We often work with organizations that have internal IT staff or teams under a co-managed IT partnership. It is a great relationship for both and it fills some unique gaps with skillset, coverage, and redundancy.
Single Point of Failure
One common scenario we see in many organizations is building a small IT team of 1 to 3 people. It seems sensible enough on the surface and it can generally work reasonably well but small teams come with an inherent risk. What if a person resigns? What if a person goes on short term leave (perhaps maternity or paternity leave)? What if there is an HR issue and we have to terminate a person? Worse yet, what if a person gains vast knowledge and control and then causes an HR issue?
In my tenure in the IT space, I have seen each of the scenarios above. Every one of them leaves IT without the skillsets and coverage to manage IT support, security, and uptime during a transition period. We have been engaged many times when each of these scenarios occurred.
Security Coverage
One area that Intelos has a continuous investment in is cybersecurity coverage. We constantly ask ourselves if we are using the best tools and providing adequate coverage to our customers. We see cyber events through incident response work, the lens of peers in our industry, our Security Operations Center (SOC), and industry publications. With each event, there is one question we always ask. Would a customer of Intelos have experienced this same cyber event?
Sometimes the answer to this question is Yes. It is inevitable in the age that we live in. When the answer is Yes, we ask the obvious next question. What can we do differently to close this gap? It is a continuous journey that we are on that will never stop. Through this journey, we make periodic changes, adjustments, and additions to our security posture. It is integral in our culture and it is how we get better.
One major concern that is inevitable in small IT teams is how this happens. It is a considerable investment for Intelos and any MSP that is security centric. There is also no golden standard for managing security therefore making it improbable for any one person or small team to build a security posture based on industry best practices of continuous improvement.
Support Coverage
IT Support Coverage is one area that internal teams can really excel in. There are many organizations that thrive on having an IT person down the hall at their disposal anytime an issue comes up. It is an aspect that an MSP can never fulfill 100%. If that IT person is down the hall and the CEO or another executive need something, everything stops and they get immediate attention.
While this is great, there are aspects that it does not cover. What if the CEO or another executive is working remotely? What if the request is after hours? What if the IT person is on vacation or short term leave? What if there is a major outage that is outside of the skillset of the IT person or team? What if there is a cyber event that the IT person or team is not properly trained to contain and remediate?
Co-Managed IT Support
Co-Managed IT Support can be the best of both worlds. In a co-managed relationship, the organization enjoys the benefits and advantages of that person or team right now the hall. The organization has the comfort factor of having people that are on the team and aligned with the company’s goals. The personal relationship that is built between IT teams or people and executives can be a tremendous asset.
Co-Managed IT Support also answers the challenges above. If the executive is working remotely, Intelos has deployed our industry leading remote support tools that can be used by the internal IT team or used by the Intelos team. If the business has more than one office, Intelos may be leveraged as primary support some offices and backup support for other offices. The internal team assumes the remaining offices as primary support. When one or more people from the IT team are on vacation or on leave, IT support remains in place through Intelos. We also bring a diverse set of skills as well as outside resources to adequately handle more complex situations thus increasing overall IT support to new levels.
Co-Managed IT Security
Co-Managed IT Security is an excellent blend with Co-Managed IT Support. Outsourcing security removes this burden and responsibility from the internal IT team allowing them to focus more on IT and less on security.
With outsourced security, the organization is able to leverage the tremendous investment made by Intelos. This relationship grows confidence in the leadership team of the organization that security is being managed by experts who are focused on continuous improvement and innovation.
Internal IT teams are also engaged and participating in security. These teams have access to Intelos security tools to stay “in the know” with what is going on on a daily basis with security monitoring, security threats, and security improvements.
Key Takeaways
IT is an elephant. Similar to legal, marketing, and finance, it is a more diverse and broad skillset than a single person or small team can adequately manage. In legal for example, we have contract attorneys, litigation attorneys, acquisition attorneys, paralegals, and many others. Within each of these areas, we have experts with novice, intermediate, and advanced skillsets. Organizations engage external legal counsel for help where the internal team is not equipped. Even with internal counsel, it is common to engage external counsel in certain areas.
This mindset transitions to IT in the exact same fashion. It is a key factor of why companies of all sizes elect to outsource some or all aspects of IT. Building and maintaining this skillset internally is full of challenges. Staying current is always then a continued challenge. The risks are also not always quantifiable and known until after a major event happens.
About Intelos
Intelos is a managed services provider (MSP) based in Texas and Louisiana. Our primary focus is energy, manufacturing, and local government. We are a cloud and security focused MSP with a mission to empower organizations with transformative technology, guiding them towards enhanced efficiency, profitability, and risk mitigation.