What is a Managed Service Provider (MSP)?

A managed service provider (MSP) is a company that manages the full or partial IT infrastructure of another organization via ongoing and regular support. The services offered by an MSP encompass applications, desktops, laptops, printers, servers, network, security and cloud. The infrastructure managed by an MSP may be hosted on customers’ premises, the MSP’s data center, or in a third-party data center including public cloud.

MSPs may deliver their own services in conjunction with other providers’ services, for example, an MSP may provide application administration on top of third-party Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) applications like Microsoft 365. The term MSP traditionally was applied to infrastructure or device-centric types of services but has expanded to include any continuous, regular management, maintenance and support.

Small and midsize businesses often set out trying to internally manage their information technology infrastructure and processes. However, the fact of the matter is that information technology is not the core competence of most of such businesses. By having an MSP handle information technology tasks, a business can reduce costs, improve service quality and free internal teams to do work that’s specific to their core business.

MSPs are experienced and are well aware of the challenges and pain points of small and midsize businesses. They have the processes, tools, and expertise to delivery quality services while maintaining the confidentiality, integrity and availability (CIA) of client data. MSPs often offer predictable costs and performance via SLAs (service level agreements). The executive control still stays with the client’s internal IT leadership while the MSP essentially becomes an extension of their internal IT teams.