Managed Service Providers today operate much differently than they did a few years
ago, due in large part to the proliferation of the cloud and virtualization. At many businesses, thin clients have replaced expensive desktop PC’s, and Virtual Servers and virtual services now handle much of the heavy lifting such as file sharing and application management. Even with the advancements in business computing, MSP’s aren’t fully leveraging the power of the cloud.
The Reason
The reason is a simple one – there are still too many hands in the pot, and most importantly, MSP’s don’t own and control the IP space for their clients.
Gaining control of the client’s IP space means gaining control of the carrier and internet access, data center, and voice services in addition to the cloud-based LAN services. In most organizations, there are multiple third-parties handling these services. The phone company handles the local lines and phone numbers. Another company hosts the virtual servers. Perhaps another data center manages redundant servers. An ISP may provide one or more means of access to the client along with a public IP address or subnet.
Many of the Managed Service Providers with whom we’ve spoken over the years have expressed frustration with the lack of real control they have over their client’s total IP space. What’s more, they’re spending a ton of time acting as the proxy for their client when issues arise. The MSP submits trouble tickets with the provider and waits – and waits. Meanwhile, the client is yelling at who? Yes, the poor Managed Service Provider who they lovingly label, “the computer people.”
The Solution
As with any mission-critical technology, consolidation to a single vendor (even if they could offer all the services described above) wouldn’t make sense, as secondary sites for redundancy are always a consideration. Gaining control of the primary IP space, though, could be a huge boon in the MSP’s quest for greater cloud utilization.
Here at N2Net, we specialize in helping MSP’s solve these problems, but we’re one of the few who can. In today’s telecom space, someone is usually selling someone else’s service or network. At some level, it’s unavoidable. For instance, while we own and manage our own IP network, we still have agreements with carriers like XO and Level 3 who run the physical lines out to customer sites. After all, the bandwidth we provide must ride over something. In much the same way, so are phone numbers allocated. We source phone numbers from a variety of carriers like Verizon and XO, but once allocated, we control how and where those numbers are used.
Lastly, owning a network means being able to provide co-location space and virtual servers with direct upstream connection options to the internet.
So while you’ll likely never truly have 100% control of your client’s IP space, working with a telecommunications partner like N2Net can get you most of the way there. Contact us today and find out why more and more MSP’s are looking to N2Net to help strengthen and add value to their client relationships.
