IT Services: 4 Services Your Business Can Outsource
Most businesses don’t have the staff or expertise to handle all IT functions internally. Business organizations are increasingly recognizing the inherent advantages of outsourcing IT services to managed IT services providers. This cost-effective strategy provides the necessary support you need without the overhead that comes with having a dedicated IT staff. You could hire a full team of specialists to manage networks, monitor security, administer databases, and support employees, but that’s expensive and often unnecessary. Strategic IT outsourcing lets you access expertise you couldn’t afford to hire full-time while reducing operational costs. The question isn’t whether to outsource, but which functions make most sense for your business. These four IT services are ideal candidates for outsourcing—they deliver significant value whether handled internally or externally, but outsourcing typically costs less while providing better expertise.
1. IT Infrastructure
Many small and midsize businesses are turning to Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) model to outsource equipment like network systems, software, and hardware, saving a significant amount of money on labor and equipment costs. The NIST Cloud Computing Reference Architecture defines IaaS and the service models that make this approach practical. Building your own IT infrastructure from the ground up can cost a fortune. It not only requires a dedicated IT staff to manage it but also a large budget for buying and housing equipment. Outsourcing your IT services and infrastructure as a whole can cut down your overall costs while still delivering the support that your company needs.
Professional IT services can manage your entire infrastructure remotely. They deploy monitoring tools that track network health 24/7, alerting engineers immediately when problems occur. They handle routine maintenance like security updates, configuration changes, and hardware replacement. They design infrastructure upgrades as your business grows. They implement redundancy so failures don’t impact your business.
Outsourced infrastructure management costs a fraction of hiring equivalent full-time staff, provides expertise across multiple technologies, includes 24/7 monitoring and support, and scales as your business grows. Many Los Angeles businesses find outsourced infrastructure management provides better expertise than they could hire independently—the service provider’s team has seen dozens of different configurations and knows what works.
2. Cloud Hosting
Cloud computing is a great way to collaborate effectively with remote employees and freelance contractors. It also allows your staff to access information from anywhere. However, hosting your own cloud system is very expensive, so most companies prefer to use a managed IT services company for this purpose. Outsourcing your cloud environment will allow for increased productivity, with great built-in disaster recovery and security measures to keep your data protected from software and hardware failures. It is also easy to scale, which means it’s perfect for expanding businesses whose storage needs may grow in the future.
Professional cloud services provide secure, scalable infrastructure that supports your business growth without requiring in-house management. They maintain security, backups, and disaster recovery automatically. They handle updates and maintenance. For Los Angeles businesses with distributed teams, cloud services provide reliable access and performance regardless of employee location.
3. Backup & Disaster Recovery
Backup and disaster recovery are essential but complex. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) emphasizes that businesses without continuity plans face severe consequences after disasters. According to recent research, 43% of businesses that experience a major-scale data loss event are forced to shut down almost immediately. A further 50% shut down within 2 years because they never really recover from the damage. In other words, 93% of businesses that lose their data and don’t have an effective backup plan in place are not likely to escape the consequences.
By having an outsourced disaster recovery and backup service, you can avoid this contingency. Managed IT services providers can backup all your data, copy important files, and store them in a safe location if you ever need to recover them. Outsourced backup and disaster recovery services deploy solutions that run automatically without requiring management. They maintain offsite storage protecting against local disasters. They design recovery procedures matching your business recovery requirements. They test recovery regularly to ensure it actually works.
This is particularly valuable for Los Angeles businesses concerned about earthquake-related disaster recovery. The cost of outsourced backup and disaster recovery is modest compared to the cost of recovering from a major data loss.
4. On-Site Computer Services
When systems are down—as it happens from time to time in every business—productivity goes down and revenue gets lost. What happens when something happens to the workstations, rendering them unable to boot up? If you are a small or medium-sized business, it will be a good idea to contract with an IT services company that offers on-site computer repair and troubleshooting services. Many computer issues are complicated and require advanced expertise and knowledge to fix. This might be beyond the area of expertise of even your most technically qualified employees.
Professional on-site computer services provide rapid problem resolution that gets your employees working again quickly. They have specialized tools and expertise for diagnosing hardware failures, OS issues, and software problems. They can replace hardware, restore corrupted systems, and recover lost data. For Los Angeles businesses where downtime directly impacts revenue, professional on-site services minimize disruption.
Choosing What to Outsource
The services that make most sense to outsource are those requiring specialized expertise, continuous attention, or significant investment in tools and training. Infrastructure management, cloud hosting, backup/disaster recovery, and on-site computer services fit this description. When selecting outsourced IT services, look for providers that understand your industry, your business size, and your specific needs. Look for services that integrate well with your existing systems. Look for clear service level agreements defining response times, availability, and performance standards. The FTC’s guidance on IT service contracts provides useful baseline considerations for businesses evaluating outsourced IT providers.
Outsource your IT challenges to professionals. Contact We Solve Problems to discuss which IT services make sense for your business to outsource. Our Los Angeles-based services team specializes in infrastructure management, cloud hosting, backup and disaster recovery, and on-site computer services that frees your staff to focus on core business while ensuring professional IT expertise.