Security Drives Demand For Managed IT Services

/ 26th March 2019 /

DNA IT Solutions is a significant provider of Managed IT Services whose clients range from SMEs to large Enterprise clients. Neil Mullaney (pictured), Sales Director, explains what’s driving demand for managed services.

Are managed services an intimidating prospect for SMEs? If so, how do you combat that perception?

It depends on the individual business owners. In general, businesses that are comfortable with the basic premise that it makes sense to hire a skilled third party to manage IT for you, rather than trying to do it yourself, are not intimidated. If a business has never used an MSP before, then certainly it can be perceived as a risk until it proves itself as a viable model.

Which services are proving the most popular at the moment?

The most popular and sought-after area we see right now is security. There is a much higher level of awareness amongst business owners of threats from hacking, ransomware attacks and data breaches leading to violation of GDPR regulations. Security is now central to every business owner’s mind when considering their use of IT.

DNA IT Solutions are one of IBM’s leading Cloud providers in Ireland and we have many successful businesses now operating on the IBM Cloud platform, all managed by DNA. Moving to the IBM Cloud delivers vastly improved levels of resilience and security. In addition, users now have easy access to a vast array of IBM’s enterprise technology, including tools such as Watson data analytics which previously were only available to large Enterprise customers.

Is there concern that new upgraded services need upskilled in-house staff, which leads to greater costs?

This is an ongoing and universal challenge that affects everyone in the market. Competition for talent is as tough as ever and indigenous Irish companies in the channel must compete with multinationals for the high skills. It can lead to higher costs for the MSP, but if the business is addressing a more complex need for the customer, then the higher costs can usually be absorbed reasonably well.

In looking at Cloud migration, is there something of a goldrush mentality where companies know there is 'the Cloud' but have no idea how to get there, or if they even need it?

In our experience this was more of an issue a couple of years ago. Certainly, there are cases where the Cloud is still thought of as a panacea to operating IT, but in general we find there is a more mature and even-handed view of the Cloud now amongst business owners. In areas such as email and CRM applications, the argument is over, and the experience of running SaaS apps and email in systems like Office 365 have established Cloud as the de-facto standard approach. For example, we never find anyone arguing to keep Exchange in-house.

We have experience of some businesses who rushed into Cloud too soon and had to come out again as the costs were far more than operating in-house. We stress to business owners that the case for and against Cloud has to be thoroughly examined, so that the business is getting what it needs. It’s never a good idea to look to the Cloud as a cure for badly designed system or faltering business processes.

Our IBM Cloud platform enables companies to transition to the Cloud gradually, and when it makes sense for the business. It’s always got to make commercial sense as well technical sense for technology to deliver what it should.