It’s certain you’ve heard the buzz around Managed & Cloud Services, and may have some questions lingering on what exactly they are and how they can benefit your business.
Simply put, Managed Services is the practice of outsourcing your day-to-day IT and telecom management. This frees up your internal resources to focus on more important aspects of your business.
Cloud Services refer to anything that is accessible virtually rather than directly. A great example of a Cloud Service is Netflix, which allows users to access movies virtually “in the Cloud” rather than having to drive to a video store (which are now practically non-existent with the growth of Cloud).
This same idea is now overtaking the business world, and telecom and IT services are leading the way. While a decade ago it was necessary for businesses to store and continually maintain and upgrade large, clunky, pricey phone systems in their telco closets, those days are now gone and being replaced by Cloud services.
Below are some examples of Cloud Services for business communications:
- Software as a Service (SaaS) – Online banking is an example, as are Salesforce.com and GoToMeeting
- Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) – virtualized servers, computing on demand, cloud storage and data backup
- IT as a Service (ITaaS) – Outsourcing IT support, streaming all applications from the Cloud, “virtual desktop”
- Communications as a Service (CaaS) – Hosted VoIP, Unified Communications, conferencing solutions
