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How Managed Service Providers Can Meet Market Growth with Maximum Uptime

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THE COSTS OF DOWNTIME

$300,000The amount of money companies can lose per hour of downtime.4

$250,000An additional amount lost by customer churn and reputation damage caused by downtime.5

Over 90%of companies that experience one week of network downtime go out of business within a year.6

The managed services provider (MSP)

sector is growing rapidly. Reports

estimate the market to accumulate over

$240 billion by 2021,1 with key segments

like software-as-as-service (SaaS) and

infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) expected

to generate over $60 billion individually by

the end of 2020.2 As the market continues

to grow, so do customer expectations for

application performance, availability and

reliability. According to the ITIC 2017 Global Reliability Survey Mid-Year Update, 99.99%

uptime is now the minimum reliability

required by nearly 80% of organizations.3

For MSPs, the combination of rapid market

growth and high customer expectations

requires a lower margin of error for

solutions for achieving maximum uptime.



1. Application Integration

The process of connecting a provider’s

business-critical applications with

their customers’ on-premise systems

and infrastructure requires a variety of

specialized skills and knowledge. This

process should also include rigorous testing

to ensure the integration is successful

and that necessary systems are talking to

each other. As businesses continue to add

more applications to their infrastructures,

the integration process can be increasingly

complex for MSPs — and failed integrations

become inaccessible and user experiences

to suffer.

2. The Internet of Things

It’s estimated that over 50 billion devices will

be connected to the Internet by 2020. This

expansion of networks and devices is a great

advantage for MSPs — if leveraged correctly.

By putting infrastructure closer to key

markets and leveraging optimal connectivity,

providers can deploy services faster and run

applications more seamlessly across larger

user bases. Without the right infrastructure,

interconnectivity and redundancy measures,

deploying services across a broader

network can expose MSPs to devastating

downtime issues.

3. Time

An explosion in demand for MSP services

means providers are under pressure to

get customers up and running quickly. As

with any business process, time pressure

can impede quality and thoroughness —

especially when a provider is short-staffed

or has hit workload capacity. With this in

mind, it’s essential that providers ensure in-

house talent has the bandwidth to focus on

quality service delivery and getting ahead of

potential limitations to network maintenance

and troubleshooting efforts to help

avoid downtime.

4. Security

An ongoing challenge for any MSP is ensuring

the security of its customers’ data and

maintaining compliance with necessary

regulations and standards. While meeting

security and compliance requirements

should be a top priority, MSPs need to

be cautious that implementing additional

security measures and processes doesn’t

prevent them from achieving maximum

uptime performance.

FOUR CHALLENGES TO ACHIEVING MAXIMUM UPTIME

IT PAYS TO BEPROACTIVE

what aspects of network performance deserve attention

later. Studies show that providers who are proactive about

downtime prevention tend to spend less on network upkeep. 8



PROACTIVE STRATEGIES FOR ACHIEVING MAXIMUM UPTIMEOPTIMIZE PROCESSES AND OPERATIONSTried-and-true processes, procedures and

operational measures ensure infrastructure

can achieve uptime requirements. This is

where having the right partner is critical.

Data center, colocation and cloud service

providers should understand an MSP’s IT

infrastructure requirements and be able to

apply specialized knowledge and skillsets to

optimize network performance through…

» Overseeing application integrations

» Advising on bandwidth usage and connectivity needs

» Meeting security and compliance requirements

» Spinning up new public cloud environments

» Troubleshooting infrastructure issues

» Providing 24x7x365 visibility and communication

Having a specialized partner that can help

manage infrastructure with industry-leading

operations and processes gives MSPs an

advantage in meeting uptime requirements

for their business and their customers. And

having a partner dedicated to achieving

maximum uptime gives providers the time to

focus on other areas of the business.

IT TEAMS LOSE TWO WEEKS PER YEAR MANAGING DOWNTIME.9

BUSINESS CONTINUITY PLANNINGIt may seem obvious, but designing,

implementing and testing a business

continuity plan is key to mitigating downtime.

This process requires considerations

for infrastructure maintenance and

troubleshooting operations, security

measures and backup requirements. It also

requires real-time, 24/7 visibility

to infrastructure.

The business continuity planning process

can be time-consuming and require a level

of expertise many MSPs do not have to

spare. Many providers also host mission-

critical infrastructure off-site or in the

cloud, which can present visibility gaps to

system performance. For these reasons,

working with external providers to develop

and execute backup, recovery and failover

procedures can be critical to achieving

maximum uptime.



REMOTE HANDS SERVICESAn upsurge of hybrid IT deployments that

utilize on-premises, off-site and cloud-based

environments means many MSPs rely on

off-site support or “remote hands” services

to manage their infrastructure. While this

remote support is essential to optimizing

network performance and end-user

experience, it can also introduce visibility and

proximity concerns.

The right combination of remote hands

services and 24x7x365 infrastructure

visibility — including IT asset tracking —

arms MSPs with the insight to monitor and

optimize their infrastructure performance

and bandwidth usage without having to

commit in-house resources to

maintenance tasks.

89% OF IT MANAGERS TEST THEIR DISASTER RECOVERY/FAILOVER SYSTEMS ONLY ONCE A YEAR.10

LACK OF ACCESS AND VISIBILITY IS ONE OF THE TOP FIVE CONCERNS FOR IT TEAMS.11

ENHANCED INTERCONNECTIVITYMSPs need the ability to access cloud-based

applications seamlessly and provision new

deployments quickly. This requires direct,

secure and low-latency connections to

global service providers like Microsoft,

Google and Amazon. More importantly, it

requires options.

