One of the more interesting developments I have seen in the MSSP world is how I have seen many firms avoid taking part in a client’s carrier design and management. By carrier, I mean their connections to the outside world, whether it be Voice, Internet or WAN services. In fact, I have had a few of my cohorts come up to me and ask me why are we still doing it?
My question to them is how can you not? More than ever, clients are relying on our design/recommendations for applications in the Cloud. Voice is changing- and the reality of it riding on Internet and not tied to phone lines is more and more prevalent every year. WAN is changing, becoming less static, more agile. Internet at high bandwidth itself is becoming less of a luxury and more of a necessity.
The truth is these carriers, and the quality of services they offer, are more important than ever. Consider the client that has decided (or it was decided for them by their application vendor) to move their main business application to the cloud. All of the agility and resiliency that comes with that is now available to them. However, if they have not taken a hard look at how they are accessing the cloud, and if it is an inadequate Internet connection, then that experience will be worse than if the application was left on site. Not a good start to what is actually a very bright future.
In this instance, their Internet connection is more than just browsing, research, Facebook, etc; this is an extension of their LAN into the cloud. This suddenly makes this a mission critical element of their technology, and in our view makes it mission critical for us to guide and assist with choosing the right technology and provider.
We made the decision to wrap our arms around the whole picture, and assess what is in place today, and from an agnostic view, make recommendations. From there, the new services being installed becomes a project we manage for the client. Once installed, we continue to manage the relationship, assisting with any issues with the service moving forward, whether it be reporting trouble or billing issues.
We feel it is important to take this ownership because it’s also critical to our success in making sure your user experience is second to none. By wrapping these services into our management and in turn having such strong relationships with these carrier providers, we can all but eliminate the finger pointing that can bring a trouble ticket to its knees. Now, more than ever, is the time for MSSPs to provide this leadership and advocacy for their clients. I’m pleased to say that we have the experience and expertise to do just that.