A modern IT infrastructure is a highly complex structure made up of computing, storage and network resources. Companies that want to use, modern applications have a lot of work to do. Not only do you have to draw up a concrete schedule of which hardware and software solutions are to be operated, the personnel required for this must also be available. There is also the question of the costs incurred for the IT infrastructure. To keep it low, many companies rely on Open Source Software (OSS). Still, despite the enormous advantages in terms of flexibility and expandability, even this thing has a catch: The use of OSS can also be very time-consuming and low-cost, not the cost per se.
Of course, open-source software usually costs neither acquisition nor license fees. However, these technologies practically never include models for support, deployment, management and continuous monitoring of the IT infrastructure put together in this way. Therefore, companies need new staff to cope with these tasks, which is associated with high costs.
IT Infrastructure: IT Service Providers Provide Support With Database Management
To save costs and employee resources, companies increasingly rely on external support, among other things. IT service providers, in this case, IT consultants, take on particular tasks, such as database management and hosting. The disadvantage of such service providers is a possible dependency, as the expertise explicitly acquired in the context of the respective company may become indispensable.
The need to give external employees access to internal data is also a problem for many companies. Buying pure support capacities for particular parts of the IT infrastructure, such as the database, is also not expedient: They logically lack an overview of the entire IT infrastructure. Managed platforms, on the other hand, combine all the advantages of the various models.
Managed Platforms: The Best Of Both Worlds
Perhaps the most important reason for hiring an external service provider is, of course, less personnel expenditure for the company itself. A managed platform is a collection of managed services that companies can control via a corresponding user interface (UI). In contrast to “conventional” managed service providers, a managed platform offers a specific service that the provider contains in total and a variety of interlocking technologies. In this way, organizations can relieve their employees by buying several services externally if necessary. The resources released can instead be used for more productive and innovative tasks.
Of course, managed platform providers also take on the provision and management of specific technologies for their users to a certain extent. However, they carry out these tasks minimally invasive, i.e. without access to the internal data. This aspect is essential for many potential users of managed platforms because financial service providers or companies in the healthcare sector, for example, are subject to strict regulations when it comes to protecting customer data.
Companies Retain Control Of The Data Layer
In addition to sovereignty over internal data, with managed platforms, control over the data layer lies with the company at all times and not with the provider of the service. The user interface of the managed platform represents the administrative level through which the users can manage their IT infrastructure. On request, companies can book or cancel new services or additional capacities in addition to their existing portfolio as required. This process is significantly cheaper and less complex than providing the appropriate hardware and software internally or putting it into operation. The high scalability, in particular, is an important point why organizations use managed platforms.
IT Infrastructure: Focus On Automation And Reliability
The high degree of automation that characterizes managed platforms at all levels is only possible through standardized processes and technologies. Open-source software is particularly suitable for this. As a rule, the higher the degree of automation, the higher the reliability. IT infrastructures operated in-house are not only very cost-intensive and involve a high level of personnel expenditure. In most cases, they are also significantly less reliable than outsourced variants.
Managed Platforms Offer Flexibility At All Levels
In addition to the advantages mentioned above, managed platforms are incredibly flexible. Companies can operate their IT infrastructure entirely in the cloud or even in hybrid or multi-cloud environments. If that is too uncertain for you, you can, of course, also use the managed platform on-premises. The use of open-source software offers a high degree of flexibility. Thanks to the open development processes, the managed platform provider can install updates for the IT infrastructure and fix bugs without these processes negatively affecting users and their business operations – for example, through a service failure.
In addition, IT solutions based on open source technologies can be integrated into practically any existing system. And that without having to make laborious architectural changes. Managed platforms that rely on open-source software are worth considering for SMEs but also for large companies. Because of the combination of saving acquisition costs for software, the freed-up employee resources and scalability, expandability and reliability are potent arguments for managed platforms.
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