LATENCY AND BANDWIDTH LIMITATIONS HAVE BEEN REPORTED AS THE TOP BARRIERS TO USING MSP SOLUTIONS.12

The biggest interconnectivity advantage an

MSP can have is leveraging a carrier-neutral

environment. Often created inside colocation

facilities, this type of environment enables

businesses to optimize bandwidth usage and

network performance by provisioning direct

colocation environments can offer upgraded

IP solutions with enhanced threat mitigation

to prevent data breaches and outages —

this is especially critical for providers whose

customers require a heightened level of

security and compliance (e.g., the healthcare



Colocation providers can offer a variety of

hybrid or multicloud environment, including

industry-best operations, unparalleled

cost-effectiveness.

The right provider will have…

Industry-Best Operations

» Have SLAs for >99.99999% uptime reliability

» Meet strict standards for security and compliance

» Offer 24x7x365 on-site service

» Include N+1 redundancy for space and power

Service Flexibility

» Help broker new provisions for public, private and interconnection deployments

» Scale service levels up or down quickly

» Accelerate turnaround for on-demand infrastructure maintenance, optimization and troubleshooting tasks

Cost-Effectiveness

» Deliver a predictable monthly cost of services (you pay only for what you use)

» Reduce overhead costs of IT infrastructure management

» Increase bandwidth of in-house staff to focus on service delivery

WHY VXCHNGE FOR COLOCATION?

the right colocation provider arms them with

a strategic advantage to meeting customer

demands and achieving optimal

network performance.

All colocation providers maintain their own

list of best practices. But at vXchnge, we

believe a proactive platform is essential

for monitoring infrastructure, maintaining

business continuity and achieving maximum

uptime. Proactive monitoring ensures that

our operators have 100% visibility and

prevents downtime for MSPs and

their customers.

THE VALUE OF THE COLOCATION PROVIDER



VXCHNGE BENEFIT SNAPSHOT

PROTECT YOUR BRAND• 100% uptime SLA

MITIGATE RISKCompliant with the most rigorous

industry standards:

• SSAE 18

• SOC 2 Type II

• ISO/IEC 27001:2013

• HIPAA/HITECH

• PCI DSS 3.1

SIMPLIFY INFRASTRUCTURE MANAGEMENT• 24x7x365 remote hands services,

site monitoring and real-time asset tracking

OPTIMIZED CONNECTIVITY• Carrier-neutral marketplace

enabling direct connections to global service providers

• No-compromise IP solutions with built-in DDoS protection

About vXchngevXchnge is the leading data center-as-a-

service provider dedicated to protecting

global and emerging brands, while improving

the business performance of its customers.

Through its strategically sited, carrier-

neutral colocation data centers across the

US, vXchnge delivers unmatched reliability,

scalability and security for its customers.

vXchnge’s broad geographic footprint puts its

customers at “the edge,” where they can serve

customers locally, and reach more businesses

and more consumers in more markets. The

company is headquartered in Tampa, Florida.

For more information, visit http://www.

vxchnge.com or connect on Twitter, LinkedIn,

and Facebook.1Research and Markets, 2017. Managed Services Market by Service Type (Managed Security Services, Managed Network Services, Managed Data Center Services), Deployment Type, Organization Size, Vertical and Region — Global Forecast to 2022. https://www.researchandmarkets.com/

research/9q9trt/managed services (accessed September 2017).

2Gartner, 2018. Worldwide Public Cloud Revenue. https://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/3871416

(accessed December 2018).

3ITIC, 2017. ITIC 2017 Global Reliability Survey Mid-Year Update. https://cloud.kapostcontent.net/

pub/a493986a-98ae-4d7f-8437-a383bad7895f/itic-2017-global-server-hardware-server-os-

reliability-report.pdf?kui=7m9-tmFJVZ9pJR_hn4LP-w (accessed October 2017).

4Lerner, A., 2014. Ensure Cost Balances Out with Risk in High-Availability Data Centers. Gartner.

https://blogs.gartner.com/andrew-lerner/2014/07/16/the-cost-of-downtime (accessed

October 2017).

5Ponemon Institute, 2016. Cost of Data Center Outages. https://www.vertivco.com/globalassets/

documents/reports/2016-cost-of-data-center-outages-11-11_51190_1.pdf (accessed October

2017).

6IDC, 2003. Business Continuity Statistics: Where Myth Meets Fact. http://www.continuitycentral.

com/feature0660.html (accessed October 2017).

7Evans, D., 2011. The Internet of Things How the Next Evolution of the Internet Is Changing Everything. Cisco. https://www.cisco.com/c/dam/en_us/about/ac79/docs/innov/IoT_IBSG_0411FINAL.pdf

(accessed October 2017).

8Juniper Networks, 2008. What’s Behind Network Downtime? https://www-935.ibm.com/

services/au/gts/pdf/200249.pdf (accessed October 2017).

9Gartner, 2010. Costs and Scope of Unplanned Outages. https://www.evolven.com/blog/costs-

and-scope-of-unplanned-outages.html (accessed October 2017).

10Brilliant Ideas LLC, 2017. IT Survey Reveals: Most Companies at Financial Risk Due to

Untested, Critically Slow Disaster Recovery Systems. http://www.businesswire.com/news/

home/20070412006003/en/Survey-Reveals-Companies-Financial-Risk-Due-Untested


11vXchnge, 2016. Executive Summary: Next-Generation Data Centers Will Be Smarter. https://www.

vxchnge.com/vxchnge-executive-summary (accessed October 2017).

12Statista, 2016. Barriers to Using Cloud-Based IT Services, According to North American and

EMEA IT Professionals. https://www.parallels.com/blogs/ras/managed-it-service-providers


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