by As businesses continue to rely more heavily on software applications and cloud technologies, managing IT infrastructure and keeping applications running smoothly has become an increasingly complex task. While organizations want to focus on their core competencies, ensuring mission critical applications are performing optimally requires constant monitoring, updates, and quick responses to issues when they arise. This is where managed application services providers can help by taking over the daily maintenance and support of an organization’s applications so IT teams are free to focus on strategic initiatives.
What are Managed Application Services?
Managed Application Services refer to outsourcing the day-to-day management and upkeep of business-critical applications to a third party provider. This allows organizations to free up internal IT resources while gaining access to expert application support tailored to their specific needs. A managed application services provider handles responsibilities such as:
Application Monitoring and Management
Customized monitoring of applications to detect issues before they impact users. Providers ensure applications have necessary CPU, memory, storage and perform regular backups, software updates and patches.
Issue and Incident Resolution
Quick resolution of user-reported issues and problems through remote administration and troubleshooting. Dedicated support representatives work with internal teams to resolve incidents.
Application Support and Maintenance
On-call experts available for application administration, configuration management and routine maintenance to keep applications running optimally.
Service Level Agreement
Clear performance metrics and response times agreed upon in an SLA. Credits applied if the provider fails to meet the committed service levels.
Advantages of Managed Application Services
Reliability and Uptime
With 24/7 monitoring and rapid response to issues, managed service providers ensure near 100% application uptime through redundancy, high availability and disaster recovery. This gives organizations reliability and dependability.
Cost Savings
Internal IT resources are expensive to maintain for non-core tasks. Outsourcing frees up budgets to focus on strategic initiatives. Flexible pay-as-you-go models match costs to actual use.
Expert Knowledge
Providers have deep expertise and certifications for various applications. Specialist skills may not be available internally. Service remains current with vendor roadmaps and best practices.
Scalability and Flexibility
Proactive scaling-up during peak volumes and scaling down when not needed. Flexible to scale services up or down based on business demand. Pay only for what is used.
Compliance Assistance
Adherence to regulations around data protection, privacy, cyber security best practices etc. Tools, training and procedures ensure mandated controls are properly implemented.
How to Select a Managed Application Services Partner
With more providers entering this space, carefully selecting the right partner is important. Key criteria for selection include:
Experience – Check years of experience supporting required applications, client references in similar industries, depth and breadth of application portfolio.
Security – Look for certifications like SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001 demonstrating robust security program, controls and processes.
Innovation – A focus on continuous improvement, integration with monitoring tools, workflows for automation and AI use cases.
Track Record – Ask for case studies showing issue resolution timelines, uptime provided for past clients.
Pricing Transparency – Clarity on inclusions, additional costs if any, flexibility in payment options and contract terms.
Oversight – Dedicated account team, customizable dashboards for oversight, regular review meetings on performance, ROI.
Ecosystem Partnerships – Strength of relationships with application vendors for timely fixes, feature updates, workarounds.
Emerging Application Management Trends
The managed services sector continues to evolve by leveraging innovations across ITOps, AIOps and DevOps. Few emerging trends include:
– Proactive Monitoring and Predictive Issue Resolution: AI/ML powered platforms constantly learn behavior baselines to proactively flag anomalies and predict potential issues.
– Self-Healing Infrastructures: Automation, code-level insights and orchestration help roll out configuration changes seamlessly across environments with zero downtime.
– Cloud-Native Workflows: Refactoring legacy apps into microservices and containers leverages scalable, secure PaaS environments optimally managed as code.
– Cross-Functional Collaboration: Blurring of lines between Dev and Ops teams through collaborative tools, integrations, shared code repositories and testing standards.
– Observability Everywhere: Distributed tracing, metrics, logs from every layer provide complete visibility for issues to be resolved using context from code to production.
As technology becomes core to operations, the demand for managed services will only accelerate to ensure applications are always available and performing optimally for users. While in-house teams will focus on innovation, outsourcing daily maintenance allows IT to act as a strategic partner. With advancements in automation and AI, providers will only get better at preempting issues and freeing up more time for transformational projects.
*Note:
1. Source: Coherent Market Insights, Public sources, Desk research
2. We have leveraged AI tools to mine information and compile it
