You’ve found a managed services provider (MSP) that will let you use its network infrastructure to build and store your Web conferencing platform. The MSP aligns with the budgetary restrictions of your C-suite, and it meets the usability needs of your end users.
But what will your IT department say about the MSP? Getting your IT director to agree to an MSP is like trying to sell a car to an auto mechanic. To save time and increase the likelihood of getting the green light from IT, here are some things to look for while shopping for an MSP:
Security: At the end of the day, one of your IT director’s biggest jobs is to keep the enterprise safe from cybercriminals. Accordingly, your IT director will want to ensure that whatever company is hosting your Web conferencing software has digital security at the forefront of its agenda. Make sure your data is being stored in a secure facility on servers that are up to date with the latest patches. The facility should also be fortified with real-time network monitoring software.
Redundancy: What would happen if there was a sudden power outage in your MSP’s facility? Would your business be affected by downtime? Your IT manager will want to ensure that the MSP’s servers are fully redundant before trusting it to host your critical communications software.
Visibility: Visibility into key performance metrics tends to vary from MSP to MSP. Chances are likely that visibility will be a deal breaker for your IT director, as he or she will want to see a variety of statistics related to system performance and uptime. These statistics will be crucial for benchmarking the return on your investment over the duration of your service-level agreement.
