When starting a new business or looking for new ways to manage the data you already have, you’ll find yourself faced with many IT questions. A question that always comes up revolves around small business IT support. Specifically, should it be kept in-house or is it best outsourced to a company that specializes in providing specialized, managed IT services? Following are the advantages and disadvantages of both options to help you discover whether your business is better suited for in-house IT support or third-party outsourcing.
Every business is different
When it comes to IT setups, it’s important to remember that every business has a different set of IT needs and capabilities. To define your business’s specific IT needs and capabilities, you’ll need to consider your budgetary constraints, hiring outlook, storage space requirements, and data management practices.
Considering each of these factors side by side will help you determine whether your business is better suited for in-house or outsourced IT setup and support.
For example, although larger budgets may allow for complex in-house server setups, a lower maintenance solution may be preferred if data storage levels are minimal and you’re not looking to staff an in-house IT department.
Likewise, a smaller business with limited IT resources may want access to round-the-clock data backups, but if their budgets don’t allow for an in-house IT professional to maintain these — where can they find middle ground?
The advantages and disadvantages listed below will help you match your business’s unique needs with the appropriate IT solution.
In-House Advantages And Disadvantages
In-house IT support is often selected by businesses that perceive it as the best option for maintaining privacy and control over data within their business environment. However, an in-house IT set up can be expensive, require frequent maintenance and technology upgrades, and be difficult to scale while offering the same levels of data security and control as outsourced IT services.
In order to get the most out of an in-house IT setup and support, your business will need budget for:
- Salaried IT professionals
- Technology and software upgrades
- Rising electricity costs for servers and cooling
These budgetary constraints often make in-house IT support a resources that is only accessible to larger scale businesses with vast IT budgets.
Having in-house IT professionals has its upsides, and its drawbacks. Since they’re on location, they can attend to technical issues quickly and are able to become familiar with the company’s specific IT needs. However, in-house IT techs can be quite expensive to employ which can mean limited hiring resources, a lack of manpower, and a limited range of skillsets.
While having them on location can be helpful, individual IT technicians or small teams of technicians may need time to tackle major IT issues and may lack the necessary knowledge to address unforeseen problems. Additionally, a business will not be able to have 24/7 access to their IT employees, which can be problematic if issues arise in their absence, or after business hours.
Another factor to consider are the expenses associated with technology and software upgrades, maintenance expenses, as well as expanding storage needs. As the amount of data that resides within your business grows, you may need to purchase additional equipment and even hire more staff in order to meet exceeding demands. As equipment needs expand, so will electric costs. And as equipment and software becomes outdated, these will need to be upgraded as well.
Before you decide that an in-house option is the best fit, be sure that your organization has the budget to devote to it and that you cannot accomplish the same IT services with a comparable, outsourced solution.
Outsourcing Advantages And Disadvantages
Outsourcing holds many advantages over in-house IT for businesses of all sizes and budgets, allowing businesses to save money on equipment, maintenance, employees, utility costs and more. It allows businesses to focus on the products and services they provide, while their IT tasks are managed via an outside organization, consultant, or both.
Rather than relying on a single employee or a small staff of in-house IT representatives, outsourcing provides an entire team of technicians that are just a phone call away (sometimes even around-the-clock). By utilizing a team of expert IT professionals from outsourced companies, you’ll be able to tap into a broader range of combined skill sets, which is beneficial to small businesses who may have advanced needs such as proprietary databases.
Additionally, outsourced services allow for easier and more affordable scalability as IT needs and storage levels grow. For example, purchasing a cloud backup service allows you to easily upgrade your plan in order to accommodate larger storage needs.
One perceived disadvantage of outsourcing is concerned around data privacy. Many small businesses are under the assumption that by allowing a third party to manage their data, they’re relinquishing some of the privacy of managing all data and IT resources in-house.
However, by utilizing a secure, annually audited service you can access the same, if not improved, levels of privacy from your managed resources. The cloud backup industry, which provides businesses with data recovery capabilities to thwart data loss, is one such example.
Nordic Backup provides fully managed cloud backup services for businesses of all sizes, allowing them to maintain full access to their data, on top of restoration capabilities, even when data loss disasters strike.
The solution runs quietly and continuously in the background, alleviating your staff of manual backup tasks that can often fall under the radar. Additionally, their data centers undergo an annual SSAE 16 Type 2 audit — the strictest of it’s kind in the industry, and the solution is backed by highly secured data centers and end-to-end data encryption to protect data during and after transit to the cloud.
The service is so secure, it even complies with notoriously stringent HIPAA standards.
Depending on the services and resources your business needs, you can either hire a part-time consultant, purchase your own cloud based IT services (such as easily-installed, automatic cloud backup solutions), or opt for a combination of both.
Which one is right for your business?
The introduction of cloud technology has made outsourced or “managed” IT software solutions reliable and affordable for businesses of all sizes. Now, businesses can get access to top-notch IT services, like fully managed cloud backup, without the hefty price tag of staffing and maintaining an in-house team.
Better yet, many cloud based services even offer free trials so that businesses can experience the benefits of managed IT solutions for themselves before making any kind of commitment. Take advantage of these free trials so that you can experience the time, budget, and resource saving benefits of outsourced IT services for yourself.
