.png){kind=spacer}
Very few organizations have the resources and expertise to build and manage a traditional IT architecture. That’s why more workloads and applications continue to the move the cloud. The cloud can provide small to midsize businesses (SMBs) with access to IT resources they couldn’t otherwise afford. The cloud also provides the flexibility to scale services up or down according to business need and adopt a pay-as-you-go pricing model.
However, the most successful organizations aren’t just looking at the cloud as a way to save a few bucks. They view the cloud as a strategic business investment that not only reduces the cost of purchasing and managing technology, but also creates competitive advantages. This shift in thinking about the purpose and value of technology is the basis of the IT-as-a-Service model (ITaaS).
ITaaS is an operational model in which IT is provided as a managed service, allowing organizations to choose specific solutions from a catalog of standardized offerings. Alignment between IT and business requirements is prioritized to deliver improvements in revenue, agility, productivity, customer service and the user experience. In terms of cost, greater price transparency makes it possible to tie costs more directly to consumption rather than technology. This enables organizations to more accurately evaluate internal IT service options against external options, such as those provided by outside vendors and cloud service providers.
Unlike other “as-a-Service” offerings, ITaaS is not a cloud model. In fact, ITaaS doesn’t necessarily require the cloud, although the cloud does enable greater efficiency and more flexible service delivery. For larger organizations, an ITaaS provider could even be an internal IT organization.
ITaaS is an operational model that focuses on taking full advantage of technology from a business perspective. That means standardizing infrastructure and business processes and using automation as much as possible.
ICG’s ITaaS offering provides organizations with a secure, compliant computing environment via the cloud to support business needs. We help you run IT like a business, focusing on three primary components – backup and storage, email, and servers and desktop.
- Backup and Storage. Adding and maintaining on-premises hardware to store high volumes of data, as well as off-premises hardware for backing up your data, are no longer sustainable for many organizations. We offer managed data backup and storage in the ICG cloud to ensure scalability and flexibility at a lower total cost of ownership compared to self-managed solutions.
- Email is still the primary means of business communication but managing on-premises email systems creates unnecessary IT operational overhead. Our ITaaS offering features hosted email, which provides the dependability and management simplicity you need from an email service. Email features such as inboxes, calendars and contacts are accessible from any device, and you’ll always be using the latest, most secure software.
- Servers and Desktop. SMB IT teams who attempt to manage their own servers and desktops often turn into firefighters whose top priority is keeping the lights on. We offer hosted servers and desktops so that your internal staff can move from technology caretaker to strategic contributor. With our virtualization platform, hardware maintenance becomes our job, and our virtual desktop solution simplifies the management of applications and data.
Smart organizations are moving to the cloud to not only save money but gain strategic advantages. Let us show you how our ITaaS offerings support your business-critical IT needs and deliver business value that has a direct impact on your bottom line.