Knowledge What Are Managed Services? Explaining the Service Features and Benefits That Support Corporate IT Departments

A managed service is a service in which an external specialist provider takes over management tasks such as operation, maintenance, and monitoring of the IT infrastructure (servers, networks, cloud, etc.) that a company owns or uses.

By paying a monthly fee and similar charges, client companies can leverage experts’ advanced skills and know‑how while reducing the cost of hiring and training in‑house specialists for operations management. The scope of services is wide‑ranging, from simple monitoring tasks to first‑level response in the event of a failure, security measures, and even consulting on optimizing IT assets.

This allows the information systems department to be freed from time‑consuming routine tasks and to concentrate its resources on more strategic, higher value‑added core operations.

The rising demand for managed services is driven by dramatic changes in the IT environment surrounding companies.

IT infrastructure that companies must manage is becoming increasingly complex: not only on‑premises servers, but also public cloud services such as AWS and Azure, and even multi‑cloud environments that combine multiple clouds are now common. Operating and managing these diverse environments appropriately requires a broad range of specialized knowledge.

Related article:  What is Endpoint Security? Explaining its Importance in the Zero Trust Model and Best Practice at Overseas Offices

While IT infrastructure becomes increasingly complex, many companies face a shortage of IT personnel, especially highly skilled infrastructure engineers. With limited staff, they must handle the ongoing operation and maintenance of ever‑expanding systems, security measures, and responses to employee inquiries, pushing their information systems departments to their limits.

Cyberattacks targeting companies, such as ransomware and targeted attacks, are becoming more sophisticated year by year. It is no exaggeration to say that attacks can occur at any time, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. To protect systems from such threats, constant monitoring and rapid response when an incident occurs are essential, but achieving this with only in‑house resources is extremely difficult.

The content provided by managed service providers varies, but in general it covers the following four areas.

Providers monitor around the clock (24/7/365) to ensure that servers and network devices are operating normally. If a problem such as system downtime or performance degradation is detected, they promptly identify the cause and carry out recovery work based on predefined runbooks.

The provider handles day‑to‑day operational tasks that are essential to stable system operation, such as regularly updating OSs and middleware, applying security patches, and backing up data.

They operate security devices such as firewalls, SASE (Secure Access Service Edge) and WAFs (Web Application Firewalls), and they monitor and analyze security logs to detect and alert on signs of cyberattacks at an early stage. This helps maintain and improve the company’s security level from a professional standpoint.

The provider responds on behalf of the information systems department to various IT‑related inquiries from employees, such as “My PC won’t start” or “I forgot my password.” This improves situations where IT staff are overwhelmed with daily inquiries.

Managed services are often compared with “SIers (System Integrators).” The two work in cooperation but have different roles.

Put simply, SIers are professionals at “building the house” (the system), while managed service providers are professionals at “managing and guarding that house around the clock and keeping it comfortable.”

What benefits can companies gain by using managed services?

The greatest benefit is the ability to free the information systems department from routine operational and maintenance tasks. The time and human resources thus created can be redirected to more strategic “core operations” that directly contribute to improving corporate competitiveness, such as promoting DX, streamlining operations, and planning new IT services.

Managed services enable round‑the‑clock system monitoring and rapid incident response by experts—something that is difficult to achieve with in‑house resources alone. This increases system availability, reduces the risk of lost business opportunities, and improves business continuity.

Companies can receive support from experts who possess advanced cybersecurity knowledge and up‑to‑date threat intelligence. By getting advice on security holes that would be hard to notice in‑house and on appropriate countermeasures, they can raise their overall security level objectively and effectively.

Compared to hiring and maintaining an in‑house 24/7 operations team, total IT operations costs can potentially be reduced. There is no need to bear the cost of hiring and training specialized personnel, and fixed monthly fees make it easier to budget IT costs.

Despite the many advantages, there are also points to consider before implementation. The biggest concern is that operational know‑how may not accumulate within the company. If you rely entirely on an external provider for operations, you may find in the future—when you want to switch back to in‑house operations—that you have none of the necessary skills or knowledge internally.

In addition, because service quality and scope vary among providers, choosing the wrong one can result in not achieving the expected benefits.

To choose a provider that suits your company, it is important to evaluate not only pricing but also the following factors in a comprehensive manner.

The first thing to check when choosing a managed service provider is the “service scope.” The devices they monitor and the range of tasks they handle differ greatly among providers. Some providers offer comprehensive services that cover not only server and network monitoring but also OS and middleware updates, backups, and recovery work when failures occur.

It is important to first clarify which tasks your company wants to outsource and then confirm whether the provider offers services that meet those needs. If you are using cloud services, be sure to check whether the provider supports the specific cloud environments you use, such as AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud.

When evaluating service quality, whether a provider has sufficient track record and expertise is a very important indicator. Check specific case studies to see what kinds of corporate IT systems they have operated. If they have experience with companies in the same industry or with similar system sizes, it is more likely you can entrust operations to them with confidence.

Also, the certifications the provider holds and whether they are an accredited partner for specific cloud services (such as AWS) are useful objective indicators of expertise. Providers with experts who have extensive knowledge and experience can be expected to offer high‑quality support 24/7/365.

An SLA (Service Level Agreement) is a framework for guaranteeing the quality of the services provided by the provider. Using the SLA to confirm whether the services meet your company’s standards is key to provider selection. By checking the SLA, you can objectively evaluate service availability (uptime) and response speed when failures occur.

Because managed services involve outsourcing the operation of critical IT infrastructure, whether smooth communication is possible with the provider is an extremely important point. You need close collaboration with the provider in various situations, such as when incidents occur or when discussing specification changes.

Therefore, check whether the support structure fits your operation style—for example, the presence of periodic review meetings, report formats, and the speed of responses to inquiries. In particular, it is essential to confirm that emergency contact methods and escalation flows (who is contacted and how when an issue cannot be resolved) are clearly defined in preparation for unforeseen events.

Managed services can be a powerful partner for companies struggling with serious IT talent shortages, transforming the role of their information systems departments and improving overall productivity.

By entrusting day‑to‑day complex operations and maintenance to external experts and shifting your valuable internal staff to strategic IT utilization directly linked to business growth, you create a smart division of roles that is key to an IT strategy capable of winning in the coming era. The first step is to organize your company’s IT operations challenges and consider which areas could be outsourced.

Managed services are a powerful ally for companies facing IT talent shortages. In particular, it is not easy to operate and manage IT infrastructure and security for globally expanding businesses with uniform quality worldwide.

KDDI provides a “Global Managed Service” that supports customers’ entire global IT infrastructure 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Through high‑quality operation and monitoring by experts, we reduce the burden on your IT department. For details on the service, please see the link below.