecture to facilitate rapid, reliable software delivery.
• Monitoring and Analytics: Monitoring tools and analytics platforms are leveraged to provide insights into cloud performance, resource utilization, and operational health. This enables proactive management of IT workloads and ensures high service availability.
• Disaster Recovery and Backup Solutions: You will receive robust in-built strategies for data protection, including automated backups, geo-redundancy, and failover systems that guarantee data recovery and business continuity in the event of system failures or cyber incidents.
• Governance and Policy Management: CMSs also offer standardized processes for developing and implementing governance frameworks and policies that align IT operations with business objectives. This includes access controls, resource usage policies, and compliance checks to enforce best practices across the organization.

The services offered by CMSPs can be advantageous to your business in several ways.

The Advantages Of Using Cloud Managed Services

Cost Savings and Efficiency

By hiring a third-party cloud managed services provider (MCSP), you eliminate the need for internal IT staff and high capital expenses for infrastructure. And you will  only need to pay for services you require, providing budget flexibility and a flat, predictable schedule.

Thus, MCSPs help ensure business agility and scalability by efficiently managing workloads and optimizing resource usage within public, private, and hybrid cloud environments.

The best part of using an MCSP is that the prices may be lower than the cost of hiring full-time in-house IT staff, leading to substantial savings.

The expertise that MCSPs bring to the table can help you determine which cloud resources best suit your needs as well as suggesting the most cost-efficient pricing models. MCSPs often offer subscription offerings for a wide range of services, allowing you to optimize your support plans and maintain a budget-friendly strategy.

For example, tax or audit companies can leverage managed services with increased demands during specific periods.

Performance and ROI

Integrating cloud managed services significantly boosts IT infrastructure efficiency, driving strategic advancements and enhancing ROI. MCSPs cloud integration enables seamless transitions and connections between on-premises and cloud resources, hence addressing the complexities of modern, multi cloud or hybrid cloud environments

MCSPs can help streamline operations through automation, offer scalable resources for agility, and minimize downtime with proactive management. This operational efficiency translates into direct cost savings, which can be reallocated towards innovation and fostering business growth.

The tangible benefits include improved performance metrics, cost-effectiveness, and the ability to swiftly adapt to market demands, all contributing to a compelling return on investment for businesses.

Security, Compliance, and Disaster Recovery

MCSPs place great emphasis on ensuring network and data security. Their expertise and monitoring enable prompt response times in case of emergencies and increased awareness of new technological advancements.

They also provide clear reports and performance metrics, and ensure compliance with industry-wide regulations.

MCSPs also facilitate a solid disaster recovery plan involving minimized downtime following unforeseen incidents. Many providers offer service-level agreements ensuring service performance and continuity.

Partnering with MCSPs provides a competitive advantage as they have exhaustive cloud knowledge with the flexibility demanded by modern business. Their familiarity with your network allows for quicker response times and faster issue resolution enabling you to focus on growth.

Flexibility

One of the key USPs of Cloud managed services is their unparalleled flexibility. They provide businesses with cost-effective, scalable solutions tailored to manage cloud infrastructure efficiently.

This adaptability ensures companies can pivot and scale their IT operations in alignment with changing business objectives, without incurring prohibitive costs.

By partnering with a CMSP like OnGraph, you can help you unleash greater transformative benefits and cost savings for your business than those achievable through self-managed cloud operations.

Unique Benefits of OnGraph’s Cloud Managed Services

Using OnGraph’s cloud managed services can offer many benefits to your business, in addition to the usual advantages of CMSs. These benefits include:

Faster Market Delivery: Cloud services can be leveraged for rapid market deployment and updates.

OnGraph’s Role: Accelerates project timelines with agile development practices.

Scalability: Cloud services can easily scale to meet demand without upfront investment.

OnGraph’s Role: Provides customized cloud solutions that scales with your business.

Flexibility: Changing market needs require businesses to adapt IT resources quickly, which cloud services excel at.

OnGraph’s Role: Offers personalized cloud strategies for enhanced operational flexibility.

Comprehensive Security Solutions: Protecting data and applications in the cloud is a major concern.

OnGraph’s Role: Implements robust security measures and compliance protocols.

In-Built Compliance: Using any sort of cloud service means businesses have to commit to meet industry-specific regulations and standards.

OnGraph’s Role: Ensures cloud solutions are compliant with relevant laws and guidelines.

Simplifying Investment Decisions: Identifying which cloud investments will deliver the best ROI can fall outside the purview of the core business, making the decision making process long and difficult.

OnGraph’s Role: Provides expert consultation to optimize cloud spending and impact.

Workload Refactoring and Migration: A critical decision needs to be made regarding which applications have to be moved to the cloud and how to go about it.

OnGraph’s Role: Offers expertise in workload assessment and cloud migration strategies.

Introducing Ongraph Cloud Managed Service

OnGraph has been a pioneer in the web/mobile design and development industry, and can guide you through the unique opportunities that cloud managed services can unlock for your business. Our cloud managed services provide a flexible and cost-effective solution for managing all your cloud-based IT infrastructure, ensuring compliance, security, and overall system robustness.

In the rapidly evolving technology landscape, OnGraph’s cloud managed services can not only offer greater adaptability and reduced risks, but also enable your business to focus on the core functions. We offer a comprehensive suite of services, including cloud storage, hosting, migration, security, application management, optimization, and monitoring.

Our years-long experience, expertise in technologies like PHP, Node, ROR, Angular, and our commitment to innovation serve as the foundation to build cutting-edge web designs, apps, and other digital solutions.

Schedule a meeting with us to find out how you can make the most out of cloud managed services and transform your digital operations. 

Conclusion

Partnering with a reliable cloud managed service provider like OnGraph unlocks immense potential for modern businesses seeking to embrace cloud technology.

While all CMSPs facilitate upgraded infrastructure, watertight security, efficient software workflows, proactive analytics, and robust disaster recovery, OnGraph goes the extra mile with faster product delivery, bespoke scalable solutions, operational flexibility, inbuilt compliance, easy investment decisions, and workload migration expertise.

This frees up internal staff to concentrate on advancement. Ultimately, cloud managed services increase responsiveness to change, reduce risks, lower expenses, drive performance efficiencies and impressive ROI – ensuring you have the tools and support necessary to gain those critical competitive edges.