What is a Managed Service Provider (MSP)?

A managed service provider (MSP) provides delivery and management of network-based services, applications, and equipment to enterprises, residences, or other service providers. Managed service providers can be hosting companies or access providers that offer services that can include fully outsourced network management arrangements, including advanced features like IP telephony, messaging and call center, virtual private network (VPNs), managed firewalls, and monitoring/reporting of network servers. Most of these services can be performed from outside a company's internal network with a special emphasis placed on integration and certification of Internet security for applications and content. MSPs serve as outsourcing agents for companies, especially other service providers like ISPs, that don't have the resources to constantly upgrade or maintain faster and faster computer networks.

An MSP can manage and integrate a range of activities associated with small, mid-size and enterprise networks. The range of outsourcing services includes basic transport and access, managed premises, Web hosting, VPN, unified messaging, video networking, or other more sophisticated services. The market for managed services is forecast to grow about 20 percent annually, according to The Yankee Group, due largely to the need for companies to be more flexible and timely in getting to market and communicating with customers and who have realized they cannot suffer the downtime of an outage or crash.

Some industry experts say managed service providers provide a broader range of services such as monitoring services for servers, routers, firewalls, websites, webtools, device security, email security and other applications. Managed service providers typically deliver infrastructure management services on a subscription basis, similar to the model used by application service providers (ASPs). This model allows the business owner to better control IT costs, plan for change rather than reacting to it, have the peace of mind to sleep at night, and have proactive support as opposed reactive support to which the extreme costs are associated with failures and downtime for a business.

Agency Technologies Inc. is one of the best-known companies that provide MSP services for the Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky region.

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