A penny saved is a penny earned, but when it comes to your business’s IT, pinching pennies doesn’t always pay off. While it’s tempting to opt for inexpensive, ad hoc IT solutions, these systems come with hidden costs that can negate their initial savings.

Improperly configured tools put you at risk for a costly security event or lost productivity that takes employees away from value-adding initiatives. Specifically, here’s why managed services beat DIY every time — and why they’re worth the money in the long run.

Misconfigured Servers Are a Pandora’s Box of Cybersecurity Vulnerabilities

If you’re trusting an IT novice with your server setup and management, you’re taking a pretty big gamble. Server misconfigurations leave your assets vulnerable to attack; in fact, improperly configured servers are one of the biggest security threats to businesses.

Inexperienced administrators are prone to all kinds of missteps. They may fail to properly secure server directories, allowing access to unprivileged users. Or they’ll select weak account passwords that are easily guessed by outsiders. If their time is divided between IT maintenance and other tasks, they may forget to install OS security patches, leaving exploitable loopholes. Essentially, there’s no end to the damage amateur admins can accidentally introduce.

When you hire an experienced managed services provider (MSP) to handle server setup and maintenance, you avoid many of these risks by tapping into your technicians’ experience and expertise. MSPs can handle security upgrades and other maintenance, leaving your team free to focus on other objectives — which leads us to our next point.

MSPs Give You More Time to Focus on Core Objectives

There’s never a convenient time for an IT issue, but DIY networks always seem to break down at the worst times. Diagnosing and correcting these issues eats into your time for other projects — namely, initiatives that will help grow your business.

If you’ve ever tried to correct a technical issue yourself, you know that locating its origin and an appropriate solution is an onerous task at best. Experienced technicians, on the other hand, can draw on their expertise to help you solve IT issues quickly and efficiently. This saves precious hours when time is of the essence — for instance, while triaging a security event or system downtime. Technicians can help you outline organized procedures for evaluating and solving pressing IT issues, giving you somewhere to start when something goes wrong.

Proactive Monitoring and Maintenance Prevents Issues Before They Occur

Triaging IT issues is one thing, but it’s much better to prevent these kinds of problems before they wreak havoc on your networks and systems. MSPs can implement proactive monitoring and reporting, allowing you to track the performance of IT infrastructure. This way you’ll know ahead of time if you’re running out of server space or if there is unusual activity that might indicate a breach.

Along the same lines, MSPs perform regular system maintenance to keep networks and devices operating at peak performance. They examine server error logs, install security patches, create backups and perform testing to keep systems in tip-top shape.

Naturally, the quality of service varies by provider. Look for a vendor with an established history of excellence. MSPs that have been around for a while have the experience to guide you throughout your infrastructure’s lifecycle and the stability to ensure that your data and assets stays safe. At Taylored, for instance, we have many team members who have been with the company for over 10 years, which means we have the power of longevity on our side.

Ready to make the switch to more stable, managed IT systems? Contact us today for a free quote — and get the most out of your IT investments.