Businesses and government organizations that don’t have a dedicated information technology staff typically engage an outside consultancy to support their computer operations. Back in the day, the primary method in which these consultancies were engaged was under a “break-fix” model. When something broke you called the IT folks, and they came in and fixed it. In recent years, however, the ubiquity of internet access has made the “managed services” model a popular option.

A managed services provider, or MSP, because in IT there has to be an acronym, will take care of the bulk, if not all, of your computing and related assets for a fixed fee. Generally speaking, if anything goes wrong, call the MSP and one of their engineers will remotely access the problem system and resolve the issue.

The managed services model provides several benefits. First and foremost, under such a model, the MSP is incentivized to minimize the number of problems. This is usually done by optimizing the systems and components involved. A bad MSP will sweep problems under the rug to avoid expending resources, so it’s important to find a trustworthy firm.

Under the break-fix model, the unfortunate truth is that the customer’s cost goes up if there are more problems. This can lead to customer suspicion that the provider is intentionally breaking things. Again, a trustworthy firm should be used even for break-fix services.

A good MSP has remotely accessible monitoring systems in place to identify issues before they become apparent to the users. The benefit here is that the MSP knows what’s going on and is more readily prepared to address any problems that might arise. And there is no magic here: MSP services usually do not include acquisition and implementation of new gear, but the MSP should tell you what you need to buy and why.

A parallel can be seen with MSPs and traditional private security services. Private security companies can be thought of as MSPs. The security company that regularly patrols your commercial property or residence has the background of knowing the neighborhood, knowing the deplorables, what’s really a problem and what can be safely ignored. The security company you call only when something goes bump in the night has none of that knowledge.

Of course, in these tough times comes the question, What’s it cost? Again, there’s not a lot of magic here. The fee is based on the number and types of assets you own. Excluding upgrades and special projects, the fee is fixed.

For many organizations, however, the break-fix model is less expensive, at least in out-of-pocket costs. For simple, smaller environments where computers are used more as “back office” assets as opposed to revenue-generating assets, break-fix is adequate. What it comes down to is the impact of inoperable systems. How much revenue do you lose when a system goes down? Does downtime increase costs? And the hardest one to measure is peace of mind. A good MSP will provide peace of mind, but the value of that varies from organization to organization and person to person.

John Agsalud is an IT expert with more than 25 years of information technology experience in Hawaii and around the world. He can be reached at jagsalud@live.com.