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March 22, 2016 - by Synoptek
If you ask any company that uses a Managed Services Provider (MSP) what their MSP does for them, the answer will probably be “they keep all of our computers running,” or “they keep an eye on our network,” or something similar.
Most MSPs emphasize that they will make sure the network keeps working so that their customer can focus on the business they are in. Especially since the arrival of “cloud” computing, the entire value proposition has centered on providing the operation of the customer’s information management network for them. It is true that the challenge for many businesses, especially small-to-medium sized businesses, is that they are not in the information management business, and don’t necessarily have the expertise to even recruit or select the right personnel, much less manage them as effectively as possible.
Stepping up to many intriguing customer requests over the past several years, Synoptek has dramatically expanded the definition and the role of an MSP by providing services and delivering value that goes far beyond what MSPs have traditionally offered. Our emphasis has expanded to include the entire information management function in our customer’s business.
This is a natural outgrowth of cloud computing. We’ve seen just about everything IT transformed into a consumable service; Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), Platform-as-a-Service, (PaaS), Desktop-as-a-Service (DaaS), Disaster Recovery (DRaaS), it was only a matter of time until customers saw the opportunity to consume all IT functions as services, managed by a provider who is not only well versed in technology, but also a top-flight business advisor who can participate at the strategic planning level as well as day-to-day operations.
Data is now recognized by most businesses as being their most valuable asset, and managing that data effectively can yield tremendous business advantage and new profitability. This makes managing data a key responsibility within any company. Given that most businesses are experiencing the growth of “Big Data” this is becoming an even bigger responsibility than ever before.
Everyone talks about “Big Data” which is a major result of the “Internet of Things (IoT)” experience. The “things” that are being attached to the Internet generally fall into two categories – things that help us measure things, and things that help us control the things we measure.
Measuring things requires collecting data about them over time. With the anticipation that tens of billions of these data collection “things” will be added to the Internet of Things, each collecting millions of data points it’s easy to see how quickly the sheer volume of data explodes. There’s much that needs to be managed regarding all these data:
Collecting it all requires that we manage the billions of devices that are doing the collecting. These are largely small, low-powered devices with minimal processing or memory capacity. Companies will need help to keep them performing properly to maintain accuracy.
Storing all the data becomes more and more of a challenge. You will not be able to answer with larger capacity storage devices alone. Even now, new compression algorithms and new techniques are being introduced to reduce the storage capacity required while increasing the efficiency of the input/output capabilities of the storage. All of this will be best managed by the new generation of MSP.
Increasing this challenge is the inclusion of cloud computing resources in the mix. Synoptek is expert at making cloud services from varying vendors work well together to store, secure, backup, transport, and work with all this data. Having this level of interoperability will be a key concern for most companies.
Security will continue to increase in critical importance as the value of the data and the volume of the data increase the desirability of stealing the data. It will be vital to encrypt and protect the data while at rest in storage, and improve the inaccessibility of the encryption/decryption keys, but it will be of equal importance to protect the data while in transit. Even today, Synoptek offers a variety of data management solutions from cloud to co-location to respond to any required level of security.
The network will continue to rise to the level of fine art. With so much data to manage, the throughput of the network must increase even further than we’ve already seen. It is said that “information only gains value when in motion.” To achieve profits, every company will need to be able to move enormous volumes of data from place to place efficiently and securely.
Even now we are faced with the need to completely replace the Internet addressing space which was originally designed to accommodate 430 billion devices. The last available unique IP addresses were distributed back in 2011. Since then we’ve been playing technology games, like using Network Address Translation (NAT) to put hundreds of “fake” IP addresses behind each real one. Even that is becoming exhausted and MSPs are being called to migrate customers to the new Internet addressing system which provides capacity 340 undecillion connected devices. It’s an all-but-inconceivable quantity. Think about moving from 4,300,000,000 devices under management to 340,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000.
A far larger network will require far more management expertise, and this transition from “IPv4” addressing to the much larger “IPv6” is already underway.
The applications required to manage these huge volumes of data and these huge numbers of devices are ever-increasing in complexity and resource demands. MSPs will need to be ready to manage these as well.
People, policies, processes and procedures are becoming more and more part of the area of MSP responsibility. Many of your technicians and engineers have reminded us that “the hardest segment of the network to manage is the one between the keyboard and the back of the chair.” Controlling all of the elements required to keep all of this data accessible and moving yet secure and uncompromised is going to be tough enough. Many Synoptek customers already turn to Synoptek to help make sure the uncontrollable human element doesn’t disable all other efforts.
Scale and interoperability will be two of the biggest overall challenges facing tomorrow’s MSP. More data from more devices stored in more places with the need to move them more, process them more, report on them more. More of everything. And if two points along the process don’t interoperate, everything comes to a halt until they do.
The most exciting part will be that your MSP will indeed be managing services, a broader array of information management, processing, analytic and reporting services than ever before. These services will deliver not only technology operations services, they will deliver tangible business value that contributes significantly to all other company functions, and especially to your bottom line.
Synoptek is already delivering this level of business value to many customers. Talk to us today about what we can do for you.
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